| LV= County Championship Division One, Trent Bridge (day four) |
| Middlesex 366: Higgins 137, Eskinazi 58, Yadav 56; Hutton 5-94 & 224-6 dec: Robson 105*, De Caires 49; Hutton 2-38 |
| Nottinghamshire 384: Slater 140, Clarke 70, Montgomery 52; De Caires 3-56 & 210-8: Slater 49; Robson 4-46 |
| Nottinghamshire (22 pts) beat Middlesex (6 pts) by two wickets |
| Match scorecard |
Middlesex’s desperate bid for a dramatic final-day victory just fell short at Trent Bridge as they lost narrowly to Nottinghamshire by two wickets to be relegated back to Division Two of the County Championship.
After just one season back in the top flight, Middlesex knew they had to better rivals Kent’s points total from their final game against Lancashire to stay up.
Kent were forced to settle for a draw with Lancashire, to give Middlesex an outside chance if they could force victory.
There were tense scenes in Nottingham and Canterbury when Notts lost their eighth wicket with five runs still needed, but they just about kept their heads to get over the line and send Middlesex down, while Kent survived.
There had looked to be only one outcome when Middlesex skipper Toby Roland-Jones set Notts a target of just 207 in a generous 58 overs.
But on a dry, turning pitch on a beautifully sunny last afternoon of the season, the Middlesex spinners made a real fight of it.
Frontline spinners Jayant Yadav (2-68) and Josh de Caires (1-24) were upstaged, however, by former England opener and occasional leg-spinner Sam Robson, who followed up his earlier century to finish with a career-best 4-46.
The visitors gave the hosts a real scare as they slipped to 157-7 before Matt Montgomery (34 not out) held the tail together to drag Notts across the line.
Brett Hutton, who had earlier edging ahead of Simon Harmer on 62 scalps to finish as the County Championship’s top wicket taker, weighed in with a quickfire 17, before holing out attempting to hit a second six.
But, fittingly, it was Notts number 10 Jake Ball – in the former England paceman’s final appearance – who swept Robson for the winning boundary.
Earlier, as Nottinghamshire set fields that allowed Middlesex to set the game up, Robson hit a 109-ball unbeaten 105 – his third of the paltry total of four red-ball hundreds that his side have managed this season.
This is Middlesex’s third relegation since two-division cricket began in 2000, having also gone down in 2006 and 2017.
And, although they managed one more win than Kent over the course of the season, they paid the price for some poor batting displays.
Their bowling attack plundered 39 bowling points, just two less than champions Surrey who, along with Warwickshire, racked up a near maximum 41 points out of a possible 42.
But Middlesex managed just five batting points in 14 games, their only other centurion aside from Robson having been Ryan Higgins in the first innings of this match.