Olly Stone took his first five-wicket-haul for Nottinghamshire in the County Championship on his second outing of the 2026 season today (May 2).
Having played in the opening round of the season against Somerset, where he took two wickets, Stone returned to Nottinghamshire's side for the bank holiday round. Nottinghamshire took their first innings into the second day of the fixture. Ben Slater scored 178 and Joe Clarke was out for 97 as they put on 490.
When Leicestershire came out to bat, their openers Rishi Patel and Australia's Jake Weatherald put on 48 before the latter was bowled by Dillon Pennington. Three overs later, Stone had his first. Bowling his first full over of the match, having completed two balls of injured Brett Hutton's fifth, Stone struck with his first ball, snaring the edge of Patel's bat to give the keeper an easy catch. His next wicket was a beauty, shattering captain Ian Holland's stumps to leave Leicestershire three down.
Those two gave Stone his rewards in his first spell of the day, but he returned later on to reap more destruction. Stone came back after Tea with a maiden, before striking with the first ball of his next over to get Jonathan Tattersall caught behind. That was the first of two in the over for Stone, who again found the edge with the final ball of the over to get Ben Cox.
Stone's best, however, was the wicket that gave him his five-for. He snaked the ball past the edge of Ben Green's bat, ripping his off stump out of the ground. At that point, his figures read 5-14 during an awesome spell of bowling.
There were fewer rewards later in the day, however, with Tom Scriven the only other wicket to fall, giving Pennington a second. Leicestershire finished the day on 220-8, trailing by 270, with Stone's figures reading 5-41.
Match 34, Leicestershire vs Nottinghamshire
vs
- Ball by ball Over
Olly Stone takes maiden Nottinghamshire five-for
The five-for is Stone's first for Nottinghamshire, whom he joined in 2023. However, his Championship appearances for the side have been sporadic, due to management of several injury concerns that have dogged Stone throughout his career, as well as his Test selection in England squads. He last played a Test match at the end of the 2024 summer. Stone went on loan to Middlesex at the end of last season, in an attempt to get more game time to boost his chances of selection for the Ashes.
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