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Rothesay County Championship Division One, Trent Bridge (day three)

Warwickshire 258 & 133: Hain 42; Abbas 3-18, Hutton 3-30, Pennington 3-52

Nottinghamshire 374: Hameed 122, Verreynne 83; Bamber 3-59 & 20-0

Nottinghamshire (22pts) beat Warwickshire (4 pts) by 10 wickets

A day after collecting enough bonus points to put themselves out of reach of Surrey, newly-crowned county champions Nottinghamshire finished their season in style by completing a 10-wicket victory over Warwickshire with a day to spare.

With a first-innings lead of 116 giving their potent seam attack ample licence to attack in conditions still making batting difficult, Nottinghamshire dismissed Warwickshire for 133 in 54 overs.

Brett Hutton finished with 3-30 and Mohammad Abbas, in what may or may not be his last appearance for the county, took 3-18 to total 32 from nine matches, with Dillon Pennington lifting his tally to 28 with 3-52.

It left Nottinghamshire needing just 18 runs to complete the victory, which they achieved in just 22 deliveries, time enough for Ben Slater to score the 15 runs he needed to total 1,000 for the season before Haseeb Hameed won the match with a glorious cover drive off Nathan Gilchrist for four.

Hameed’s team won the title with 224 points, the skipper leading the way with the bat, totalling 1,258 runs.

Six Nottinghamshire bowlers took 26 wickets or more in the course of the season but none more than Hutton, leading wicket-taker with 38, seven of them in this match.

Having been on the ropes overnight, three down for seven in their second innings and still 109 behind, a Warwickshire side with only a slim chance of improving on fourth place in the Division One table might have been been rolled over even more rapidly under a cloudy sky on the third morning.

Nottinghamshire had been eager to start their full-blown Championship celebrations a day early after making sure of the title on Thursday.

As it was, Will Young was Warwickshire’s only casualty before lunch, falling into what looked like a trap laid by his former county as he clipped a ball from Abbas straight into the hands of Lyndon James at square leg.

Zen Malik took four boundaries in a single over against Pennington but rode his luck at other times, edging the same bowler between second and third slips before surviving a difficult caught-and-bowled chance to James on 16.

Warwickshire were 79-4 at the first break and there seemed a case for tossing Liam Patterson-White the ball to add some variety to Warwickshire’s diet but the left-arm spinner remained stationed in the slip cordon as Hameed kept faith with his seamers, justifiably as it turned out.

There was still something in the pitch, as Sam Hain discovered four overs into the afternoon, caught behind off a ball from James that left him enough to take the edge.

It felt like the key wicket for Nottinghamshire and one well deserved by all-rounder James for a consistently testing spell.

Yet it was Pennington who hastened Warwickshire’s demise in short order, taking three wickets in five balls in his 12th over of the innings.

He dismissed Malik leg before and had Ed Barnard caught behind from a lifting delivery that took the glove before benefitting from some good fortune as Michael Booth looked to have kept out his first ball before it rolled into the stumps, as a consequence of which Warwickshire were eight down and still 12 behind.

They managed to get their noses narrowly in front before Hutton finished them off, still finding movement to pin Tazeem Ali leg before and bowl Nathan Gilchrist, who shouldered arms to one that swung away and then jagged back to bowl him – handing the stage to Slater and Hameed to finish the job.

Notts assistant head coach Paul Franks:

“In 2010, we sort of stumbled over the line in the end after having played brilliantly in the first half of the season, whereas you’ve watched this team finish by winning three games out of three when it was really on the line and you knew the importance of each game.

“To watch these guys go from strength to strength in September is testament to the work they’ve put in. I just feel so proud of everybody that’s been involved to get us to this point.

“Many of this team go back to 2019 to 2021, when we didn’t win for such a long time. Those are the things that fuel you, that move you forward as men.

“When the game is on, there’s so little you can do off the field as a coach. That’s where the quality of the leadership from the captain (Haseeb Hameed) really shone through in that stage.

