Surrey RLODC at Welbeck CC Win

 

COMFORTABLE WIN AND AN ALIGNMENT OF OTHER RESULTS PUT NOTTS INTO THE PAY-OFFS

Toby Pettman bags four wickets and fifties for Ben Slater and Lyndon James

Notts secured a quarter-final slot after thrashing Surrey by 8 wickets with 18.1 overs to spare and Somerset gaining a most unlikely 14 run victory over Warwickshire at Edgbaston.

An unchanged Notts won the toss and inserted Surrey in front of a crowd of around 2,000, being as expected much higher than at Grantham with decidedly more locals attending this fixture than compared with the two games at the remote Lincolnshire outpost.

Pettman (Charlie French End) and Hutton opened the bowling and it was immediately apparent that the pitch had a lot of carry and bounce. Pettman picked up his first wicket for Notts having Geddes (2) caught at first slip by Montgomery, 4 for 1 in the 3rd over. In the fifth over, Cameron Steel (6) edged Pettman to James at second slip who took the catch diving to his right, 14 for 2. Two balls later, Patel (5) top edged Hutton and Pettman took the catch at third man, 14 for 3. After a superb spell of 4-0-10-2 from Pettman, he made way for Paterson. Hutton, who is having a magnificent competition dismissed Josh Blake (12) caught behind by Schadendorf, 31 for 4 after 10 overs.

Hutton picked up his third wicket having Gumbs (9) caught by Schadendorf, 36 for 5 in the 12th over. Lawes on 6 skied a delivery from Paterson straight to Hameed at mid-on, but he lost the ball in the sun and the easy chance was missed. Pettman returned for the 14th over, for a two over burst, this time from the Spion Kop End. Patterson-White then replaced him. Paterson (6-0-36-0) had another mediocre day and after his 6 over spell, Hutton changed ends. Reifer and Lawes were leading a recovery adding 55 in 10 overs until it ended grimly for Reifer (18) as he hit the ball straight back to Patterson-White, 91 for 6 in the 22nd over.

Kimber was dropped on 0 by James at second slip off Hutton as Surrey reached 100 in the 24th over. Singh was introduced from the Charlie French End in the 25th over. Lawes on 45 had another life, Schadendorf missing an easy stumping off Singh. Lawes got to a run a ball 50 with a four through fine leg off Singh who conceded 16 in the 31st over. Pettman replaced Singh (4-0-31-0) from the Charlie French End, as Singh immediately came on from the Spion Kop End and conceded 10 runs. In the 35th over, Lawes (75) hit Pettman for 6 over mid-wicket then Surrey, like Leicestershire on Saturday, Surrey collapsed dramatically losing their last 4 wickets for 13 in 4.4 overs. Lawes (75 off 63 balls, 10x4, 1x6) skied Pettman to Montgomery who took the catch in the covers, 168 for 7. The 7th wicket stand between Lawes (aged 19) and Kimber (aged 21) had added 77 in 13.4 overs. In the following over, Singh (7-0-46-1) bowled former Notts Academy man Kimber for 34 off 56 balls in an innings devoid of a boundary, 170 for 8. Pettman picked up his 4th victim with McKerr caught at mid-off by Hutton for a duck, 170 for 9 in the 37th over. Pettman finished his 10 overs with figures of 4 for 44, with his tall frame he extracted more life out of the surface than any bowler in the contest. Dunn was the last wicket to fall lbw to Patterson-White (8.2-1-29-2), Surrey 181 all out off 39.2 overs. Yousef Majid undefeated on 3. Hutton had figures of 3-24 from his 8 overs and has 19 wickets @13.89 in the competition. Despite the efforts of Lawes and Kimber Surrey had registered a below par total as the initial burst from Pettman and Hutton had left them on their knees at 36-5 after 11.1 overs.

Between the interval, the large crowd rushed to the tea tent, as the last of the vast array of cakes were purchased.

