Steven Mullaney, Brett Hutton, and Dane Paterson all took three wickets apiece as Nottinghamshire completed a convincing three-day victory over East Midlands neighbours Leicestershire to increase their lead at the summit of LV= County Championship Division Two.
Mullaney and Hutton’s spells both saw them pick up a trio of visiting scalps in bursts, with the captain ripping through the top order just prior to lunch before Hutton exposed the tail midway through the afternoon session.
Between them, their two short spurts took six wickets in 33 balls as Leics, resuming on 20/0 and requiring a team record chase of 499 for victory, were dismissed for 257 to lose by 241 runs shortly after an extended rain break just before 6:15pm.
Paterson also picked up a trio, including the winning wicket, to ensure the Green and Golds took 20 points from the clash, putting them 50 clear at the top of Division Two, pending the outcome of Glamorgan’s meeting with Worcestershire.
After earlier cloud cover in Nottingham, it was fortuitous for the Foxes that the day began with Trent Bridge bathed in sunlight, but even with that in play, it still took just half an hour for Notts to find an initial breakthrough.
Sam Evans, who made a battling unbeaten fifty in the hosts’ first innings, fell to Paterson having made only 18 as he aimed an airy waft outside his off stump but succeeded only in edging through to Tom Moores.
Fellow opener Hassan Azad resisted for a little while longer for 35, with his innings proving so soporific that it at one point read as nine scored off 58 balls, before he was lbw to Mullaney’s second delivery of the game.
The decision of captain Mullaney to bring himself on proved instrumental as he found sharp swing to strike twice more in the closing stages of the morning, removing Louis Kimber and Colin Ackermann.
A leading edge from Kimber was snaffled by Luke Fletcher at mid-off after he miscued Mullaney while on 16, before Ackermann was lbw minutes later for 9 as the Foxes took lunch on 97/4, still 402 short of their target.
Fletcher then turned wicket-taker himself as the visitors’ decline continued after the break, seeing Rishi Patel, whom he had dismissed in the first innings for a duck, held by Liam Patterson-White wide of square leg for 7.
Harry Swindells was also sent on his way shortly afterwards by Paterson, caught by Patterson-White in a carbon copy of Patel’s dismissal, though the new pair of Ed Barnes and Roman Walker proved tougher to dislodge.
The seventh-wicket stand between Barnes and Walker was worth 48, the Foxes' joint-biggest of the match, and the 11.1 overs they spent together was the third-longest amount of time without a Leics wicket in this game.
However, the duo were prised apart by Hutton, who executed a plan involving several bouncers to remove Barnes for 37 via a sharp Haseeb Hameed catch at short leg.
He then saw a Walker pull held by Lyndon James at deep square leg for 18, and as the Foxes slid towards the inevitable, Hutton took his third as Chris Wright mistimed a wild hook and was snaffled by Moores.
Some feisty striking from last man Michael Finan, who hit a 37-ball fifty and top-scored with 58, enabled the visitors to restore an air of respectability.
A last-wicket partnership between himself and captain Callum Parkinson of 83 dragged the Foxes past 200, and put them at 251/9 as the afternoon drew to a close.
A lengthy rain delay following tea held up the Green and Golds’ victory charge, but after a swift clean-up operation, play was able to resume exactly on the cut-off time of 6:00pm.
Ten balls into the restart, it fell to Paterson to ultimately find a way past the final pair’s stout resistance and wrap the game up, as he removed Finan via an edge to Matt Montgomery in the slips.
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The Royal London Cup Final
The timeless pomp, ceremony and tradition of county cricket's historic 50-over final is soon to take place at Trent Bridge.
Lancashire and Kent will go head-to-head in the showpiece finale of the Royal London Cup at our historic home on Saturday 17 September.