Sussex 169 (59 overs) and 278 (94.2 overs)
Nottinghamshire 300 (68.3 overs) and 149-1 (25.5 overs)
Nottinghamshire (21pts) beat Sussex (5pts) by nine wickets
Division One leaders Nottinghamshire eased to a nine-wicket win inside three days after outplaying Sussex in their Rothesay County Championship clash at Trent Bridge.
Needing 148 to win after Sussex were bowled out for 278 in their second innings, Nottinghamshire were home and dry in 25.5 overs.
They swept to victory with unbeaten half-centuries from skipper Haseen Hameed (62) and England’s Ben Duckett (59), earning 21 points from their second victory of the campaign.
A doughty 74 from Sussex captain John Simpson, backed up by off-spinning all-rounder Jack Carson’s 43, kept the home side in the field until lunchtime.
But Nottinghamshire looked as if they were no mood to be still playing at tea, completing the job in good time to watch their neighbours from Nottingham Forest take on Manchester City in their FA Cup semi-final later.
Farhan Ahmed, their 17-year-old off-spinner, delivered another stand-out display with the ball, taking four for 54, with Australian seamer Fergus O’Neill signing off with three for 74 in his last match for the county.
With an overnight lead of 64, much depended not just on the experience and know-how of Simpson but also on the ability of the three remaining batters to stick with him as Sussex sought to make Nottinghamshire work for their victory.
In the event, the 36-year-old left-hander found a doughty and productive ally in his overnight partner, 24-year-old Carson.
He and the skipper frustrated the home attack for 96 minutes, extending their partnership to 87 runs before, facing the second new ball, the younger man clipped Brett Hutton straight to midwicket, where sub fielder Freddie McCann had been moved from slip moments earlier.
Carson batted for two hours and 18 minutes for his 43, which included five fours.
With an important obstacle removed, the Sussex innings fell away quickly. Ahmed, called into the attack with the new ball only 12 overs old, needed just one delivery with it to have Ollie Robinson caught behind.
Left to eke out what he could, Simpson perished in Ahmed’s next over, caught by Josh Tongue in a failed attempt to clear the long-on boundary.
The Nottinghamshire target was heading towards the territory that Sussex felt might have been “tricky” in the overcast conditions of Saturday but Hameed quickly made it look much less daunting as warm sunshine presented the best batting conditions of the match.
It did not help Sussex’s cause that Jayden Seales, who played his part in reducing Nottinghamshire from 167-3 to 210-8 on the second morning, slipped back into his wayward ways of Friday evening.
He handed Hameed plenty of opportunities to give himself a flying start, which he eagerly snapped up.
In his opening two overs from the Stuart Broad End, he conceded four boundaries to Hameed, coming back for a third at the Radcliffe Road End to see Ben Slater hammer him for six and four.
Little wonder, when Slater pulled him to be caught at deep square leg in his fourth over, he declined to celebrate.
Nottinghamshire had polished off 67 of their required runs in 14.2 overs with Slater’s dismissal, which only ushered in Duckett, looking to make amends after falling in single figures in the first innings of one of his nowadays rare appearances in the Championship.
Five fours and four sixes – all off the unfortunate Carson – as he raced to a half-century in 23 balls confirmed that impression.
Hameed’s 50 from 71 balls, though beautiful to watch, looked pedestrian by comparison. And it was Hameed who hit the winning run with the result wrapped up at 3.27pm.
After 21 wickets in four matches, the end of O’Neill’s stint at Trent Bridge will leave a hole in the Nottinghamshire attack, although his replacement, Pakistan’s Mohammad Abbas, arrives in time for their next fixture, against his former county, Hampshire, on Friday 9 May.
Nottinghamshire captain Haseeb Hameed said: “We knew it was a big game for us, a top-of-table clash, so it’s really pleasing to come out with a win.
“The way we bowled in that first innings was outstanding. To bowl a team out for 170 is always a good effort regardless of how the pitch is playing.
“And then the way the lower order fought to get us to 300 was massive as well after we had lost a few wickets yesterday morning.
“For Liam Patterson-White to come in for his first game back was outstanding, with both bat and ball throughout the game.
“We had to work hard for those last wickets, even today, when the ball wasn’t doing as much with the sun out.
“But the way the boys stuck at it was amazing. We didn’t get anywhere really until that new ball was taken and we got our rewards later on.
“We spoke before the season about needing to start well and to come out and execute our plans the way we wanted to has been great.
“But we are very aware that it is just the start. There are a lot of games still to play and we are keen to keep doing the right things.”
Sussex head coach Paul Farbrace said: “Notts have played very well but we are disappointed with the way we have lost the game.
“The first morning the ball did a lot before lunch and we lost wickets but in the afternoon we had a chance to play better and score some runs and we didn’t take advantage of that.
“Probably it was a 250-260 wicket so straight away you are looking at a 70-80 run gap. And then, apart from Ollie Robinson, we didn’t bowl very well with the new ball and they probably scored 50 or 60 runs more than they should have done.
“We then bowled so well on the Saturday morning and caught brilliantly we got ourselves back into the game.
“But batting in the second innings, we went from 89-0 to 110-4 and we went a bit timid, looking to survive rather than score runs and we got stuck in a bit of a rut.
“Carter and Simpson batted with a lot of courage this morning and gave ourselves something to bowl at but again unfortunately we again didn’t bowl well with the new ball and Ben Duckett has come in and taken the game away from us.”
