Betts' barrage fails to halt Nottinghamshire

Melvyn Betts produced a fine bowling spell of four wickets in 15 balls for Warwickshire, but Nottinghamshire went on to claim a three-wicket win in the County Championship First Division at Trent Bridge yesterday.

Betts' pace ripped out the Nottinghamshire middle order, but the home side, chasing a victory target of 264, had enough wickets in hand to see them home. It had looked so different in the morning session when Darren Bicknell and Kevin Pietersen had put on 99 for Nottinghamshire's fourth wicket.

With only 55 runs needed, however, Betts got a delivery to cut back into Pietersen, who was out lbw. Bicknell's five and a half hour vigil ended with a thin edge to the substitute wicketkeeper Ian Clifford.

Betts then had Bilal Shafayat caught by Dougie Brown at third slip. Next to go was Chris Cairns, who played on to a ball which seamed back into him.

At that stage Nottinghamshire had gone from 209 for 3 to 219 for 7 and a famous victory looked in sight for Warwickshire. But Paul Franks joined Chris Read at the crease and saw off the threat of Betts to guide Nottinghamshire home.