Thursday 4 June 2015 07:46, UK
Nottinghamshire secured their first County Championship Division One victory of the season when they defeated Sussex by 159 runs at Trent Bridge.
Having been set a score of 310 to win, the visitors were blown away in just 32 overs by a combination of accurate bowling and some injudicious shot selection.
Jake Ball and Luke Wood each picked up two wickets in their opening burst, before making way for Harry Gurney, who claimed the other four wickets to fall during an astonishing morning session in which a total of 11 batsmen were dismissed.
Gurney picked up a fifth wicket after lunch to end the day with career-best figures of 5-43, only his third five-wicket haul.
With five of their batsmen failing to get off the mark it was a torrid passage of play for the south coast side, who lost eight wickets inside 21 overs against the swinging ball.
Luke Wright, with an aggressive 39 made from 36 balls before losing his middle stump to Gurney, and Steve Magoffin (35) were the only two to stick around.
Nottinghamshire's second innings lasted only a further 15 minutes at the start of the day, with three wickets going down in only 20 deliveries, for the addition of just 15 runs.
Wood, the 19-year old who scored a century on the first day, fell to Ollie Robinson for 53 and then Samit Patel, for exactly 100 and Ball, for one, were dismissed to consecutive deliveries from Magoffin, who finished with 6-50.
Worcestershire bowler Joe Leach celebrated his best-ever match figures but half-centuries from Will Smith and Adam Wheater saved the day for Hampshire as the two sides drew at the Ageas Bowl in Division One.
Leach returned second-innings figures of 4-89 for match figures of 9-152, but heroic rearguard action from Smith and Wheater meant that both captains shook hands on a draw at 5:40pm with nine scheduled overs to play.
Hampshire, who were chasing a first-innings deficit of 181 runs, started their day of blocking in the worst possible way when they lost opener Liam Dawson to
the 18th ball as Leach produced a snorting delivery to create an edge for wicketkeeper Ben Cox.
Michael Carberry (6) lasted 18 balls before he was caught at short leg off Jack Shantry and although James Vince used up 50 deliveries he departed five minutes before lunch to debutant Ed Barnard for 12.
Hampshire captain Jimmy Adams's patient 47 was then brought to an end by the final delivery of the morning.
Wheater, who was off the field earlier in the match having an X-ray on his finger, made his half-century in 95 deliveries before he was bowled by Leach for 52.
Like Wheater, Smith also had time off the field on the second day, but looked healthy as he batted the whole afternoon and evening sessions and when Gareth Berg pushed Hampshire into a second-innings lead, Worcestershire knew they would have to bat again.
And Smith continued his watchful style to move to his 29th first-class fifty from 133 balls before both sides agreed to a draw, with the batsman unbeaten on 64.
A fourth-innings target of 270 in 54 overs proved beyond Middlesex, who finished on 152-5 to settle for a draw against Warwickshire in Division One at Lord's.
At 80-0 from 26 overs, the hosts seemed to have built a solid base from which to launch a late victory bid after they had earlier bowled out Warwickshire for 187 in their second innings.
But Rikki Clarke then removed both Sam Robson (29) and Nick Compton (0) in the space of three balls and Middlesex were left with no option but to bat out for a draw when Eoin Morgan also fell for two just three overs later.
Australian opener Joe Burns, who impressed with 72 from 140 balls, steered Middlesex to safety while at the other end James Franklin (9) played on to Boyd Rankin before Burns departed near the end, stumped off Jeetan Patel's off spin.
Hands were shaken with four overs unbowled and the 10 points Middlesex take from the draw puts them on top of Division One, while Warwickshire pick up 11 points and go third.
Earlier, Warwickshire had lost their last eight second-innings wickets for the addition of 129 runs in 40 overs after resuming on 58-2.
At one stage James Harris and Toby Roland-Jones took four Warwickshire wickets between them in just 19 balls and by lunch they had collapsed to 144-7 and led only by 226 with 67 overs remaining.
Warwickshire's lower order, though, with Patel biffing a six and three fours in his 27, held up Middlesex's seamers for the best part of an hour after lunch, pushing the lead well above 250 and making Middlesex's chase that much harder.
