County Championship: Liam Norwell takes 9-62 as Warwickshire beat Hampshire to relegate Yorkshire

Liam Norwell produced the performance of a lifetime with a stunning 9-62 as Warwickshire miraculously stayed up and Yorkshire were demoted.

The injured paceman kept the Bears in Division One by bowling almost unchanged for 18 overs.

Hampshire was only able to win with a score of 133 all out.

Hampshire lost out on the runners-up spot and the prize money after losing out on the title.

Norwell and Hannon-Dalby both had career best bowling efforts.

They sent down 37 of the 44 overs in Hampshire's secondinning.

While Yorkshire were left cursing their first relegation in 11 years, the Bears' unlikely escape on the final day of the season was just as well received.

It was out of Yorkshire's hands when they lost to Gloucestershire on Wednesday.

Bears bowled out cheaply

After closing at 62-2 on Wednesday, with a lead of only 23, the main surprise was that they actually got started on time thanks to the hard work of Gary Barwell and his ground staff.

That was the only thing that went right for the Bears in the morning, despite a second half-century in the match for Dom Sibley on his last appearance.

Both Alex Davies and Will Rhodes holed out going for their shots as Brad Wheal struck in successive overs.

With a run-out mix up sandwiched in between, James Fuller took over as the chief bowler.

The runner, Davies, was batting with the player, who was injured while making a boundary stop.

But, having already survived one run-out near-miss, Davies was left stranded by a direct hit from Hampshire skipper James Vince - and was forced to make the slow walk back to the dressing room for the second time in an hour, this time accompanied by.

After removing both Norwell and Briggs in successive balls, he had a chance to win the Bob Willis Trophy for the third time in four years.

Although Hannon-Dalby survived the hat-trick ball, Sibley did not trust the survival skills of the Bears last man. The discarded England opener was savesay savesay for 77, missing out on a chance to carry his bat for the third time this season.

. . . but Hants bowled out even cheaper still

Hampshire needed just 139 to win. It proved to be the case.

The first breakthrough came in the third over when Hannon-Dalby had Felix Organ caught behind.

That opened the way for Norwell.

In only his fourth Championship appearance of an injury-plagued season, he got rid of Ian Holland and the rest of the batting line-up.

A return of 3-16 from his first spell, followed by three overs off before he came back for a second spell.

When former Bears all-rounder Keith Barker became his sixth victim, Nick Gubbins and Fuller put on what seemed to be a crucial 33 for the eighth place.

The story of a ball change was important.

Although the visitors got it down to within one blow of victory, the big paceman then struck two more in four balls to finish it off.

He had a career-best 13-100 in the match, which was a career-best for him, to bring down the curtain on another dramatic end to a domestic red ball season.

Liam Norwell spoke to the radio.

It didn't go as planned. We wanted to get them to 200 but we had to keep believing and the fielders were behind us.

The crowd were behind us, even though Olly only got a single strike. The same thing happened on the last day of last season.

It will be remembered for a long time. I'm not sure what I was thinking at the end. I just got angry. I was almost in tears after seeing all the emotions come out.

"It means a lot to me because I feel I let the guys down by being out injured so much this season, so I hope helping us stay up has repaid them a bit." We have to make sure we don't get in this situation again.

James Vince is the captain.

Liam Norwell has done a great job." He did well to keep coming in despite not playing a lot of cricket.

It's hard to take when we lost last week, after all the hard work we did over the summer, it's disappointing."

You have to give credit to the spirit they displayed. You can find that extra level when you're in the division. Norwell got the most out of the game.