County Championship: Nottinghamshire draw with Surrey as Brett Hutton shines

Notts were without injured bowlers Jake Ball and Dane Paterson, but Brett Hutton led from the front

Brett Hutton's fifth five-wicket haul of the season was the highlight of the final day at The Oval as Surrey's County Championship match with Nottinghamshire petered out into a draw.

Hutton, who spent a portion of day one off the field with what proved to be cramp, took 5-91 to take his tally for the season in the Championship to 41, putting him alongside Durham's Chris Rushworth at the top of the wicket-taking standings.

South African leg-spinner Calvin Harrison provided great support for Hutton with 3-99 to bowl out the hosts for 340, 40 minutes after lunch.

This was a heroic effort from the visitors who, already without the services of Jake Ball, injured in the first innings, then lost Dane Paterson to what appeared to be a hip injury after just one delivery with the new ball.

Will Jacks led the run-scoring for Surrey with a largely subdued 60, while there was a maiden first-class fifty for Tom Lawes, but Surrey's batting was overly cautious for too long.

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The eventual chase was 297 from 52 overs, but despite a solid start from Ben Slater (39) and acting captain Haseeb Hameed (44 not out), a draw was agreed with the visitors on 118-1.

Surrey began the day 156 ahead with five wickets down, so were understandably keen to avoid a collapse which would have afforded the men of Trent Bridge a more comfortable chase.

Consequently, progress from Lawes and Jacks was at best steady, the main talking point being an accidental beamer by Paterson to Lawes from a ball which clearly slipped out of his hand.

The arrival of the new ball led briefly to a change of approach as a subdued Jacks attempted to break the shackles with two fours from a Hutton over.

Paterson's unfortunate injury appeared to help the hosts' cause, but Hutton responded magnificently in adversity, trapping Jacks lbw before sending first-innings centurion Jordan Clark packing by the same means.

Surrey went to lunch on 299-7, 255 in front, but they then chewed up more than 11 overs in adding just a further 41.

Lawes reached 50 in 106 balls before Harrison had him superbly caught at slip by Matthew Montgomery. The leg-spinner then turned catcher to remove Sean Abbott and give Hutton his fourth victim.

The run-chase may have been more tempting had Jamie Overton been given out caught at mid-wicket soon afterwards, but the square-leg umpire ruled the catch had not carried.

Hameed and Slater saw off the early swing from the Kookaburra in the run-chase. However, the run-rate required, which had begun at almost six, continued to rise.

By the time Slater cut Jacks into the hands of Abbott at point from the last ball before tea to depart for 39, that rate was almost seven.

Overton's barrage of short balls post-tea slowed down Notts progress further, but Hameed and Young batted with few alarms before the handshakes.

Surrey head coach Gareth Batty:

"We probably missed some key points to push an advantage, but Notts will probably walk away saying the same. In the end we cancelled each other out on what turned a very good wicket.

"Every single time we tell Tom Lawes he's batting at 10 he's throwing his bat down in disgust because he is a genuine all-rounder. He is biding his time. It was very nice for him to get over the line and get one in the column. His next challenge will be to convert that into a hundred.

"It was going to be tough to take 20 wickets and you throw the Kookaburra ball in the mix. The powers-that-be have made that decision in the middle of an Ashes series where they are using the Dukes which is interesting. All counties have got on with it.

"With overhead conditions would it have been different with a Dukes ball? Possibly. It just seems slightly illogical the timing when there is a brilliant Ashes series going on, with both teams going hammer and tongs.

"If anybody were to be called up from county cricket where they're playing with a Kookaburra it makes no sense. There are different characteristics to the two balls. I like them both equally, but the timing of it is questionable."

Nottinghamshire head coach Peter Moores:

"It was a really good scrap from start to finish. For a lot of the time all three results were on the cards really for both teams. We couldn't have a game set up much better than them starting the last day five down with around a 160 lead.

"We thought if we got early wickets we could win. Obviously if they had got away and been able to get us in a bit earlier, they would have had a chance.

"Brett Hutton did what he's done all season and to do that in the second innings where we were short of options with Dane Paterson having gone off as well as Jake Ball showed a lot of character as well as a lot of skill.

"Calvin Harrison did a terrific job as well. Bowling on the first day at The Oval on a pitch with a green tinge he went at less than three an over but bowled aggressively and second innings again he bowled beautifully as well as batting well."

Report supplied by ECB Reporters' Network.