Peter Moores felt Nottinghamshire’s attitude was key as they secured a crucial 20-run victory over Surrey in a thriller which took them to the top of the Rothesay County Championship table.

Notts, trailing the reigning champions by a point heading into the final two rounds of fixtures, completed their first red-ball win at the Oval since 2008 to move 14 points clear with one game to play.

“What I liked about this game was that when we got here, the lads were desperate to play,” said Moores.

“They wanted to be measured against the team that have been the best for three years.

“The promise I wanted the lads to make was that when they got on the coach tonight they wouldn’t think they’d have done anything differently.

“Even if we’d lost the game you want to be able to say ‘we absolutely went hell for leather for it’.

“It’s about who handles the pressure best on the day, but some of these lads have played some big cricket – Josh Tongue’s had to go through some big moments playing for England.

“Look at Liam Patterson-White – he dropped a catch, but then took two great catches.

“Some lads haven’t experienced anything like this yet – someone like Freddie McCann, early in his career – but it’s brilliant, because you can see how they handle it.”

Tongue took the final-day plaudits, blowing away the hosts’ resistance with a sustained spell of hostile bowling to secure a five-wicket haul.

But Moores felt the seeds of the performance were sewn in the close-season.

“When we went to Abu Dhabi [for pre-season training], it was red hot and one of the flattest wickets you’ve ever seen, and he walked off after a day’s fielding and bowling and said ‘I absolutely loved that’,” he recalled.

“And I thought ‘there’s a man who’s learned when you’re on the field, that’s the place you want to be’.

“Fast bowlers can get a lot of injuries, but when you’re out there with the ball in your hand, that’s when you can enjoy it.

“Then before we went into these last three games we had a couple of practices at Trent Bridge with an open net. He bowled at Hass [Hameed], who at the time was the leading run-scorer in the country. And Hass walked out and said ‘wow, if he bowls anything like that in the games, he’s going to be hard work’.

“And he’s bowled like that in pretty much every spell. He did it at Worcester last week – and then I think he’d admit that he probably bowled a bit too safe in the first spell here, but I think the captain got hold of him and said ‘listen, you’re an impact bowler, it doesn’t matter what the surface is, try and bowl quickly and enjoy it’. From then on he was a handful.”

Notts host Warwickshire in the final round of fixtures, 14 points ahead of Surrey, who travel to Utilita Bowl to face Hampshire.

But Moores knows the destiny of the Championship is far from decided.

“We’ve still got a lot of work to do,” he said.

“There’s no way they’re going to lie down, they’re going to go to Hampshire and really try to turn them over, and play in a certain style that tries to put us under pressure.

“We know we’re going to have to deliver at Trent Bridge.”

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