SHANE WARNE hailed Hampshire's Championship win against title rivals Notts as the best under his captaincy.

Warne clinched Hampshire's 13th first class victory since he took over as captain by 14 runs, and with ten balls to spare, when he bowled Ryan Sidebottom.

And he admitted that it bettered the ten-run win against Somerset at Taunton last August.

Warne said: "Somerset last year was a great win but this has topped that, it gets back our momentum after we were thrashed by Warwickshire."

Warne thanked Nottinghamshire captain Stephen Fleming for agreeing to set up the finish while they shared an Italian meal the night before.

He said: "At the start of the game Flem and I decided that the third night might be the best one to catch up, with the forecast being as it was.

"Flem is up there with Ricky Ponting as one of the best captains in world cricket and credit should be given to both captains for coming up with that, and also to both teams for agreeing to go with it.

"It would have been easy for both sides, given the situation at the top of the table, to just go for the bonus points but I thought we should sacrifice the four points for a draw to try and get the 14 for a win.

"With them having a game in hand, I tried to haggle and 276 off 65 overs was a generous target, but I really thought we could win.

"I was etting very frustrated when David Hussey was in, I was telling him that I hoped he'd used everyone else's luck up!

"It was frustrating.

"I kept telling the guys that there were still some twists left but when they only needed 30 I started to think ****!

"As it turned out, the boys kept believing, we never gave up and we bowled well, we deserved better than another defeat.

"Over the last year or so I've told the guys that we have to put ourselves on the line because that's the best way to improve, and they did that well."

Chris Tremlett took the plaudits for his hat-trick while John Crawley's performance as a stand in wicketkeeper was also outstanding.

"Before the game I had a good chat with Goober (Tremlett) about where I thought he was at and what he should be achieving and it was good to see him respond in that way," added Warne

While Tom Burrows is out with a broken finger, Crawley has replaced Derek Kenway as Hampshire's reserve wicketkeeper following his outstanding effort in becoming the county's first gloveman to record six dismissals in an innings for SIXTEEN years - and the first ever as a stand-in.

Warne added: "Creepy was our man of the match and his stumping was fantastic, he did a Rod Marsh demolition job on the stumps and nearly knocked all three out of the ground!

"Nic Pothas is a very important player to us but someone had to do the job because his finger was so bad and Creepy did great."

Pothas is expected to be fit to face Surrey in the next County Championship match at the Rose Bowl in ten days' time.

Physio Paddy Farhart described the injury to the top joint of his right index finger as "a repetitive, impact injury that has progressively got worse over the last couple of weeks without the time to rest."