Nottinghamshire’s resurgence continued as a fourth win in five lifted them to third in the Division One table, climbing above Durham and Warwickshire and with ambitions still fixed on overtaking Middlesex to finish the season as runners-up
Jon Culley at Trent Bridge24-Aug-2015
ScorecardSamit Patel played a sizeable part as Notts’ run went on•Getty Images
Nottinghamshire’s resurgence continued as a fourth win in five lifted them to third in the Division One table, climbing above Durham and Warwickshire and with ambitions still fixed on overtaking Middlesex to finish the season as runners-up.The result extends the county’s sequence in all formats to 11 wins in 12 completed matches on the eve of a home quarter-final in the Royal London One-Day Cup in which they will seek to avenge last season’s semi-final defeat against Durham, when they were blown away by a Ben Stokes whirlwind at Chester-le-Street.There is no Stokes this time — rested along with Mark Wood after the exertions of the Ashes Test series — and the momentum is with the Trent Bridge side, who have flourished in all formats since former England head coach Peter Moores joined the coaching staff at the end of June.This is their 12th win in all competitions since director of cricket Mick Newell invited Moores to make the short daily commute from his home near Loughborough to impart some of the knowledge and experience that England felt they could manage without.As captain Chris Read explained, it was an opportunity too good to pass up.”I think Mick summed it up at the time when he said we needed some fresh ideas and fresh impetus,” Read said.”Things were not going well. We lost by an innings to Yorkshire at Headingley and to our rivals Derby in the Twenty 20, which were real lows for us.”We were pretty much out of the Twenty20 and in the four-day competition we were in the relegation places. From our point of view as players, and I expect from the coaching staff’s point of view, we had hit a kind of rock bottom. We were not performing anywhere near what we should do.”Having a coach of Peter’s experience five miles down the road sat twiddling his thumbs, it was an obvious thing to approach him and ask to help out.”It is important to understand that he was not brought in as director of cricket or head coach, but just to assist, to see how we were doing, to be an extra pair of hands, a different set of ears and to help make our preparation as good as it can be.”He has had a big influence but it would be hard for someone of his pedigree not to, bringing such a wealth of coaching experience to the dressing room. The way he has worked one to one with players has been magnificent and I know our top order batsmen have benefited greatly from that.”Read stressed, however, that in his view the arrival of Moores has not been the only factor behind Nottinghamshire’s change in fortunes.”We took some tactical decisions regarding the pitches we play on here,” he said. “We wanted to play on pitches that were good for batting and had some pace for the bowlers and I think we’ve had that over the last few weeks.”I should mention the other backroom staff and the work ethic of the players, which has improved greatly since we realised we were not up to scratch.”The win over Warwickshire perhaps reflected that. Having failed to make any inroads on the third afternoon after enforcing the follow-on, it took only 14 deliveries on the third morning for the first breakthrough to be made and thereafter there was never a period in which Warwickshire were allowed to settle.Ian Westwood got a thin bottom edge to a ball from Jake Ball that Chris Read took comfortably, Laurie Evans never looked comfortable and, having escaped unscathed from two Chinese cuts off Harry Gurney, he followed a delivery from Ball that should have gone past him harmlessly down the leg side and gave Read another catch, taking him to 998 dismissals in first-class matches.By lunch, Brett Hutton had accounted for Jonathan Trott, leg before trying to whip the ball away on the leg side, and Sam Hain, who chipped a catch to Luke Wood at short mid-wicket.William Porterfield made a worthy captain’s effort at leading the resistance, batting for more than four hours for his 61, but after Samit Patel had trapped Tim Ambrose leg before, the Irishman was out in agonising fashion, the ball squeezing under his bat and rolling into the stumps.There was always a threat that rain would rescue Warwickshire but it never materialised as anything heavier than drizzle. The light was poor enough for the floodlights to be required and Read was obliged to keep his quicker bowlers out of the picture in order to keep the contest going.Yet in the end the combination of Patel’s left-arm spin and Steven Mullaney’s off-cutters, aided by the luxury of being able to crowd the batsmen with close fielders with runs conceded not a concern, was enough to complete the job.Keith Barker and Rikki Clarke brought their experience to bear in holding Nottinghamshire up but once Barker had been caught superbly at short leg by Riki Wessels, Clarke had no one able to stay with him. Jeetan Patel, not a man to block, scored 28 from 22 balls before slicing a wide ball to point before Samit Patel claimed the last two wickets for figures of four for 23 from 22.1 overs, wrapping up victory at 5.20pm with 12.5 overs to spare.
