County Championship: Hampshire survival is on as Sussex struggle

Hampshire look favourites to beat the drop as they dominated day three of their LV= County Championship Division One clash against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge, with Sussex struggling against Yorkshire at Headingley.

A win, and defeat for Sussex, will see Hampshire safe, and they seem set to fulfil the first part of that brief, reaching stumps on 89-0, chasing 200 to win.

The visitors started day three still trailing Nottinghamshire by 42 first-innings runs with only two wickets remaining, but Ryan McLaren (52) and Gareth Berg (72) resuming an unbeaten 95-run partnership continued to frustrate the home side for a further 28 runs.

Harry Gurney (4-70) eventually made the breakthrough, bowling McLaren, and England's Stuart Broad (2-73) picked up Berg in the next over to wrap up the innings.

Brendan Taylor batted beautifully for 90 in the second innings and when he was at the crease with Samit Patel (25) and the score on 127-2 - a lead of 141 - Hampshire's hopes of survival appeared to be slipping away.

But Berg (2-28) added to his brilliant all-round efforts by bowling Patel and Riki Wessels, for nine.

Liam Dawson then took the key wicket of Taylor before a three-wicket burst by Fidel Edwards (4-57) accounted for Chris Read, Billy Root - in the same over - and Broad.

McLaren (2-22) took the final two wickets to close Nottinghamshire's innings on 185, the final seven wickets falling for 34.

Set 200 to win, Hampshire then cruised to 89-0 with Michael Carberry (37no) and Jimmy Adams (46no) both nearing fifties by stumps.

At Headingley, Sussex's hopes of survival hinge on them holding out for a draw against champions Yorkshire.

Yorkshire closed the day on 298-9 in their second innings, leading by 301 runs, and although Sussex are capable of chasing down such a target on day four, a draw is enough to see them survive at Hampshire's expense, so will likely see them take few risks.

Trailing by only three first innings runs and with Yorkshire starting the day 55-1, the south coast outfit will have had hopes of skittling out their hosts cheaply and chasing a modest target much like Hampshire were managing to do at Trent Bridge.

Steve Magoffin (2-53) grabbed the wicket of Gary Ballance (45) early on, but they then encountered some stubborn Yorkshire resistance, particularly from captain Andrew Gale (67).

Gale first put on 58 with Adam Lyth (39) for the third wicket, then 63 with Jonny Bairstow (36) for the fourth.

Sussex slightly fought their way back into things after Bairstow fell to Chris Jordan (3-73) as five wickets fell for 65 runs to knock Yorkshire from 190-3 to 255-8.

But some more Yorkshire grit, this time form Tim Bresnan - unbeaten on 50 at stumps - took the hosts past 300 safely and with one wicket still in the bag.

Warwickshire are in the box seat of a topsy-turvy affair against Somerset at Taunton, closing the day on 20-0, chasing 225 to win.

It marks quite the turnaround as they started the day on 180-7 in their first innings, still some distance behind Somerset's first innings score of 438.

The hosts had actually reduced Warwickshire to 120-7 the previous evening before Laurie Evans and Jeetan Patel recovered things slights with a 60-run partnership.

A further 106 runs were added by the pair in the early part of day three before Evans fell, bowled by Jack Leach (7-106) - for 73.

Leach denied Patel (98) a well-deserved century not long after, but another handy cameo from Mark Adair (24no) took the visitors to 324.

Keith Barker (3-37) then took three early wickets - Marcus Trescothick, Tom Abell and James Hildreth all back in the hutch with a double-figure score not yet even on the board - before Patel (7-38) cleaned up the rest of the batting order.

Tom Cooper top-scored with 26, while no other batsman manage more than 15 as Somerset crumbled to 110 all out.

Only 11 overs of Warwickshire's run-chase were managed before the close of play, with openers Varun Chopra and Ian Westwood managing to survive.

Already relegated Worcestershire signed off their Championship season with an impressive innings and 128-run win over Middlesex at New Road.

Resuming day three on 329-3 - a lead of 231 runs - centurion Tom Fell (171) managed to add only four runs to his overnight score before falling to Neil Dexter (3-51).

Dexter added the wicket of Ross Whiteley for nine soon after, but Tom Kohler-Cadmore (130no) - unbeaten on 97 overnight - did manage to go through to a maiden first-class century at the other end.

He and Ben Cox (53no) added some quick-fire runs before the hosts declared on 431-5 with a lead of 333, after Worcestershire had dismissed Middlesex for just 98 on day one.

Middlesex again didn't offer much resistance with the bat the second time around, falling to 205 all out and a heavy innings defeat, possibly scuppering their hopes of second spot in the Championship.

John Simpson's unbeaten counter-attacking 50 from 49 balls was the only bright spot, but extras were the next top-scorers with 27, Jack Shantry taking 3-51 for the home side.

Head back to skysports.com on Friday as the County Championship season comes to a close.