Spin bowling prodigy Farhan Ahmed continued his extraordinary entrance into Vitality County Championship cricket with figures of seven for 140 but may find his efforts to have been in vain as Surrey’s first-innings 525 left Nottinghamshire fighting an uphill battle on day two at Trent Bridge.Having become the youngest player to appear in a first-class match for Nottinghamshire at 16 years 189 days on Thursday, Ahmed gained another record as the youngest to take five wickets or more in an innings in first-class cricket in England.However, after captain Rory Burns had struck 161 on day one, Indian international Sai Sudharsan (105) took the opportunity to make an impact with an impressive first hundred in Surrey colours, putting his side in a commanding position as they push towards a third consecutive Championship title.Nottinghamshire, who lost by an innings against Durham last week, finished 144 for three in reply as they seek to avoid a similar fate, with skipper Haseeb Hameed (68) and nightwatchman Brett Hutton out just before the close after Hameed and 19-year-old Freddie McCann (69 not out), had shared a 136-run second-wicket partnership, with another 232 runs needed if they are not to be asked to follow on.Ahmed missed out on the best figures on debut by a Nottinghamshire player – that record remains seamer Fred Barratt’s eight for 91 against MCC at Lord’s in 1914 – but it is hard to imagine any newcomer having bowled as many overs on Championship debut as his marathon 50.4.Surrey’s only disappointment on the day was that they missed by two runs on claiming a fourth batting bonus point, although with a 35-point lead going into this round of matches it may be of little significance in the broad scheme of their ambitions.They progressed from 339 for five to 452 for seven by lunch but Sudharsan and Jordan Clark, not out overnight, seemed to wait a little too long to apply the accelerator.
It took them almost half the 14 eligible overs remaining to score the 11 runs needed to claim the third point and though Clark subsequently cleared the rope against off-spinners Ahmed and McCann as the next seven and a half overs accrued a further 47 runs, the target of 400 from 110 overs still proved just beyond them.Nonetheless, they had added a valuable 101 from 28.4 overs when Liam Patterson-White, the left-arm spinner, dived to grab a good return catch as Clark miscued an attempted on-drive to fall on 53.Cameron Steel, looking for a second run from his square drive off Ahmed, was run out for seven as a consequence of Ben Slater’s fine fielding before Tom Lawes became victim number five for the 16-year-old shortly after lunch, caught behind off a thin inside edge trying to work him to leg.That wicket displaced Derbyshire’s Hamidullah Qadri, who took five for 60 against Glamorgan in 2017 aged 16 years 203 days, as the youngest to claim a five-for in first-class cricket in England.Having picked up his sixth scalp, removing Conor McKerr with a catch off his own bowling to end a 52-run partnership for the ninth wicket, the youngster was four deliveries into his 51st over when adding the 22-year-old Sudharsan as his seventh, the left-hander’s attempt to add a second six in the over to his 10 fours seeing him caught at long off.The timing of Sudharsen’s departure as the last wicket to fall exposed Nottinghamshire’s batters to eight overs of the new ball before tea and Surrey’s tails were up when Clark uprooted Slater’s middle stump with a perfect yorker to leave them four for one after just eight balls.But with the Kookaburra ball again offering little help to the seamers, Hameed and McCann negotiated 35 overs with no great alarms until the last 11 balls of the day as Hameed was bowled offering no stroke and Hutton leg before on the back foot as off-spinner Will Jacks turned two deliveries sharply out of the rough, which will have sounded alarm bells in the home dressing room ahead of day three.