“This year he has gone from strength to strength. And the true testament of a captain is a team that responds to their leader, not a leader that responds to the team. He’s led by example. His tactics have been spot-on all through.”

Notts and England fast bowler Josh Tongue:

“Words can’t really describe how I’m feeling at the minute. I’ve always wanted to win a Div One Championship and to win it my first proper year here after missing last season is incredible.

“Taking five wickets in my debut game against Durham sort of proved to the lads why it was worth me coming here. I’ve obviously been in and out of the team with England but coming back it just feels such a special place at the minute.

“I’m really happy with what I’ve been able to give because at the end of the day I want to win games of cricket. That’s why I play. That’s why we all play.

“The potential of the team to win titles was one of the reasons why I moved here. I had a great time at Worcester but I just knew it was the right time for me to come to a team like this.”

Warwickshire head coach Ian Westwood:

“We did lots of things right, but we just weren’t able to win the big moments. And that always costs you at the back end.

“Notts are full of confidence, obviously. They’ve been crowned champions now, and that’s for a reason. They’ve been the best side this year, and they just showed us where we need to improve and get to if we want that to be us.

“Warwickshire, we’re a proud club and we want to win things, and so any season that you don’t win anything is going to be a disappointment.

Russell Martin insists that despite their disappointing start to the season, the Rangers’ confidence is “the best it has been” since he became head coach.

This season, the Ibrox side have won four of their 14 games, but they have lost four of their last five league games.

After being humiliated by Club Brugge in Champions League qualifying, Martin’s side are second bottom of the Premiership and were defeated 1-0 at home by Genk in Thursday’s Europa League opener.

And he insisted they can still recover the nine-point deficit from leading duo Celtic and Hearts, despite admitting they can’t wait “too much” to win the first league game.

By the end of the season, Martin’s side will be playing in Livingston on Sunday. You’ll run out of games if you let it go too long.

Despite the Genk defeat, where Mohamed Diomande was sent off four minutes before the break, he said, the players are in a good place.

Martin also emphasized that many of his new players were “very young,” but that they were starting to understand what it meant to play for a team like Rangers.

All of that, he said, will help us succeed, including the willingness to run for each other and the willingness to take the ball with 10 men.

Despite receiving calls from numerous fans for him to be fired, Martin insisted that his “job is in danger wherever you work, is wherever you work,” and that he does not listen to the “outside noise.”

After the most recent defeat, he claimed that there had been many discussions about his conversation with chairman Andrew Cavenagh and chief executive Patrick Stewart, but he added that the media prefers to assume that everyone is having a heated discussion about “is he going, is he staying?”

“But generally, we just talk about the performance, the next game, and what we can improve. The situation is the same.

Russell Martin insists that despite their disappointing start to the season, the Rangers’ confidence is “the best it has been” since he became head coach.

This season, the Ibrox side have won four of their 14 games, but they have lost four of their last five league games.

After being humiliated by Club Brugge in Champions League qualifying, Martin’s side are second bottom of the Premiership and were defeated 1-0 at home by Genk in Thursday’s Europa League opener.

And he insisted they can still recover the nine-point deficit from leading duo Celtic and Hearts, despite admitting they can’t wait “too much” to win the first league game.

By the end of the season, Martin’s side will be playing in Livingston on Sunday. You’ll run out of games if you let it go too long.

Despite the Genk defeat, where Mohamed Diomande was sent off four minutes before the break, he said, the players are in a good place.

Martin also emphasized that many of his new players were “very young,” but that they were starting to understand what it meant to play for a team like Rangers.

All of that, he said, will help us succeed, including the willingness to run for each other and the willingness to take the ball with 10 men.

Despite receiving calls from numerous fans for him to be fired, Martin insisted that his “job is in danger wherever you work, is wherever you work,” and that he does not listen to the “outside noise.”

After the most recent defeat, he claimed that there had been many discussions about his conversation with chairman Andrew Cavenagh and chief executive Patrick Stewart, but he added that the media prefers to assume that everyone is having a heated discussion about “is he going, is he staying?”

“But generally, we just talk about the performance, the next game, and what we can improve. The situation is the same.