HAMPSHIRE will have to see off Stuart Broad and beat the LV County Championship’s form team if they are to complete the Great Escape.

James Vince’s side ends its season with a must-win game away to a Nottinghamshire side aiming for its sixth victory in eight games to secure the first division runners-up spot behind Yorkshire.

And, ominously for Hampshire, Notts have been boosted by the addition of Broad, who will join the likes of Alex Hales and James Taylor in their side fresh from taking 21 Ashes wickets at 20.9 apiece. 

Having been rested from England’s ODI series against Australia, the game that will decide which division Hampshire play in next season will provide Broad with useful time in the middle ahead of the forthcoming Test series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates.

Broad’s one Championship appearance this season saw him take 7-84 against Yorkshire at Headingley back in June.

He bowled eight wicketless overs when he played in Notts’ Royal London One-Day Cup semi-final defeat against Surrey at The Oval a fortnight ago.

But this will be Broad's first appearance at Trent Bridge since his sensational spell for England six weeks ago, when he took 8-15 as the Australia were skittled for 60 on the first day of the Ashes-clinching fourth Test win.

Hampshire are the only county Broad has never played against and this will only be the 29 year-old’s 42nd Championship appearance since making his Leicestershire debut a decade ago.

 

 

Win it with a maximum 24-point haul and Hampshire will stay up as long as Sussex do not beat champions Yorkshire at Headingley.

But Notts at Trent Bridge is the toughest fixture Hampshire could have had to finish the season.

Hampshire’s record over the last two months (55 points from their last four matches) puts them fourth in the first division’s form table.

But it is topped by Notts, who have accrued 78 points from their last four games, despite poor weather meaning they had to settle for a draw against Warwickshire at Edgbaston last week.

Mick Newell’s side is going into the last week of the season on the back of a seven-match unbeaten record including five wins.

They are now third, having been in the bottom two with Hampshire in June, and have the incentive of knowing victory against Hampshire could see them pip Middlesex to the runners-up spot behind Yorkshire.

Notts have 12 points to make up, while Hampshire are 16 behind Sussex.

But there is hope.

Hampshire’s defeat at home to Yorkshire, a match they had the better of for the most part, was their first in five Championship matches.

And they have had plenty of success in big games at Trent Bridge in recent years.

The T20 quarter-finals wins of 2012 and 2014 will be fresh in the minds and Hampshire have won two of their last four Championship matches there.

They won by 203 runs at Trent Bridge on the final day of the 2008 season, having already completed a remarkable escape from relegation.

And they won a thriller by two wickets at Trent Bridge in 2010.