County cricket: Nottinghamshire go top but Surrey are starting to purr

Ben Slater was the star of the show for Nottinghamshire as they beat Leicestershire. Photograph: News Images/NurPhoto/ShutterstockView image in fullscreenBen Slater was the star of the show for Nottinghamshire as they beat Leicestershire. Photograph: News Images/NurPhoto/ShutterstockGuardian Sport NetworkCounty ChampionshipCounty cricket: Nottinghamshire go top but Surrey are starting to purrThe champions took top spot in a round of games that was lit up by Emilio Gay, Ben Sanderson and Adam Thomas By the 99.94 Cricket BlogGary NaylorTue 5 May 2026 12.45 BSTLast modified on Tue 5 May 2026 16.09 BSTSharePrefer the Guardian on Google1. Foxes hunted down in mismatch Nottinghamshire beat Leicestershire to float, without much fanfare, to the top of the table. Their second win of the campaign gives them an eight-point lead over Surrey.With Rehan Ahmed at the IPL but not playing (the way he would so often not play on tour for England), the home side were shorn of their most important player at Grace Road. It must have been particularly galling for the members to see Ben Duckett, the man Ahmed replaced at the Delhi Capitals, score 77 as Nottinghamshire reached 405-4 at the end of the first day, having been put into bat. Ben Slater (178) and Ben Green (7-112), were the stars on either side in a match shaped by its first four sessions.Haseeb Hameed has a classically-balanced attack at his disposal to deliver 20 wickets and unleashed genuine pace first time round, eight wickets shared between Olly Stone and Dillon Pennington. After enforcing the follow-on (he had been invited to bat having lost the toss, so why not?), he whistled up the slow left arm of Liam Patterson-White for the third innings and he matched Stone with a fivefer of his own to help the champions pick up 23 points.Leicestershire, the only winless team in the top flight, hover just above the drop zone and an instant return to Division Two.2. No doubting Thomas’s potential (part one)South of the Thames, one can...