County Championship: Hampshire complete win over Nottinghamshire

Hampshire needed just 80 minutes of the final day to complete a five-wicket victory over Nottinghamshire in the County Championship at Trent Bridge.

Five down overnight – and with Tom Prest likely to bat only in extremis after suffering a shoulder fracture in the field on day one – Hampshire still needed 85 runs to chase down a target of 169 when they resumed, which looked potentially tricky.

But Fletcha Middleton and James Fuller built on the foundations laid on Sunday evening to compile an unbroken match-winning partnership of 127.

All-rounder Fuller finished 77 not out, with opener Middleton unbeaten on 59 as Hampshire earned their first win of the season.

A first century of the season by all-rounder Lyndon James rescued Nottinghamshire from 50-6 in their first innings but – the Middleton-Fuller partnership apart – the key passage of batting in the contest was the 157-run stand between Liam Dawson (95) and Keith Barker (74) for Hampshire’s sixth wicket on Saturday.

Nottinghamshire’s top order again found the going tough at the start of their second innings, losing three wickets before even wiping out the arrears, and though they were bolstered by half-centuries by Joe Clarke and Jack Haynes, the target was always going to be difficult to defend.

They gave themselves a chance by reducing Hampshire to 44-5 on Sunday evening before Middleton and Fuller weathered the storm.

An early breakthrough looked vital as the last day began but none of the Nottinghamshire seamers could conjure much out of the pitch.

Any hope that leg-spinner Calvin Harrison could turn the contest vanished when he conceded 21 runs in a single over to rush Hampshire towards a win that was finally achieved when Fuller guided a ball from James to the fine leg boundary for his eighth four.