Nottinghamshire Maintain Early County Championship Lead

03/06/2025 11:00 Share

Nottinghamshire Maintain Early County Championship Lead

Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club remain the team to beat in Division 1 of the County Championship as the season now enters a break for start of the Vitality Blast.

The Vertu-backed side had gone into May at the top of the standings after an unbeaten start to the campaign, which continued in the opening game of the month against Hampshire.

Put in to bat at Trent Bridge, the home side had Freddie McCann to thank for a solid first innings total of 333 as the 20-year-old produced a solid knock of 138 before a fine performance with the ball from Mohammad Abbas with the ball saw him grab 5-31 as Hampshire were dismissed for 196.

The second day would see a total of 16 wickets fall as Nottinghamshire lost six of their own, but Jack Haynes and Liam Patterson-White helped their side from 84-6 to a total of 345 to set a victory target of 483.

Hampshire were never at the races in terms of trying to chase that total down, with Lyndon James and Brett Hutton sharing nine wickets as the visitors were skittled out for 116.

Nottinghamshire would again be asked to bat first in the next game against Durham at the Riverside, where a stunning performance from Haseeb Hameed was the highlight of the opening day.

Hameed made an unbeaten 206 and carried his bat as the leaders made 407 but Durham produced an even more impressive response – batting through the second day and going on to post 664 to secure a lead of 257.

Joe Clarke struck a century – with support from Ben Slater – as Nottinghamshire made 347 second time around, but it left Durham chasing less than 100 for victory – with the home side taking the win by seven wickets.

The final game before the start of the Blast would be another away fixture with a trip to Headingley to face Yorkshire, with Nottinghamshire once again being asked to bat first.

On a see-saw opening day of action, Nottinghamshire posted 228 before taking the first two Yorkshire wickets, with Abbas grabbing six in total by the time the home side were dismissed for 159.

Nottinghamshire then turned the screw on day three to set a target of 463 for Yorkshire to chase, before Patterson-White took three key wickets to leave the home side five down and still needing another 287 on the final day.

To their credit, Yorkshire battled hard to try and stay in the game, but five wickets from Dillon Pennington ultimately helped to guide Nottinghamshire to victory by 163 runs for a fourth win in seven.

It means that as the County Championship broke for the start of the Blast, Nottinghamshire sit ten points clear at the top, with the next four day fixture being the return game with Yorkshire later in the month.