Josh Tongue, bowling with great pace and huge stamina to take 5-100, bowled Nottinghamshire to a highly dramatic 20-run victory against Surrey at The Oval – the win that could bring Notts their first championship title since 2010.
Surrey, needing 315 in the fourth innings of a great contest, were bowled out for 294 after a final day of continually fluctuating fortunes and packed with incident, and it was Tongue who grabbed the last three wickets to haul his side over the line despite a defiant 33 at the end by Tom Lawes.
Lawes, with just last man Dan Worrall for company, managed a few boundaries but then – attempting to beat a spread field again – holed out to Ben Slater on the deep extra cover rope to kick-start joyful Notts celebrations.
Dan Lawrence made 50, and featured in a brave 51-run stand with Tom Curran that rocked Notts back on their heels as the runs needed came down to 75, but it was the visitors who held their nerve.
Liam Patterson-White, the slow left-arrmer brought on for what became the game’s sole over of spin, had Curran stumped with his fourth ball for a 33-ball 33 and then Dillon Pennington removed Lawrence to leave the stage to Tongue.
The big England Test fast bowler ended a bright eighth wicket stand between Lawes and Gus Atkinson by having the latter caught at first slip for 11.
And then, four balls later, sheer pace forced Matt Fisher to chop down into his own stumps to go for a duck. Even then, however, with 34 more runs required, Lawes and Worrall chipped away until Tongue delivered the coup de grace.
It was compelling viewing, a great advert for County Championship cricket – and, with their win, Notts move 14 points ahead of Surrey at the top of Division One, with one round of matches left.
Next week Notts will need a maximum of 11 points, but possibly less, to make sure of the title when they host Warwickshire at Trent Bridge. Surrey, still aiming for a fourth successive championship but now very much depending on Warwickshire to do them a favour, visit Hampshire.
Notts had seemed favourites when Surrey resumed on 66-0, chasing a distant victory target in a match dominated by two high-class pace attacks.
Ollie Pope, riding his luck early on, gave Surrey renewed hope with 41 after the early loss of both openers and there were only another 122 runs required when they lost their fifth wicket six overs after lunch.
The Lawrence-Curran stand then made Surrey favourites themselves at 240-5, but both falling in the space of six balls proved crucial.
Surrey had scored 97 runs in the morning session, for the loss of four wickets, leaving the match still tantalisingly poised at lunch – although the dismissals of Ben Foakes and Pope in quick succession did seem to have tilted matters in Notts’ favour again.
Rory Burns, on 41 overnight, fell in the fourth over for 45 as he attempted to whip a straight ball from Tongue – bowling from around the wicket – wide of mid on and was palpably leg-before when he missed it.
Dom Sibley began the day on 18 but added just seven runs before getting in a tangle against a ball from Brett Hutton that he clearly thought might nip back into him, and edged to second slip.
Pope had by then already endured a fraught start to his innings. On two he threw his bat at a widish outswinger from Hutton and was lucky not to edge it, and then Tongue flashed a vicious delivery that bounced and left him past his defences.
On four, Pope nicked Tongue through a vacant third slip for a streaky boundary but soon England’s vice-captain was also producing some quality strokes – including a beautiful on-driven four off Tongue and then an extra cover drive against Hutton which brought up Surrey’s 100.
Pope then had to dive full-length into the crease at the bowler’s end to avoid being run out by Haseeb Hameed’s direct hit from mid on, before being beaten on 26 by a corker from James.
Yet he and Foakes, with a series of sharp singles and the odd boundary, put on 42 in good time to give Surrey some forward momentum as the morning session moved into its second hour.
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