Pakistani leg-spinner Imran Tahir dented leaders Nottinghamshire’s hopes of winning the English County Championship on Thursday’s second day of this season’s final round of matches.
The hosts had the edge at Trent Bridge after bowling out Hampshire for 203, a total that extinguished the southern county’s slim hopes of the title, and were well-placed at 172 for three in reply.
But Nottinghamshire collapsed to 211 all out with Tahir, who has played a major part in Hampshire’s dramatic rise up the table, taking four wickets for 55 runs.
At stumps, the visitors were 102 for one in their second innings — a lead of 94 — with Michael Brown unbeaten on 51.
“If our top-order batsmen can deal with Tahir then we have a chance, but if he is bowling at our lower order with a lot of runs to get, then we’re stuffed,” Nottinghamshire coach Mick Newell said.
Tahir, awarded a new two-year deal with Hampshire, said he had been looking forward to bowling again on a pitch set to offer him even more assistance after taking his tally of championship wickets to 40 in just his seventh match of the season.
Durham and Somerset, who could both claim their first County Championship titles if Nottinghamshire fail to defeat Hampshire, had contrasting days.
Australian batsman Michael Di Venuto (90) and Will Smith (81) helped Durham to 289 for six, a lead of 64, away to Kent at Canterbury.
Somerset’s veteran former England fast bowler Andrew Caddick took four for 79 but couldn’t prevent Lancashire recovering from 58 for four to a total of 248 with Mal Loye (61) leading the resistance.
Worse followed for Somerset when, for the second time in the match, their star opening pair of former England batsman Marcus Trescothick and Australian left-hander Justin Langer, the west country club’s captain, both fell cheaply.
Yorkshire, without the injured Michael Vaughan, looked odds-on for relegation at 85 for six against fellow strugglers Sussex at Hove. But hundreds from leg-spinner Adil Rashid and David Wainwright transformed their total into 400 for nine declared.
Former England fast bowler Matthew Hoggard, who had frustrated the reigning champions with the bat, then took two wickets and Rashid another as Sussex collapsed to 25 for three.
Warwickshire took the Second Division title by getting the bonus points they needed against Glamorgan.
Elsewhere, with England due to announce their Test squad for the tour of India on Monday, ex-England wicketkeeper James Foster gave the selectors a nudge by making 122 in Essex’s total of 510 away to Gloucestershire.
Owais Shah, whose England career has been a stop-start affair, made 114 and Ireland international Eoin Morgan 136 not out as Middlesex, who’d already seen Test regular Andrew Strauss score 172, piled up 545 for seven against Northamptonshire at Wantage Road.
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