County Championship: Nottinghamshire beat Sussex by 256 runs at Trent Bridge

Notts paceman Dane Paterson claimed match figures of 8-57

Nottinghamshire wrapped up a 256-run over Sussex with almost a day and a half to spare to consolidate their place on top of County Championship Division Two ahead of the September run-in.

Bowled out for 301 in their second innings soon after the start on day three, giving Sussex a target of 399, Notts shot out their youthful opponents for 142 in 47.3 overs.

Overseas fast bowlers Dane Paterson (3-14) and James Pattinson (3-47) each raised their individual hauls to eight wickets in the match.

Without a number of players through injury and illness, Sussex realistically needed Indian Test star Cheteshwar Pujara to post a substantial score to give them any chance of taking the match into a fourth day. He finished unbeaten on 49 but no one could stay with him.

Despite nine wickets in the match for England's Ollie Robinson on his return from a back injury, Sussex left Trent Bridge with no points, when their three bowling bonus points from the first innings were cancelled out by a three-point deduction for a slow over-rate.

With two of their remaining home matches at home - against Leicestershire and Durham - and a visit to Worcestershire in their other fixture, Notts are now odds-on to seal promotion.

Bowling with a new ball after Wednesday's play ended with the first one exactly 80 overs old, Sussex at least needed only 25 deliveries with it to see off the Nottinghamshire tail.

Brad Currie bowled Liam Patterson-White with one that kept a touch low before Robinson had a tentative Luke Fletcher leg before and dismissed Pattinson via a miscue to cover.

Robinson finished with 5-60, enough to move him ahead of Henry Crocombe as Sussex's leading wicket-taker on 17 at 15.64, despite this being only his third match of the Division Two campaign.

It left Sussex with a mighty task by anyone's standards, let alone a team with six players aged 21 or under.

Tom Clark, almost run out without scoring, edged behind in Fletcher's third over, but Ali Orr, who came into this match with almost 650 first-class runs for the season, made another good impression.

For a while it looked as though he might be the one to help Pujara make Nottinghamshire work for their win until he ran into a snorter from Pattinson that he could only fend away from his head, the ball looping off his glove for short-leg Ben Slater to claim the catch.

Fynn Hudson-Prentice - at 26 one of the senior Sussex batters - was at least with Pujara at lunch, but he departed a couple of overs later, nicking to the wicketkeeper as Paterson found some movement on a pitch still giving the bowlers something to work with.

Oli Carter perished to a poor shot, caught behind down the leg side off Fletcher, before Pattinson saw off the two 18-year-olds in consecutive overs as James Coles reprised Carter's mode of dismissal and Archie Lenham, who had stuck around stubbornly for a brave 31 in the first innings, perished to his third ball as the Australian quick zipped one through to send stumps flying in all directions.

Robinson fell to a leading edge off the medium pace of Steven Mullaney, caught at mid-off, where the ever-popular Fletcher delighted both his team-mates and his fan club in the Radcliffe Road stand by throwing himself to his right to take a diving catch.

Sussex's abject afternoon continued when Pujara changed his mind about scrambling a single to midwicket off the final ball of a Patterson-White over, leaving Ari Karvelas stranded as Lyndon James made a direct hit with his throw in, before Paterson wrapped up the win at 15:25 BST as Currie followed Sean Hunt back to the pavilion as a second lbw in consecutive overs.

Nottinghamshire head coach Peter Moores:

"We did not bat as well as we can in the first innings, when quite a few of our players would be disappointed with the way they got out, but we still got to 240, which shows what depth we have. Someone has always managed to get runs. This time it was Steven Mullaney, who gave us a real captain's innings.

"In the second, that partnership between Haseeb Hameed and Lyndon James was pivotal. The speed they scored at took the game away from Sussex very quickly and created the platform.

"And we had two outstanding performances with the ball from Jimmy Pattinson and Dane Paterson. The ball that Dane got Pujara leg before with in the first innings was one of the balls of the season, a beautiful bit of bowling because of what built up to it.

"He plugged away round about a fourth stump line and then he bowled what was a fantastic inswinger that felt like it was a yard quicker, nipped a bit off the pitch and basically hit Pujara before he could move.

Sussex head coach Ian Salisbury told BBC Radio Sussex:

"We're disappointed to lose, but it showed where the two teams are, one flying high at the top, putting out roughly the best side they can, and we're just learning.

"We had two good performances in the match, which were from our most experienced players, Pujara and Robinson.

"But we have some good young players we are excited about and we are getting better. We had players missing here but that is cricket life."

Report supplied by the ECB Reporters' Network.