Dunn (5-0-27-0; Spion Kop End) and Lawes opened the bowling. In the 4th over, Budinger was dropped on 8, a steepler to Geddes at mid-on off Lawes. Budinger (32 off 20 balls, 3x4, 2x6) was his normal aggressive self, hitting Lawes (4-0-37-1) for a boundary and then two enormous sixes over mid-wicket in the 6th over but fell off the last delivery of the same over caught by skipper Geddes running from mid-on, 46 for 1 off 6 overs. Steel and McKerr came on for the 10th and 11th overs respectively. Notts 68 for 1 after 10 overs. Slater playing some wonderful strokes.

The game was over as a contest as Slater and James tucked into some ordinary Surrey bowling in the afternoon sunshine. In the 17th over. Slater hit McKerr (4-0-27-0) for 6 over backward square leg as Notts went past 100, in an over that went for 11. 18-year-old Majid (7-0-37-0) came on bowling slow left-arm for the 19th over as Slater got to his 50 in 61 balls with a two to third man. In the 22nd over, Kimber had a bowl. Notts were steadily getting closer in the finishing line, with James getting to his 50 in the 27th over in 56 balls. James (54 off 62 balls, 8x4) was caught by Gumbs at deep square leg off Kimber (5-0-30-1), 160 for 2 in the 28th over. James had achieved his highest score in List A cricket. Slater hit Majid for two fours in the 31st over. Steel returned bowling his spin, At 1602, Slater hit a delivery from Steel (6.5-1-24-0) towards square leg as Hameed and himself ran the winning single before the ball had crossed the rope. Notts 182 for 2 off 31.5 overs. Slater finishing on a cultured 82 not out (off 98 balls, 9x4, 1x6) and Hameed 6 not out. An easy win for Notts, richly enjoyed by the sizeable crowd. The young Surrey team, no match to a more experienced home outfit.

But the drama did not stop there, Notts needed Sussex to defeat Middlesex and hope either Leicestershire or Warwickshire would slip to defeat. Sussex were thrashing Middlesex on the South coast and as the Notts game finished, Leicestershire were 60 for 6, needing 138 off 35 overs to beat Durham, but thanks to 98 run 7th wicket partnership between Rishi Patel and Arron Lilley they got home unexpectedly by 2 wickets. All eyes then moved to Edgbaston as whipping boys Somerset who had lost all seven games suddenly took 5 wickets for 27 runs in 5 overs as they totally unexpectedly beat The Bears by 14 runs at Edgbaston. Third-placed Notts therefore had got through to quarter-final round and now face a game against Lancashire, probably on Friday at a venue yet to be confirmed. The second test taking place at Old Trafford at the same time. Notts after losing a plethora of players to the wretched Hundred had somewhat surprisingly got through to the last six, Well done to the team for achieving this feat. MAG

THREE LITTLE DUCKS MORE

The little ducks are lining-up, so we just need two of these to happen tomorrow, if Notts beat Surrey (who gave us a good hiding last year), for Notts to qualify for the knock-out stages:

• League leaders Sussex to beat Middlesex
• Disappointing Durham to beat Leicestershire
• Whipping-boys Somerset to beat Warwickshire

Leicestershire are back to full strength with both their South Africans available, Hendricks only making a passing involvement in the parallel parasitic tournement and is no longer required as he's not contracted to a franchise.

Why pretend to do anything else, Secret Squirrel has announced the squad that is everyone that's available, the full monty 15 again.

Sol Budinger
Ben Slater
Dane Schadendorf
Haseeb Hameed
Matt Montgomery
Lyndon James
Liam Patterson-White
Sammy King
Fateh Singh
Brett Hutton
Zak Chappell
James Hayes
Dane Paterson
Toby Pettman
Ben Martindale

Will it be Toby, James, Dane or Zak in the interchangable position in the final XI?  Sammy King is yet to have a turn in 2022...

The Surrey squad shows plenty of youth but also has several player that have unravelled Notts in the past: 

Ben Geddes

Nathan Barnwell

Josh Blake

Matt Dunn

Nick Kimber

Tom Lawes

Yousef Majid

Conor McKerr

Ryan Patel

Nico Reifer

Cameron Steel

Amar Virdi

Tim Lloyd

Sheridan Gumbs