Hampshire collapsed to defeat after centuries from Jack Haynes and Liam Patterson-White had batted them out of the game as Division One leaders Nottinghamshire romped to a third victory in their opening five matches of the County Championship season, winning by a massive 366-run margin.
All-rounder Patterson-White struck a magnificent career-best 135 containing 21 fours and two sixes, with Haynes making 120, the pair sharing a seventh-wicket stand of 238 as the Trent Bridge side made 345 in their second innings.
Chasing down 483 to win looked wholly unrealistic on a pitch that has made the new ball a potent weapon but Hampshire supporters would have hoped at least to see the match taken to a fourth day.
Instead they witnessed their team bowled out for a miserable 116 by 17:30 BST with former favourite Mohammad Abbas not even among the wickets as the bowling honours were shared between Lyndon James (5-22) and Brett Hutton (4-56).
The winning margin is Nottinghamshire’s second largest by runs in their Championship history.
The mayhem of the final session was in complete contrast with the first, when it felt like a different match as Nottinghamshire’s seventh wicket pair, whose partnership was worth 87 at Saturday’s close, added another 144 runs before lunch.
Haynes, 60 overnight, had given his team-mate a 21-run start but in the event, as Hampshire’s bowlers toiled in vain to conjure life from an aging ball on a pitch that looked benign for the first time in the match, Patterson-White was first to three figures.
He reached the milestone from 139 balls with a mighty pull for six off Sonny Baker. It was his second six of the innings, having hit 76 runs of his hundred runs in boundaries.
Given that he had not made even a half-century in 32 innings over three seasons before this one and had struggled to keep his place in the side, it was little wonder he allowed himself a lengthy celebration.
Moments later, he overtook his previous career-best – 101 against Somerset at Taunton in 2021 – before a single off Baker completed Haynes’s hundred, from 137 balls, also with 16 fours, his second in five innings.
Haynes, dropped at deep square leg on 80, departed three overs after lunch. Kyle Abbott now had the new ball in hand but it was coming back for a second run to deep mid-wicket that cost Haynes, Baker’s throw to the wicketkeeper beating him comfortably.
Nonetheless, the completed first run was enough to take the partnership to 238, Nottinghamshire’s second biggest for the seventh wicket against any opponent.
Abbott followed up with a more conventional new-ball wicket in his next over – taking his tally for the season to 23 as the country’s leading wicket-taker so far – as Hutton was caught behind without scoring, after which Farhan Ahmed was yorked by James Fuller and Patterson-White bowled off a bottom edge.
It gave Hampshire a theoretical target of 483 to win the match or else bat long enough to salvage some pride. Yet the chances of achieving even that quickly diminished as they slipped to 33-3 at tea.
Abbas bowled six wicketless overs but from the other end Hutton had a leaden-footed Fletcha Middleton leg before and Mark Stoneman caught behind off a thin outside edge. First change James then dismissed Prest, who top-edged a cut as Kyle Verreynne held a second catch.
And there was little sign of Hampshire trying to bed in for a fight after tea as wickets tumbled with unseemly frequency.
Ben Brown’s loose pull off Hutton came down in the hands of square leg, Nick Gubbins fell tamely to a catch at extra cover off, Liam Dawson was caught on the boundary hooking, Fuller flicked straight to midwicket, Toby Albert, dropped at first slip, edged to third – albeit superbly caught by Haynes – and Brad Wheal was caught at mid-off, leaving the visitors 82-9.
Abbott and Baker kept the home side’s celebrations on hold for 10 overs before the latter sliced to backward point for 27 as Hampshire’s top scorer, Patterson-White aptly taking the final wicket.
