Notts crushed at home by title rivals Surrey

Their sixth win in eight matches and fifth in a row extended their lead at the top of Division One of the Specsavers County Championship – now 43 points clear of Notts with a game in hand.

Nottinghamshire head coach Peter Moores said: “I think we’ve seen a very good team in Surrey.

“They’ve played really well; at the top of their game and we haven’t.

“So by the end of the game we have to accept that we didn’t bat well enough, bowl well enough or field well enough.

“But credit to them and how they’ve played. They’ve played really good cricket all the way through.

“We’re not carrying a lot of players on the staff and we’ve lost a couple of players though injury but we’re not making excuses.

“We went into that game confident of playing good cricket. We’ve had other matches that have been tough and put in some good performances but we didn’t play well enough here.”

Former South African international Morkel returned figures of 5-60, completing match figures of 9-120.

Nottinghamshire, beginning the third day on 57-1, were hustled out for only 199 by early afternoon, with Samit Patel top-scoring with 55.

Home supporters, looking for a dogged fightback from their side, were quickly disappointed as Seven Mullaney was pinned in his crease by Sam Curran after just adding a streaky boundary to his overnight 19.

22-year old Will Fraine, on debut, acquitted himself well before nicking Rikki Clarke to the diving Ben Foakes.

Patel and Billy Root launched a brief counter-attack, with 45 coming in 10 overs but it couldn’t de-rail the rampant Morkel, who returned to remove them both.

Patel had raced to a 42-ball half century but was undone by the extra bounce generated by the towering pace man and nicked off to second slip.

Root – no doubt aware of his brother’s bowling exploits in the Roses match – arrived at the crease looking to enjoy some family glory of his own. He hooked Clarke into the stands and then lofted Amar Virdi back over his head for six more.

His enjoyable cameo was brought to an abrupt halt on 22 when Morkel struck again, as the left-hander miscued tamely to cover.

Riki Wessels and Stuart Broad both fell cheaply in the closing moments of the morning session, leaving Notts on 172-7 – and effectively done and dusted.

Inside 20 minutes of the afternoon period it was all over. Amar Virdi, two for 35, quickly sent back Tom Moores and Luke Fletcher, leaving Morkel to fittingly close out the contest with the wicket of Jake Ball.

Surrey skipper Rory Burns smiled: “We’re delighted to beat a very good side inside three days.

“It’s always tough when you put a side in (as we did on the first morning) because it puts a lot of expectation on the bowlers and how they go about that as a group but to bowl them out in two sessions was outstanding.

“Morne was excellent today. He’ll take the plaudits with his five-fer but the way they went about it as a group, to bowl Notts out – who are a very good side – twice for around 200 – shows how we are going about our business.

“It’s obviously very pleasing the way we are winning matches at the moment.

“The bowling and batting group are doing what’s needed and that makes my job a lot easier when that is happening.

“So we’re delighted with how we’re going about things and we just need to keep doing then processes well and keep true to what we’ve done well so far.”