Nottinghamshire sent crashing to painful defeat

Hampshire 203 and 449 for 5 dec (Pothas 125*, Dawson 100*) beat Nottinghamshire 211 and 238 (Patel 77, Mascarenhas 4-43, Tahir 4-58)
Scorecard

Nottinghamshire's Championship hopes were finally extinguished at 3.57pm when Charlie Shreck struck a catch to backward point and Hampshire completed a massive 203-run victory. In reality, they were over when the day started. It would have needed a miracle for Nottinghamshire after being set 442 in 76 overs and Dimitri Mascarenhas' four top-order wickets ensured there would be no Lazarus-like revival from the home side. Durham were already on the team bus back home and now the celebrations can truly begin for them.

As soon as Kent were bowled out earlier today, Nottinghamshire's pursuit of a second title in four years was over barring an extraordinary run chase. Twelve months ago Lancashire almost pulled off a miracle against Surrey, coming up 24 runs short at The Oval, but Nottinghamshire had fewer overs to repeat them. The asking rate was 5.82 an over before they even began and they were emotionally gone, having seen the title wrestled away from them.

Chris Read trudged off as the unbeaten batsman and it will take him a while to get over the last couple of weeks. Losing the deciding Pro40 match against Sussex was one thing, but seeing the Championship slip away with such a comprehensive defeat will be a bitter pill to swallow. Second place will be little consolation.

"Where we really had our opportunity was on the second day with our batting," Read said. "That to me was the way we were going to win, having elected to field first. We'd bowled them out for 200, which was fantastic, then we should have been looking at getting 350-400. We were in a reasonable position to do that, then it all fell apart."

They showed their intent by promoting Graeme Swann to open, but he lasted just 10 balls before having a wild heave at Mascarenhas and losing his leg stump. Two balls later Mark Wagh edged to second slip and, after a brief stand between Will Jefferson and Samit Patel, Jefferson drove the last ball before lunch straight to mid-off.

This innings had all the makings of going into free fall. Nottinghamshire's players probably wanted to leave as quickly as possible and forget about the last few weeks. Mascarenhas continued his one-man wicket-taking display when Ashwell Prince lobbed a return catch. Prince hasn't produced the runs Nottinghamshire had hoped for when he joined following South Africa's Test tour.

Patel showed some resilience with a flamboyant display of striking, even if he had nothing to lose. Still, the sweetness of his striking again caught the eye, following his hundred against Surrey last week and first-innings 70 here. He is certainly finishing the season on a high, but will look back on his drive to mid-off on the second day - leading to Nottinghamshire's collapse - as a crucial moment in this match.

His fifty came off 51 balls and he'd struck 14 boundaries before being brilliantly caught by Mascarenhas, running backwards at least 30 yards from mid-on to take the ball over his shoulder. Mascarenhas covered the same distance in his celebration and Liam Dawson enjoyed his first wicket of the match. Bilal Shafayat then drove a low catch to mid-on and stood there before being given out following a consultation between the umpires. Both Shafayat and Nottinghamshire already knew their fate, though.

Hampshire could have been more aggressive in setting their target, but there was lingering resentment about a match at the conclusion of the 2005 season, when Kent accepted Nottinghamshire's one-sided offer to chase 420 in 70 overs to stay in the Championship race. It gave Dawson the chance to reach his maiden first-class century, off 153 balls, including a cover-driven six off Shreck. Hampshire were in no mood to give Nottinghamshire a sniff, and the Durham players will be the first to thank them for that.