Liam Norwell: "I was done... but luckily I kept going"

The Warwickshire seamer took career-best figures to save Warwickshire from relegation on the last day of the season

Warwickshire hero Liam Norwell admitted he'd be shocked "if I ever do that again" after his remarkable bowling performance kept his team in Division One on a dramatic final day of the County Championship season.

The seamer took 9 for 62 to bowl Hampshire out for 133, leaving them six runs short in the final innings chase. He was quick to praise his teammates, especially his "magnificent" bowling partner Oliver Hannon-Dalby who "didn't get the wickets he deserved".

It was Norwell's fourth game of an injury-ravaged season, and his lack of match fitness left him visibly exhausted by the end.

"After the [Keith] Barker wicket, I think I said to Will [Rhodes]: 'I'm done, I can't keep going,' and him and [Dom] Sibley had some quite strong words with me. Basically, they said: 'You are going to keep going, you don't have a choice in it.'"

"Luckily for them I kept going."

^{Norwell claimed career-best figures to keep Warwickshire in the top flight (David Rogers/Getty Images)}

While Yorkshire's loss on the previous day had opened the door for a Warwickshire great escape, it was unlikely after only putting 177 on the board in their second innings.

"We felt if we got early wickets then we had a chance and especially if we got James Vince early," he said. "After we were able to get three quick ones and Vince out, we were right in it. Honestly, I felt it was slipping away when [James] Fuller and [Nick] Gubbins were going, Fuller came out and played some good shots to good balls, rode his luck a little bit and Gubbins played a good innings. When we got Gubbins out, we felt Fuller was going to lose his composure and he did. Luckily that played into our hands."

He continued: "In that last over when they needed six and we needed two wickets, I said to Will: 'I'm winning this.'

"Without being arrogant, if I had been fit for half the season we wouldn't have been in this position. I just have belief in myself."

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