Kevin Shine hails Luke Fletcher as Nottinghamshire seal innings win over Worcestershire

Nottinghamshire assistant coach Kevin Shine hailed the latest career-best display of Luke Fletcher.
Luke Fletcher took career-best figures for the second match in a row. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)Luke Fletcher took career-best figures for the second match in a row. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)
Luke Fletcher took career-best figures for the second match in a row. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

Fletcher returned career-best figures for the second match in a row as Notts crushed winless Worcestershire by an innings and 170 runs to take maximum points and go top of Group One in the LV=Insurance County Championship.

The 32-year-old pace bowler took seven for 37 as Worcestershire were skittled for 80 in their first innings, ending with ten wickets in the match.

Shine said: “Luke is just getting better as he gets older and that doesn’t always happen. He has bowled as classy a spell as a lot of people will have seen for a long time.

"He is going to be top of the averages, ahead of the likes of Craig Overton and Ollie Robinson who are the bowlers everyone is talking about, and it is well deserved.

“To run in and bowl fast you have to be a little bit crazy but you also need to have that determination and what you are seeing now is the reward for all the work he puts in during the winter.

"He is always challenging himself to get better and that is music to my ears as a coach.

“And Stuart Broad has been an unbelievable example with the effort that he puts in. He wants us to win and drives everyone to win.

“With the amount of time we had in the game, this was a brilliant effort, although there is so much belief and character in the team we never thought the time lost would definitely mean the game ending in a draw.”

Only Jake Libby and Brett D’Oliveira offered anything close to meaningful resistance, Libby making 64 to go past 600 runs for the season - only Durham’s David Bedingham has more.

But after he was dismissed by England’s Stuart Broad the last seven Worcestershire wickets fell for 47, South African seamer Dane Paterson taking four for 49, his best figures for the county so far.

Nottinghamshire ended a barren run of almost three years without a Championship victory when they beat neighbours Derbyshire three weeks ago. Now they have won three in a row, completing this one inside two days after weather wrecked days one and two.

Worcestershire head coach Alex Gidman said: “We didn’t build pressure and we had a really positive lesson from Luke Fletcher in terms of what we need to do and get better at.”