COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP DIVISION ONE, Old Trafford:
Nottinghamshire 400-9 dec drew with Lancashire 11-3
Notts 9pts, Lancs 6pts
Match scorecard

Nottinghamshire celebrate winning the 2010 County Championship

Nottinghamshire pulled off one of the most dramatic title wins in County Championship history as they excitingly pipped nearest rivals Somerset.

Notts began the final day of their rain-ravaged trip to Old Trafford on 89-2, and very much second favourites.

But Adam Voges (126) and Samit Patel (96) helped them snatch maximum batting points before declaring on 400-9.

Ryan Sidebottom and Andre Adams reduced Lancashire to 11-3 to claim the bowling point needed after Somerset only drew.

Somerset were held up both by the weather and reigning champions Durham at Chester-le-Street before falling well short on 48-3 as they chased an unlikely victory target of 181 in 17 overs.

That left Notts knowing that, if they could reach 400, and then take three Lancashire wickets, they would earn the sixth County Championship title victory that had looked a formality for them just a month ago.

It looked as though they might wobble when they lost two quick wickets to stand at 390-9, still needing another 10 for that last batting point.

But Sidebottom, in what could yet prove to be his last game for Notts, and Darren Pattinson held their nerve.

And, in tandem with Adams, the England left-armer then helped to do the job inside 28 balls on the ground where the weather has ironically cost so many Lancashire title bids over the years.

After Sidebottom had made the breakthrough by having Karl Brown taken at first slip, Andre Adams then struck twice in four balls to remove Mark Chilton and Shivnarine Chanderpaul - even as the rain was stating to fall at Old Trafford.

Nottinghamshire coach Mick Newell said:

"I'm very proud. To win it like that, people will look it as an honest and fair way to win. We had to work hard to get there.

"There's been a number of times when I couldn't see us winning it - last week against Yorkshire, 59 all out was a disaster for us, then this morning when rain held up play.

"We've been criticised in the last couple of weeks for bottling it, so to come up with a performance like that, I'm very very pleased."

Nottinghamshire captain Chris Read said:

"We had to have positive thoughts and we had to go one way or the other.

"The vast majority just said let's go out and bash 400 and take three wickets.

"Last night a lot of the guys got together and had a chat about what we should do. This morning we were devastated to see we weren't going to start on time because we thought it might scupper our plans.

"But we decided on balance the best route was to back ourselves to get 400.

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