When a team score in excess of 500 runs in their first innings they generally are pretty confident of not losing the match. They try to take a big lead and if possible win by an innings. But in 1995, for Nottinghamshire, the story was slightly different. After putting up 527, instead of winning by an innings, they lost the match by an innings!
It was a four-day match between Nottinghamshire and Northamptonshire. The Notts scored 353 runs for just one wicket on day one. The captain Tim Robinson was unbeaten on 204 and added unbeaten 285 runs with Graeme Archer.
There was some fightback from the Northants. Robinson was dismissed by Zimbabwean Kevin Curran. Northants also had Anil Kumble as an overseas professional. Although he was mostly ineffective on day one, he took some late order wickets and finished with 4/118. Notts finally posted 527 as Archer scored 158.
But Northants also started strongly and on day three amassed 560 runs in a day. There were some great exhibitions of hitting from Fordham, Lamb, and wicketkeeper Russell Warren, all of them scoring hundreds. Despite the best efforts from Chris Cairns, Notts could not do much as the Northants reached 709/7 at the end of day three.
On day four, David Capel reached his hundred to complete the quota of four centuries in the innings and Northants declared for 781, 254 runs ahead of Notts. Despite losing an early wicket, Notts were in good shape as Robinson and Archer reached 72/1 and were playing Kumble effectively. But finally, Kumble got one through Robinson’s defence. Paul Johnson was out in the same over and Capel got Archer in the next over to make it 72/4.
Again on 85, Kumble got Cairns and Curran got Jeremy Snape. Curran’s next wicket made it 90/7. But on a dead pitch, a partnership was always in cards. Wayne Noon and Andy Pick hung on and kept batting for long. Kumble was tireless. He also had a collision and finally got rid of Pick. The next batsman was out soon and Notts were 150/9. Despite a gritty fight in the last wicket Kumble finally broke through with just three overs to go. His faster delivery skidded to Andy Afford’s pad in front of the wicket.
Northants got an exceptional victory. Kumble finished with 5/43 in 39.1 overs. Notts score of 527 still remained the highest first-class team total to lose the match by an innings.
