Olly Stone Takes 10 as Nottinghamshire Defeat Surrey at The Oval

Nottinghamshire strengthened their bid for a second successive County Championship title by beating Surrey by 145 runs at The Oval on Saturday. Set 329 to win, Surrey were bowled out for 183 on the third day as Nottinghamshire collected 19 points and their hosts took three. The result kept Nottinghamshire at the top of Division One with five rounds remaining.

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Olly Stone led the victory with match figures of 10-94. The fast bowler followed his first-innings return of 6-44 with 4-50 in the second innings. According to the BBC Sport report, he became the first Nottinghamshire bowler since Harold Larwood in 1936 to take at least 10 wickets against Surrey at The Oval.

Stone began Surrey's final-innings slide by having Dom Sibley caught behind for six, then removed Adam Thomas with a rising delivery that found an edge. Brett Hutton dismissed Rory Burns for 16, while Dillon Pennington bowled Ben Foakes for one and Mahipal Lomror. Surrey fell to 45-4 before Stone later removed Josh Blake and Tom Lawes.

Ollie Pope provided Surrey's only sustained resistance, scoring 111 before he was the final batter dismissed. His innings was his 26th first-class century and his 14th at The Oval, the BBC reported. Pennington took the final wicket and finished with 3-46, while Liam Patterson-White also struck and Stone ran out Matt Fisher with a direct hit.

Nottinghamshire had earlier made 306 in their second innings, with Joe Clarke scoring 95 and sharing a 110-run fifth-wicket partnership with Kyle Verreynne. Surrey briefly revived their chances when Nottinghamshire slipped from 257-4 to 258-8, with Fisher taking key wickets in a spell that included Clarke and Verreynne. Lower-order contributions then added 48 runs for the last two wickets and pushed the target to 329.

The win completed a major recovery for Nottinghamshire, who had been 104-8 in their first innings before Patterson-White's unbeaten 76 lifted them to 184. Surrey replied with 162 and never overcame Stone's pace across the match. The result also carried added weight because Surrey won the championship in 2022, 2023 and 2024 before finishing runners-up to Nottinghamshire last season.