Tom Lawes took a sparkling five for 45 and moved past 100 first-class wickets as Surrey bowled out Nottinghamshire for 184 all out after a relentless display on the first day of the Festival of Red Ball Cricket ’26 at the Kia Oval.
Liam Patterson-White led a spirited fightback for the visitors after Surrey had reduced the champions to 41 for five at the Kia Oval. Patterson-White, who came in at No 8, scored 76 not out as the top two teams in last season’s Rothesay County Championship battled hard again for supremacy.
Kyle Verreynne and Brett Hutton also played useful hands with 22 and 19 respectively, as did No 11 Dillon Pennington with nine, but it was Patterson-White’s counter-attacking innings that has kept Notts in this contest. At stumps Surrey were 13 for one in reply as Olly Stone had Dom Sibley caught behind without scoring.
Dan Worrall took two for 41 and Matt Fisher two for 43 but Patterson-White’s effort is potentially already an invaluable one with only 25 points separating Division One leaders Notts and seventh-placed Surrey at the start of what is sure to be a thrilling six-match run-in.
A heavy rain shower cut short the morning session after 86 minutes’ play, but in that time Surrey blew away the Notts top order to leave then staggering at 41 for five after Rory Burns had won the toss and opted to bowl on a well-grassed surface.
Openers Haseeb Hameed and Ben Slater fell inside the first three overs, with Ollie Pope taking two fine low catches at second slip as they edged Fisher and Worrall respectively on 5 and 4.
In his third over, Fisher beat Joe Clarke with a magnificent delivery that bounced and left him and then, two balls later, produced another leg-cutter which Clarke (1) edged to Dom Sibley at first slip.
Fisher’s new ball burst of 5-3-7-2 had left Notts reeling at 14 for three, with Worrall then resting with one for eight from six overs, but the introduction of Lawes brought two further wickets in quick succession.
Jack Haynes did manage one extraordinary square cut for six in Lawes’ first over but, in the young paceman’s second over, Freddie McCann (10) sliced a drive straight to Fisher at backward point.
And Haynes, dropped on nine by Lawes behind square off Jordan Clark, had reached only 20 when he edged Lawes and Pope took off to his right to hold another fine catch at second slip.
Just four balls were possible following an early lunch before more rain meant another half-hour delay but, in the afternoon, Notts fought hard for survival against Surrey’s relentless four-pronged pace attack.
Ben Martindale, on first-class debut, was beaten on multiple occasions by Worrall and, on 13, edged behind off Clark but Patterson-White then arrived to put on 28 with Verreynne before the latter slashed Lawes to backward point.
When Stone (3) flicked Worrall to mid wicket Notts were 104 for eight but Hutton hung on to add a vital 56 with Patterson-White either side of tea until he skied an attempted legside hit at Lawes to second slip.
Meanwhile Ryan Patel, who suffered a nasty finger injury attempting to take a catch in the 11th over of Notts’ innings, has been substituted out of Surrey’s team and replaced by Josh Blake.
