| Nottinghamshire win County title • Nottinghamshire 400-9, Lancashire 11-3• Match drawnIn its history of somewhere between 120 and 184 years, depending on your point of view, the much maligned but still highly prized County Championship has surely never come to a climax like this.After spending the best part of three days in the pavilion – mostly because of rain but briefly on Tuesday evening because of the glare of the sun – and apparently powerless to prevent Somerset coming from behind to pinch their first title, Nottinghamshire snatched it back on a dramatic last afternoon. This draw left them level on points with Somerset but they have taken the title by virtue of having won one game more. An innings of gumption and brilliance by Samit Patel, and an equally valuable one from the overseas pro Adam Voges, fired them towards the first innings total of 400 required for maximum batting points, although after a nervy clatter of lower-order wickets it took numbers 10 and 11, Ryan Sidebottom and Darren Pattinson, to eke out the last 10 runs against the Lancashire spinners."The important thing was not to panic, and to stay calm," said Sidebottom, although that was way beyond his captain Chris Read. "Watching that from the dressing room was the most nervous I've been all season," Read said. "One wicket then and your dreams are pretty much shattered. Adam [Voges] was kicking the walls after getting out. We were all just praying that the big bowling guys could get us over the line."The calculated gamble that the reigning champions, Durham, would hold up Somerset in the north-east and that Kent would deny Yorkshire at Headingley, had already paid off, meaning that Notts now had 18 overs to take three wickets and claim the single bowling point necessary for the title.They needed fewer than five. Sidebottom, who had been released from England's one-day squad to play his last game for the county before a probable return north to either Lancashire or Yorkshire next season, opened up with an unsuccessful over from the Statham End, then switched to the Stretford End and struck immediately, as the young Lancashire opener Karl Brown was taken low down by Alex Hales at first slip.Andre Adams, the 35-year-old New Zealander who as the First Division's leading wicket-taker has done as much as anyone to fire Notts to the title, then had Mark Chilton caught behind at the start of the next over, and three balls later it was all over. Shivnarine Chanderpaul was a fittingly high-calibre 68th victim of the season for Adams, the left-hander edging a ball that was angled across him, and snapped up inches from the turf by Patel.Nottinghamshire's joy was unconfined, the frustration of those first three days and the tension of these final hours released in exuberant celebrations that began on the square and continued all the way back to the dressing room that they had earlier been so keen to escape. "It's been an incredible day, and an incredible rollercoaster way to end the season," said Read, the chirpy Devonian wicketkeeper, champagne still dripping from his cap."We needed the sun to shine and to believe we could achieve what we wanted to do, which was 311 in a day [they had resumed on 89 for two] and three Lancashire wickets. We were relying on other results as well, and big thank yous to Kent and Durham. But I couldn't believe it when we got to the ground and they said we weren't going to be starting on time."However during that one-hour delay ordered by the umpires to allow the wet areas on the edge of the square to dry – a first example of the determination to avoid even a suggestion of anything untoward throughout the day, which also saw Jack Birkenshaw representing the England and Wales Cricket Board as match referee, and Lancashire making life as difficult as possible for Notts throughout – Yorkshire collapsed against Kent, and Somerset were struggling for wickets against Durham.Suddenly, the initiative that Notts had been struggling to recapture since David Hussey returned to Australia last month – with consecutive defeats by Durham and Yorkshire squandering the chance to have the title wrapped up before this game – was available again. It was Patel who seized it, with 96 from 91 balls in a fifth wicket stand of 153 in 28 overs with Voges, who went on to 126 from 183. "That's the best Samit has played all year, and it says a lot about him that he did it when it really mattered," said Mick Newell, Notts's low-profile coach who, with Read, Patel and Paul Franks, was celebrating his second championship in six seasons. While the players were spraying champagne, Newell was thanking the Lancashire groundstaff, for whom this was also an emotional day.On Monday they will begin the work of relaying and reorientating the square, so that the pitches run from north to south rather than east to west, with the pavilion behind the bowler's arm, meaning that the sun should never again stop play at Old Trafford. Read and Newell both admitted that they had considered the possibility of it doing so for one last time to deny Notts the Championship. Barring that, or the even less likely occurrence of Lancashire ending their infamous wait for the title - now 76 summers and counting - this was a perfect way to mark the end of an era.County Championship Division OneLancashireNottinghamshireCricketAndy Wilsonguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
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