Farhan Ahmed has become the youngest player in County Championship history to take 10 wickets in a match after building on his seven-wicket haul on Friday.
The 16-year-old, who is England international Rehan Ahmed’s younger brother, took three more wickets to follow up his seven-wicket haul in the first innings of Nottinghamshire’s Division One match at Trent Bridge to create more history on Sunday.
Farhan took three for 77 in the second innings as back-to-back champions Surrey struggled to score quickly enough to set an early declaration as they tried to force a result at Trent Bridge, and the impressive 10 for 217 match figures for the prodigious right-arm off-spinner, made him the youngest player in County Championship history to record a 10-wicket match haul.
After Surrey declared on 177 for nine following Rory Burns’ fifty to set 298 for victory, Nottinghamshire openers Ben Slater and Haseeb Hameed ensured there would be no dramatic finale with unbeaten half-centuries to earn the home team a respectable draw.
In the first innings, Farhan took a hugely impressive 7-140 to help dismiss Surrey for 525, including removing opener Rory Burns and Indian international Sai Sudharsan, both of whom recorded centuries, and Ben Foakes for a golden duck.
This milestone is just the latest in a list of records being broken by the youngster, who is also the youngest player to make his County Championship debut for Nottinghamshire – doing it at 16 years and 189 days old to break Bilal Shafayat’s record.
Farhan, who signed a three-and-a-half year contract with Notts this summer, also became the youngest player to represent England in the Under-19s World Cup tournament earlier this year in South Africa, taking five wickets in four games and he also took three wickets for England Lions against Sri Lanka in a first-class match earlier this month.
The cricketing talent clearly runs in the family as Farhan’s brother Rehan became the youngest player to represent England in a men’s Test match in Pakistan last year, where he famously took a five-wicket haul at 18-years-old, before then becoming the youngest England men’s cricketer to play in all three formats of international cricket.
Leach stars for Somerset as Essex title hopes ended
Jack Leach inspired Somerset to a crushing 293-run victory over Durham to close the gap on Vitality County Championship leaders Surrey to 24 points ahead of their meeting in Taunton later this month.
Somerset had set Durham an improbably 420 for victory and three late scalps on day three further tilted the balance in favour of the hosts.
It did not take England spinner Leach long to get to work on the fourth day and he picked up seven wickets for 50 runs as Durham were dismissed for 126.
Archie Vaughan, the son of former England captain Michael Vaughan, provided support with two for 40 off 21 overs, but the day belonged to Leach, who finished with match figures of 12 for 174 to boost his international chances ahead of the winter tour to Pakistan.
The faint title hopes of last year’s runners-up Essex ended after a 43-run loss to Worcestershire in Chelmsford.
After Worcestershire progressed their overnight 303 for eight to 321, Essex slumped to 140 all out with Brett D’Oliveira’s non-strikers end run-out of Robin Das for 32 crucial before Logan van Beek’s four-fer earned the visitors a precious triumph.
Jack Carson was able to spin leaders Sussex to a sixth victory in Division Two after they beat Derbyshire by an innings and 59 runs.
Sussex required eight more wickets ahead of the final day and Carson’s six for 67 ensured the hosts were not required to bat again in Hove after Derbyshire were skittled out for 258.
Promotion rivals Middlesex and Yorkshire had to settle for a share of the spoils after a high-scoring draw at Headingley.
After Ryan Higgins had taken on his unbeaten 117 to 155 to help Middlesex make 522, Yorkshire reached 150 for two before both captains were able to shake on a draw.
Fourth-placed Leicestershire are not out of the running for second spot, but had their hopes hit by a draw at Glamorgan.
Centuries by Ajinkya Rahane and Peter Handscomb did mean Leicestershire batted out for a final-day draw in Cardiff after they reached 369 for six.
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