NOTTS DEFEAT CROWNS DURHAM CHAMPIONS

Scorecard

Nottinghamshire have finished second in LV County Championship Division One after enduring defeat by 203 runs at home to Hampshire.

Chasing 442 from 76 overs to secure an unlikely crown, Graeme Swann opened alongside Will Jefferson with a brief to score quick runs but Hampshire’s attack, led by Dmitri Mascarenhas and Imran Tahir, made solid progress.

After racing to 18 without loss, Swann was bowled by Mascarenhas attempting a sweep and, two balls later, Mark Wagh was caught by Sean Ervine at second slip.

Samit Patel put in a solid shift, taking 51 balls to reach his fifty and adding 94 for the fifth wicket alongside Bilal Shafayat, before he was caught off Mascarenhas for 77.

Shafayat (48), Read (47), Prince (12) and Jefferson (24) were the other contributors but Tahir had Shreck caught by Carberry to bring the curtain down on the 2008 season.

“We’ve lost some important matches but we are proud of our finish – a lot of counties would swap places with us,” said Notts Director of Cricket Mick Newell.

“Not many teams could have chased that score but we took a gamble sticking Swanny in there and we thought that if we could do something special before lunch then we had a slim chance.

“We’ve played really well in four day cricket and that’s our first defeat for a long time. We battled and it’s been an entertaining match but we’ll take some time to reflect on the season.

“The seamers looked tired but they’ve done fantastically well this season.

“We need to generate more runs and score more individual centuries but the standard in Division One has raised and we want to cement our place at this level.”

Durham have been crowned champions after completing a resounding victory over Kent.