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Nottinghamshire off to strong start in county top tier

19/04/2008

Chris Read's Nottinghamshire completed a comprehensive ten-wicket win against Kent in their first County Championship game back in Division One.

Notts were 219-7 in reply to Kent's 162 all out but their tail-end batsmen combined impressively, led by Mark Ealham's undefeated 130 and a 52 from Paul Franks, to put themselves in pole position for a strong start to the season.

Having declared on 434-9 they then bowled Kent out for 293 in their second innings, before taking just 5.4 overs to get the 24 runs needed for victory this morning.

England's Andrew Flintoff had a mediocre start to his season, by contrast, taking just one wicket on his return to competitive cricket after a lengthy injury-forced break from the game.

Flintoff got Surrey opener Scott Newman on the opening day but Lancashire were then forced to toil in the field as former England men Mark Ramprakash (118) and Mark Butcher (120) racked up the runs against him.

Surrey made 537-5 and Flintoff took 1-72. In reply Lancashire were heading for the follow-on when bad weather prematurely ended the match with the score on 241-6. Flintoff made 23, hitting four fours, before departing off spinner Saqlain Mushtaq.

Exiled New Zealander Shane Bond made his mark on the new season quickly at the Rose Bowl.

His 7-66 for Hampshire against Sussex proved the highlight of another drawn match, with Murray Goodwin's 121 providing resistance to help his side to 332 all out.

Hampshire reached 319-7 before the match, on a chilly weekend for cricket, was declared a draw.