Thursday 2 July 2015 19:20, UK
Nottinghamshire moved off the bottom of the County Championship Division One table after pulling off an unlikely 113-run victory over Worcestershire at Trent Bridge.
Set 324 to win only their second Championship game of the season, Worcestershire looked set to prevail when Daryl Mitchell and Joe Clarke moved them on to 175-3 midway through the afternoon session.
Notts proved to be obdurate opponents though, and despite the absence of injured seam bowler Luke Fletcher and with Andy Carter continuing to bowl with an abdominal strain, they bowled out Worcestershire for 210 as their last seven wickets fell for just 35 runs.
Carter finished with figures of 4-46, including three wickets for the loss of six runs in 3.4 overs.
Worcestershire started well enough, as skipper Mitchell and Tom Fell put on 112 for the second wicket in good time.
Fell was dismissed for 50 though, as he played around a straight delivery from Brett Hutton shortly after lunch.
Clarke followed at 175-3, bowled by Ben Hilfenhaus and with Alex Gidman unable to bat having been struck on the head by the Australian pace bowler in the first innings, Worcestershire were effectively four wickets down.
Mitchell navigated his way to his half-century but never looked entirely comfortable against a Nottinghamshire attack that bowled with purpose.
Home wicketkeeper and captain Chris Read spurned the opportunity to stump Mitchell off the bowling of spinner Samit Patel with the score at 139-2.
Patel was not to be denied, however, as Mitchell top-edged a sweep to square leg where Carter took a comfortable catch.
Nottinghamshire were boosted by that key wicket and continued to make inroads, with Ben Cox’s luck finally running out after a number of let-offs when he chipped the ball through Read's midwicket trap as he was caught by Steven Mullaney
Joe Leach followed him back to the pavilion shortly afterwards, with Ed Barnard then bowled by Patel two runs later.
Carter also dismissed Saeed Ajmal lbw and when Michael Lumb got down low to collect a difficult catch to dismiss Charlie Morris, Nottinghamshire could celebrate only their second four-day win of the summer.
