Rothesay County Championship, Division One, The Kia Oval, Kennington (day three)

Nottinghamshire 184 & 306: Clarke 95; Worrall 4-39, Fisher 4-67

Surrey 162: Stone 6-44 & 183: Pope 111; Stone 4-50, Pennington 3-46

Notts (19pts) beat Surrey (3pts) by 145 runs

Match scorecard

Olly Stone joined the great Harold Larwood in the pantheon of Nottinghamshire fast bowlers as the champions crushed Surrey by 145 runs at The Kia Oval.

Stone claimed match figures of 10-94, prior to which the most recent Notts cricketer to take 10 or more against Surrey at The Oval was Larwood in 1936.

Surrey, asked to score 329 to win after bowling out Notts for a second-innings 306, crumbled to 183 all out with Stone adding 4-50 to his magnificent first-innings’ 6-44 when Surrey were dismissed for 162.

Only Ollie Pope, last out for a defiant 111, offered any resistance as Surrey – champions in 2022, 2023 and 2024 and runners-up to Notts last year – were humbled by a side who on day one were in desperate trouble at 104-8.

Liam Patterson-White’s brilliant unbeaten 76 started the turnaround on Thursday, hauling Notts up to 184, but it was Stone who was the clear difference between the two sides as he terrorised Surrey with pace bowling of the highest class.

Stone began Surrey’s slide by having Dom Sibley caught behind for six in his third new-ball over. Then, in his next, he removed Adam Thomas with a superb rising delivery that again caught a thin edge.

Brett Hutton had Rory Burns athletically caught at second slip for 16 off a sliced cut and Ben Foakes was bowled by Dillon Pennington for one to leave Surrey 45-4.

Left-hander Mahipal Lomror soon followed, again bowled by Pennington from around the wicket, and Stone returned for a nine-over spell in which he bounced out Josh Blake for 15, caught at square leg, before bowling Tom Lawes for one.

Patterson-White’s left-arm spin had accounted for Jordan Clark, bowled for two, and Stone scored a direct hit from short third man to run out Matt Fisher for 11.

Dan Worrall stayed to make sure Pope completed his 26th first-class hundred, and 14th at the Oval, before skying Pennington, who finished with 3-46.

Earlier Joe Clarke’s superb, controlled 95 was the mainstay of Notts’ batting effort, with his fifth-wicket century partnership with Kyle Verreynne ensuring a match-winning lead.

But the Notts pace attack, led by Stone but with excellent support from Pennington and Hutton, proved too hot for Surrey to handle for the second time in the game.

This year’s Championship, with five more rounds still to go, is proving to be one of the hardest-fought and compelling in recent memory – only 27 points separated the top eight at the start of the six-game run-in.

But Notts’ great victory over their closest rivals of the past two seasons will consolidate their lead at the top of Division One and increase the likelihood that they can clinch back-to-back titles.

A seismic third day began with Worrall pinning Jack Haynes lbw for 34 with the sixth ball of the morning and without addition to Notts’ overnight 147-3.

Clarke and Verreynne, however, then added 110 in 27 overs for the fifth wicket. But, in 15 balls either side of lunch, Notts lost four wickets for just one run to plunge from 257-4 to 258-8, with Fisher the main protagonist in a wonderful spell from the Vauxhall End.

First Fisher bowled Clarke in the 75th over, getting reverse swing with the old ball and hitting the off stump with a beautiful delivery that also seemed to keep a little low.

Lomror’s slow left arm played a part, with Ben Martindale smartly stumped by Foakes in the next over after missing a forward defensive.

Fisher’s next two strikes came from successive balls, either side of lunch, with Verreynne bowled off stump for a gritty 83-ball 46 by an unplayable delivery.

And then, immediately after the interval, Stone edged to Foakes to give Fisher his fourth wicket and Surrey hoped the contest had suddenly veered their way.

Patterson-White, Hutton and Pennington, though, garnered a further invaluable 48 runs for the last two wickets – Patterson-White hitting Lomror straight for six before on 12 edging Worrall’s first delivery with the second new ball to Foakes.

But the last pair frustrated Worrall and a tiring Fisher to add 30, number 11 Pennington looking particularly comfortable with 20 not out until Hutton was leg-before to a returning Lawes for 14.

Report by ECB Reporters Network, supported by Rothesay