Has Wheal turned Hampshire’s fortunes?

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Hampshire 319 (Wheater 102, McManus 56, Dawson 54) and 393 for 7 dec (Adams 99, Alsop 93, McLaren 71, Dawson 69) beat Nottinghamshire 245 (Read 70*, Carter 4-52) and 291 (Mullaney 137, Taylor 58, Wheal 6-51) by 176 runsScorecard

The excitement gathering around Nottinghamshire’s trip to Twenty20 finals day on Saturday is being tempered somewhat by the growing likelihood that they will playing their four-day cricket in Division Two next season after the fleeting vision of a highly unlikely victory proved to be a mirage.

It may be a destination that Hampshire will also have to contemplate but this victory, only their second of the season, in which Brad Wheal, the 19-year-old pace bowler, claimed his maiden five-wicket haul gives them at least a chance to stay up. Surrey’s victory over Warwickshire does not help them in that respect but Warwickshire themselves as well as Durham suddenly look more vulnerable than before.

Nottinghamshire, whose batting has been brittle for much of the season, reached 243 for 3 after Steven Mullaney and Brendan Taylor put on 162 for the fourth wicket, which made a record fourth-innings target at least theoretically possible.

But the loss of Mullaney and Samit Patel to consecutive balls from Wheal sparked a collapse that saw five wickets fall for 17 runs in the space of 49 balls, after which effectively only Imran Tahir and Harry Gurney stood between Hampshire and victory, neither of whom was ever likely to present a lasting impediment.

Will Smith, the Hampshire captain and former Nottinghamshire batsman, hailed what he hopes will be a turning point in the club’s fortunes.

“While Mullaney and Taylor were going well there was even a slight chance they could push for a win but on day four things can happen very quickly and credit to Mason Crane and Brad Wheal that they did, with quality spin and fast bowling,” he said. “But everyone in the attack bowled …

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