Nottinghamshire 201 & 390/7dec v 93 & 257 Leicestershire (County Championship Division Two) 07.09.23
*day three (of four) Nottinghamshire win by 241 runs
Nottinghamshire closed out a fabulous 241 run win against bottom of the table Leicestershire to stretch their lead at the top of the County Championship second division (temporarily at least) to fifty points.
The league leaders battled some bad light and rain along with some plucky tail end batting on Wednesday but came through to convincingly win with a day of the match to spare.
Leicestershire added fourteen to their overnight second innings score of twenty before Sam Evans on 18 fell caught behind off the bowling of Dane Paterson for the days opening wicket with Hassan Azad (35) falling to Steven Mullaney by LBW with the score on 82 for 2.
Quick wickets saw Kimber (16) and Ackermann (9) both fall to the Notts skipper whilst Rishi Patel (7) fell victim to Luke Fletcher and Harry Swindells (7) went by the way of Dane Paterson, both being taken by the safe hands of Liam Patterson-White.
With Leicestershire 121 for 6, defeat neared ever more likely but a 37 from Ed Barnes provided shining light before he was taken by Hameed off the bowling of Hutton.
The hitman then took the wickets of Walker (18) and Wright (4) with Leicestershire 174 for 9, but a last wicket partnership of 83 had the Notts bowlers largely frustrated, no11 Mike Finan eventually falling for 58 off Paterson, well into the last session of the evening. Parkinson left at stumps 26 not out.
The win means Notts now have two games remaining and a huge advantage over their nearest rivals Middlesex and Glamorgan who both play each other next week. Nottinghamshire next travel to New Road to face Worcestershire (Sep 20) before a week later ending their campaign against Durham at Trent Bridge. A win from either match should be enough to secure promotion to Division One.
Nottinghamshire XI: Slater, Hameed, Montgomery, Clarke, James, Mullaney (c), Moores, Patterson-White, Hutton, Fletcher, Paterson.
Leicestershire XI: Evans, Azad, Kimber, Ackermann, Patel, Swindells, Barnes, Walker, Parkinson (c), Wright, Finan.
Venue: Trent Bridge, Nottingham
*Article provided by Daniel Peacock (Editor).
*Main image @TrentBridge Brett Hutton was in solid form with the ball.
