COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP: WARWICKSHIRE RELEGATES YORKSHIRE THANKS TO LIAM NORWELL'S NINE-WICKET HAUL

BY WILSON SALAUN
What a final day of the County Championship season as a remarkable nine-wicket performance from Liam Norwell saw Warwickshire pull off the great escape and send Yorkshire tumbling into Division Two.

Defending just 139 runs against Hampshire at Edgbaston, second-bottom Warwickshire found themselves on the brink of becoming the fifth side in the era of promotion and relegation to follow winning the County Championship with the drop.

"I just went mad – all the emotions came out," said Norwell when asked to describe the winning moment.





It came by trapping the No 11 Mohammad Abbas lbw for a four-ball duck, with Hampshire bowled out for 133 in 43.5 overs and forced to settle for third place behind Lancashire and champions Surrey.

This was only Norwell's fourth match of the season due to injuries which left him feeling like he had let his teammates down through those absences. It all ended with hero status after bullocking through Hampshire's impressive lineup, stumps flying in all directions. When the Brummies talk about «Norwell's match» in years to come, they won't need reminding which one. This was electric.

With first change Henry Brookes struggling, it was chiefly Norwell, his herculean effort from the Pavilion End featuring a mere three-over break in the middle.

"I tried to take myself off after the wicket of Keith Barker,» he said. «I was cramping but Will Rhodes, our captain, said – and I won't use the language – you're bowling to the end of the game. Him and Dom Sibley just kept pumping me up."


What a way to end the season!

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