Notts cruise to opening win

England duo Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann were among the wickets as Notts claimed an impressive victory

A professional team effort handed Nottinghamshire victory over Worcestershire by an innings and five runs as they got their LV= County Championship Division One campaign off to a winning start.

Any hopes Worcestershire had of avoiding defeat disappeared in the morning session when four wickets fell, with Stuart Broad claiming two victims.

Skipper Vikram Solanki resisted for almost four hours, making 64, but then drove Graeme Swann to mid-off.

The England off-spinner then finished off the match in the next over to finish with 2-19, while Andre Adams ended with 3-59.

Worcestershire resumed their second innings still needing another 127 to make Notts bat again, with only seven wickets in hand.

Notts seamer Darren Pattinson was again absent from the field with an injured ankle, leaving Broad and Adams to open the attack.

England international Broad, making his only appearance for his county before the Test series with the West Indies, had led the way in the first innings, but it was Adams who looked the more threatening in the first hour.

After twice having Ben Smith dropped in the same over by Adam Voges and Ali Brown in the slips, the former New Zealand international did the job himself in his next over by forcing Smith to play on for 24.

Three more wickets fell before lunch as the Worcestershire batsmen wilted under the pressure, with Moeen Ali offering a thin edge to wicketkeeper Chris Read, standing up to Mark Ealham’s medium pace.

First innings centurion Steve Davies only offered brief resistance before Broad got a delivery to climb steeply and find the edge through to Read, and Gareth Batty was given out lbw in Broad’s next over to herald the interval.

All the while Solanki was defending stoutly but once Ashley Noffke was lbw to Samit Patel in the 59th over, he began to open his shoulders with the aim of overhauling the Notts total.

A powerful drive through mid-on off Adams brought up his 50, while Swann was slog-swept for a big six over square leg.

But two balls later Solanki came down the track and succeeded only in driving straight at Broad, and number 11 Imran Arif holed out to Patel at deep midwicket in the next over as the match finished half an hour before tea.