Mason Crane returned to haunt Hampshire as Glamorgan strode towards their first Rothesay County Championship Division One victory in 21 years.

Bottom-placed Hampshire were rolled for 214 and, having been asked to follow on, crumpled again to end the day on 118 for 5. Legspinner Crane, who was involved at Utilita Bowl from 2012 to 2024, was exemplary in taking three first-innings wickets before picking up another in the second.

Fast bowler Timm van der Gugten also picked up six wickets in the day, while teenager Ben Mayes’ first Championship half-century was a rare positive in a horror day for the hosts.

Toby Albert and Nick Gubbins made batting look as easy as Glamorgan had earlier in the match during their 16 on-and-off overs on day two. But day three proved a nightmare from beginning to end for Hampshire, as they capitulated in five hours of batting misery.

Albert was leg before to the third ball of the day, to set the tone, with Gubbins edging behind having only added one to his overnight score – both falling to the metronomically accurate van der Gugten.

Zain ul Hassan – flying high after his maiden professional century – struck next when he pinned Fletcha Middleton in front before Crane entered with three overs to go before lunch, and turned a good morning into a great one.

He had left the ground the previous evening, smiling while watching his beloved Arsenal on his phone. It appeared Bukayo Saka’s magic has rubbed off on him as he shot out Tom Prest and Ben Brown before the interval and then Kyle Abbott afterwards.

Crane took 86 first-class wickets for Hampshire but left to pursue greater opportunities at Glamorgan in 2024.

Prest’s dismissal, lbw going back, was Crane’s first red-ball wicket at Utilita Bowl for 1080 days; his second followed seven balls later when Brown – who had already been dropped – edged to slip.

Before Crane’s googly could see off Abbott, van der Gugten ploughed through Felix Organ and Scott Currie – Hampshire losing five wickets in 54 balls either side of lunch.

It fell on 18-year-old Mayes to give the innings some respectability, scoring a fine maiden first-class fifty with some flowing strokes. He added 43 with Codi Yusuf but couldn’t haul Hampshire anywhere near the follow-on target as Zain and one-ball, one-wicket hero Kiran Carlson rounded things out.

It all had a sense of deja vu for Hampshire. They only claimed 12 batting points in 2025 – the joint-lowest in the country – and only have one in four matches this season. It also didn’t help that leading scorer Jake Lehmann had returned to Australia for personal reasons and the highly-experienced Liam Dawson missed this match with an abdominal injury.

Hampshire were immediately asked to bat again, with their 322-run deficit, and got as far as the second over before Gubbins shouldered arms at Jamie McIlroy only to be bowled. Van der Gugten added his fifth and sixth of the day when Prest edged behind and Mayes chopped on, while Albert fell into Ryan Hadley’s trap in hooking to deep square.

Crane joined the second-innings party as another wrong-un pinned Middleton leg-before to complete a 15-scalp day for Glamorgan.