Director of Cricket Mick Newell hailed 'one of the most entertaining partnerships' he'd ever seen after Notts completed a three-day thrashing of Essex.

LV County Championship Division Two
Essex 317 (Footitt 5-59)
Notts 664-7 declared (Hussey 275, Read 165*, Wagh 68, Bilal Shafayat 67)
Essex 235 (Ealham 4-47)

Notts won by an innings and 112 runs
Notts 21.5 points, Essex 5 points (Notts deducted half a point for slow over-rate)

Scorecard

David Hussey and Chris Read teamed up for a club record fifth-wicket stand of 359 on day two which simply battered the visitors into submission, with an innings victory wrapped up with more than 11 overs to go on day three.

Hussey's career-best of 275 from just 227 balls included 14 crunching sixes, two short of equalling the world record in a first-class innings set by Andrew Symonds for Gloucestershire against Glamorgan in 1995.

And Read chipped in with five sixes of his own in his own career-best score of 165 not out as Notts totalled 664-7 - their fifth highest-ever.

Said Newell: "That was one of the most entertaining and exciting partnerships that I've ever seen at Trent Bridge.

"I've never seen such consistent hitting over a period of time and it wasn't just Hussey on his own, as Read hit five himself.

"We are fortunate to have some good strikers of the ball here and at the moment they are all tucking into the bowlers nicely."

With Ryan Sidebottom called up by England, Mark Footitt was brought into the Notts side and took his opportunity with his first five-wicket haul in the Championship in Essex's first innings.

He picked up two of the top order batsmen as Essex collapsed to 94-6 before returning to polish off the tail after James Middlebrook and Danish Kaneria produced some late resistance.

But their total of 317 paled into insignificance after half-centuries from Bilal Shafayat and Mark Wagh saw off the threat of South African international Andre Nel and gave Hussey and Read the freedom to attack.

Hussey posted the fourth-highest ever score by a Notts batsman and hit 27 fours as well as his battery of sixes.

Read also played his part with some confident strokes and Newell was quick to praise the wicketkeeper for his part in the partnership.

He said: "Readie knows he need to make proper scores - 50s and 60s won't get him noticed by England hierarchy.

"But even when you look at it from a Notts perspective, he wants to be the best player he can possibly be, and knows he needs to be making hundreds for us batting at six."

Skipper Stephen Fleming chose to declare overnight after seeing the cloudy conditions and with rain around, the Notts attack were soon left frustrated by rain.

They got into action after lunch and quickly got among the wickets, with Mark Ealham picking up three victims in his first spell.

Ryan ten Doeschate proved a minor irritant with a counter-attacking century but it only delayed the inevitable as Notts earned themselves an extra day off.