Liam Norwell’s nine-wicket haul saves Warwickshire and relegates Yorkshire

Liam Norwell achieved a career-best nine for 62 which sealed the win over Hampshire and kept Warwickshire in Division One. Photograph: Tony Marsh/CricPix

The final day of the County Championship season left nails chewed down to the nub and hearts racing 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 under ominous skies 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. As their head coach, Mark Robinson, later put it: “We needed snookers.”