Hampshire lay out title ambitions with three-day crushing of Nottinghamshire

Hampshire put their LV= Insurance County Championship title marker down with a comfortable eight-wicket victory over Nottinghamshire.

Hampshire are aiming to win their first Championship for 50 years, after two near misses, and chased down 132 with ease thanks to Fletcha Middleton's second half-century of the match.

Middleton scored 65 and Nick Gubbins unbeaten on 54, after a 111-run second wicket stand - as Hampshire continued their 2022 form, where they won more games than any other team.

Mohammad Abbas claimed his 100th Hampshire wicket to return match figures of nine for 116 in the process of bowling Notts out for 177 - as their arrival back in Division One earned them just three points to Hampshire's 19.

After Abbas' heroics, Felix Organ put some jitters in the pursuit as his hard-handed defensive push lifted to Ben Duckett at second slip.

But Middleton, buoyed by his first-innings 59, and Gubbins steadied the nerves and ticked off runs in a watchful manner after lunch - with Luke Fletcher sending down five successive maidens.

Middleton - whose father Tony played and now coaches at the county, and brother Finn is on the groundstaff - has taken to First Class cricket astonishingly well. He scored a half-century in his only previous innings, against Sri Lanka Cricket Development XI last summer, before twin chanceless fifties here.

His second innings was completely unflustered as he serenely swooped to the milestone in 89 balls.

Gubbins laden his equally officious hunt to the target with glittering straight drives and sweeps as he arrived at his fifty in 124 balls - his first time at the landmark since June last year - with his century stand with Middleton coming in 206 balls. Middleton was bowled by Patterson-White with 15 still required.

To a chorus of boos, tea was farcically taken with the scores level - with the additional 15 minutes already taken up. But the players returned for two deliveries bowled by wicketkeeper Tom Moores before James Vince struck the winning run.

The match had been swung Hampshire's way with 40-run first innings lead before Kyle Abbott had opened up Notts on the second evening with four wickets - including three scalps coming without a running being scored.

But it was Abbas, who had previously been wicketless and expensive, who destroyed the visitors' hopes of setting Hampshire a challenging score.

The Pakistani had Tom Moores caught behind with the sixth ball of the morning and, after 22 dot-balls to build up pressure, had Olly Stone's off stump flattened.

Dane Paterson was Abbas' 100th victim when he nipped one in off the seam to edge behind - giving Ben Brown his eighth catch of the match.

Abbas' three wickets had come in 21 deliveries. Having arrived in 2021, he is statistically Hampshire's second-best bowler of all-time - with just West Indian great Andy Roberts bettering his average of 16.43, for bowlers with more than 60 wickets.

In fact, only five bowlers in Hampshire's history average under 20, and two of them are in the current side, the other being Abbott. There is an argument this is the county's greatest-ever attack, which adds to the feeling this era warrants a Championship.

Liam Patterson-White had stuck around for 65 balls before he was bowled by Liam Dawson - who spun one out the rough - to bowl Notts out for 177, with only 32 runs added in around 80 morning minutes. It proved far too little of a challenge for the hosts.