'Marathon' mindset helped transform Notts - Moores

Peter Moores first joined Nottinghamshire as a coaching consultant in 2015

Head coach Peter Moores says it has taken some "blind faith" and a "marathon" mindset to get Nottinghamshire to the top of the County Championship just months after they narrowly avoided relegation.

Notts are 10 points clear at the summit at the midway point of the red-ball campaign.

Their four wins from seven games is already double the victories they managed in the competition last term when they escaped the drop on the penultimate day of their final match the season.

The former England head coach, who guided Nottinghamshire to promotion from Division Two as title winners in 2022, admits his side has exceeded expectations so far.

"We said to the group before we started that at the halfway stage the target was to be in the top three so we could have a go at it in the second-half," Moores told BBC Sport.

"To be top with a 10-point cushion really is a win more than we thought we would get."

Moores has won the County Championship title twice as coach, with Sussex in 2003 and Lancashire in 2011, and said that Notts' approach to turning their fortunes around in recent months will be how they now go on to challenge for the trophy this summer.

"It's a long-haul," he said. "It's like a marathon because it just keeps coming, which is a bit like football's Premier League where you just have to keep playing well.

"And you have to have trust, you have to have blind faith in some ways that by doing the work every day, by pitching up when someone else might not, that will pay you back at the end of the season. And it does.

"The most committed, the most skilful and the most at-it sides are the ones that win the championship.

"This year is a chance to try achieve something really special and win a championship.

"There are some really good teams in the division - Surrey being the one that everyone feels they have to beat - but we have proven to ourselves that we are a really good team and we can take on anyone if we play to the potential we have in the last few weeks."

Improving players and team

When finishing third from bottom in County Championship and failing to get beyond the the group stage of either the T20 Blast or One-Day Cup competitions last season, those traits were not immediately obvious at Trent Bridge last year.

Yet, Notts' top scorers this season - captain Haseeb Hameed and Ben Slater - are again leading the way with the bat.

Brett Hutton, the County Championship's leading wicket-taker in 2023, has come back after an injury hit campaign to again lead the bowling attack with 24 scalps so far.

Josh Tongue, the England international that missed his entire first year with Nottinghamshire through injury, has claimed 15 wickets in three games.

Teenage off-spinner Farhan Ahmed, who made his first-class debut last season, has also contributed 10 wickets to date.

"We thought we had a good team and the way we work at our place is something we call the skill factor," Moores said.

"We try get people better. We believe that getting better as individuals, it collectively makes the team better."

The impact of international recruits has also been pivotal.

All-rounder Fergus O'Neill was an instant hit during his short stint, taking 21 wickets, while Pakistan seam bowler Mohammad Abbas has replaced the Australian with equal effect, having taken 16 wickets in three matches.

The pair are among the seven Notts bowlers to have already claimed five-wicket hauls this season - alongside Hutton, Tongue, Dillon Pennington, Liam Patterson-White and Lyndon James.

"A lot of different people have chipped in and we seem to find a way," Moores said.

"We have been in some tough situations, there is no doubt about that. But someone has either managed to pull us out of it or if there has been an opportunity to drive home a win, someone has found that extra bit to do it."

With the bat, there have been seven century makers, with captain Hameed producing two, including a double ton.

He is leading the way as the competition's top scorer, but Moores says he has crucially "got the balance right" as skipper after taking the job on last year.

"He has had a great start to the season but the the biggest credit I would give him is that as well as the batting is how he has captained," Moores said.

"He has managed to get the group together in a really good way. There is a real comradery with them, and that comes out with the way they play their cricket."