Josh Tongue leads unlikely route to title challenge for Nottinghamshire

Entirely oblivious to four days of sporting drama that had culminated over the course of a thrilling afternoon, a mobile gaming company’s team-building day was in full swing on the sun-bathed roof terrace of the JM Finn stand. It was the type of event – one of more than 2,000 hosted annually at the Oval – that prompts the 17 other first-class counties to look with envy at Surrey, whose multiple business strands bring income to dwarf all others, helping to lay the foundations for this season’s bid for a fourth successive County Championship title.

More than 80,000 spectators watched domestic red-ball cricket at the ground this summer, but in a rare instance during recent years playing performances have not replicated the off-field prosperity. The race is not fully run and Surrey could yet pull off a last-game comeback, but this week’s 20-run defeat in what was effectively a title shootout against Nottinghamshire means the odds are now against the three-time reigning champions. Fourteen points behind their vanquishers, with one game remaining, it would require an unlikely turnaround.

“I don’t think we’ve been as good as we have been previously,” said Surrey coach Gareth Batty, whose team have won just four games this campaign compared with eight apiece in each of the previous three. “Last year we played as perfect a season as you could. We’ve missed key periods where we hadn’t done in previous years, which is understandable. It’s hard to keep going to the well.”

That it is Nottinghamshire who are on the cusp of usurping them for a first title in 15 years is something few foresaw when they were widely predicted to be battling relegation before the season. They managed to avoid that fate only by one spot in a dismal 2024 campaign that also saw them finish bottom of their T20 Blast group. It is some recovery now to have one hand on the County Championship trophy after inflicting only Surrey’s second home defeat in four seasons.

With few changes in personnel to justify such a radical shift, longstanding head coach Peter Moores suggests the drive has come from within. “It’s an evolution,” said Moores, who is now poised to become the first man ever to lead three different counties to the Championship title.

“You build to something. You creep to excellence, you move and somewhere it tips, and the belief grows and things fall your way. Last year, we weren’t ready. This year, we’ve started to play like we believe.”

Theirs has been a collective effort. While captain Haseeb Hameed sits second on the Division One run scorers list with 1,131, Nottinghamshire’s top eight have struck centuries in the competition this season. Likewise, seven bowlers have claimed at least 20 wickets in an attack spearheaded by different figures at various points.

Australian quick Fergus O’Neill started the early-season momentum, while veteran Pakistan seamer Mohammad Abbas and doughty Brett Hutton have undertaken the lion’s share. In an ominous sign for Australia’s batters this winter, Ashes-bound Josh Tongue propelled the final-day victory over Surrey, when the hosts needed 249 more of their 315-run victory target, with 10 wickets remaining. Hitting a top speed of 92.8mph, Tongue removed Rory Burns and Ben Foakes, before a fearsome spell ripped through the lower-order for his fourth five-wicket haul of the summer.

With his 19 Test scalps, his 31 Nottinghamshire dismissals mean Tongue now has more first-class wickets this season than anyone. He was also the leading wicket-taker in the Hundred. “He’s had a brilliant summer,” said Moores. “The way he plays his cricket is a man who appreciates when he’s on the field. He’s talented, he has pace and he has something we should never ignore in a bowler which is an awkward action. The way he impacted the game is reserved for a few people in the game.”

Whether the ECB – to which he is contracted – allows him to play the final match against Warwickshire seems unlikely given its caution over an injury-prone player who missed the whole of 2024. That would, said Moores, be a shame. “The goal is to play for England, and we help people do that, but winning domestically with your mates are memories you’ll never forget.”

Either way, do not expect a spectacle. Requiring just 10 points to secure the title and render Surrey’s result at Hampshire irrelevant – “We will do everything humanly possible to win,” said Batty – Nottinghamshire will doubtless prepare a flat Trent Bridge track that allows the sufficient bonus-point draw.

The whooping and hollering that greeted Tongue’s final wicket at the Oval was sufficient drama. A content handshake will do just fine next week.

Photograph by Philip Brown/Getty Images