Nottinghamshire romp to three-day win as title celebrations begin

A day after collecting enough bonus points to put themselves out of reach of Surrey, newly-crowned Rothesay 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 for 30. Mohammad Abbas, in what may or may not be his last appearance for the county, took 3 for 18 to total 32 in nine matches, with Dillon Pennington lifting his tally to 28 with 3 for 52.

It left Nottinghamshire needing just 18 runs to complete the victory, which they achieved in just 22 deliveries at 3.30pm, time enough for Ben Slater to score the 15 runs he needed to total 1000 for the season before Haseeb Hameed won the match with a glorious cover drive off Nathan Gilchrist for four.

Nottinghamshire were docked a point for slow bowling-rate but it mattered not one bit to a large gathering of supporters who stayed on for the trophy presentation - staged in front of the Hound Road stand with the pavilion currently hidden behind sheets and scaffolding.

Hameed's team win the title with 224 points and seven victories under their belts. The skipper led the way with the bat, totalling 1258 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.

It is a contrast with the 2010 season - the last time Nottinghamshire claimed the Championship pennant - when 109 wickets were shared between Andre Adams (68) and Paul Franks - now assistant head coach at Trent Bridge - who took 41.

As it happens, another member of the 2010 team, Alex Hales, was on the ground to receive an award to mark his 18 years with Nottinghamshire. Hales, who last played first-class cricket in 2017, cut his ties with the club after the 2024 season, having scored more than 14,500 runs in their colours across all formats.

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 for 4 at the first break.

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 allrounder 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 with a ball the batter could do little about 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 Gilchrist, who shouldered arms to a ball that swung away and then jagged back to bowl him - handing the stage to Slater and Hameed to finish the job.