Durham Vitality T20 Blast at Trent Bridge Win Report

 

KING SAMIT REIGNS SUPREME

But it's a team effort that ensures Outlaws go top after three wins on the bounce

Notts made it three wins from three games as an all-round team performance ensured Durham were beaten by 26 runs. The result means that Notts went top of the highly congested table. With an attack predominantly consisting of slower bowlers, Notts stuck with the same policy that they did against Lancashire putting out a slow pitch successfully defending a total of 187. Only two Notts batters passed thirty, namely two of the three big guns Munro getting 49 and Hales 39. Bas De Leede whose previous highest T20 score was 13 blasted a 41-ball 58 but he could find no support as Patel (3-30), Ball (3-38) and Carter (2-25) were to the fore.

Durham won the toss and inserted Notts on a sunny night but with that pesky north easterly wind still apparent. The congested fixture list and high ticketing price ensured meant that there were no more than 6,000 in the ground. Ball returned for Brooks. Hales remained in the line-up but was once again somewhat ginger in the field following the injury he picked up in Birmingham. Trevaskis (Pavilion End) bowled Clarke (0), attempting a legside hoick with the second ball of the match, 0 for 1. Munro blasted Trevaskis for successive boundaries (straight and square leg). Parnell conceded 3 off the second over. Hales hoisted Glover for a straight six, 11 off the over. Hales edged de Leede for four and Munro hit him for a straight six, 11 off the 4th over including a leg bye. Hales hit Raine for two boundaries in the 5th over (point and extra cover), 15 off the over. Hales hit Parnell for 4 through backward square leg and Munro lofted him for a straight six and four through backward point, 65 for 1 off six overs. Notts already on top.

Hales guided Glover to the third man boundary and Munro pulled him to backward square leg and then for a six over square leg, 16 off the 7th over. Hales was out for a 22 ball 39 (5x4, 1x6) caught low down by Turner diving to his left at long on off Sowter, 83 for 2 in the 8th over. Montgomery swept Sowter for four through square leg 7 off the over. Montgomery then swept Raine for 4 through fine leg, 7 off the 9th over. Raine (2-0-22-0) so frugal up at the Riverside 10 days previously did not bowl again. Montgomery (12), swept once too often and departed leg before attempting a reverse paddle to Sowter, 95 for 3. The leg spinner went for three singles in the 10th over.

Trevaskis conceded 8 off the 11th over. Munro hit Sowter for 4 through long on but three balls later he was out for a 28 ball 49 (6x4, 2x6) guiding Sowter straight to Turner at long off, Sowter picking up his 3rd wicket, 112 for 4. Eight runs off the 12th over. Trevaskis conceded six in the 13th over. The expensive Glover (3-0-38-0) bowled three wides on the trot then Patel hit his first boundary of his innings off his 17th ball as he placed Glover towards mid-wicket. Another wide followed, 11 off the 10-ball over. Patel hit a mid-wicket boundary off Trevaskis (4-0-30-1). Notts 139 for 4 off 15 overs. Moores (15) swiped Sowter for 6 over wide long on but fell four balls later as he hit Sowter (4-0-29-4) straight to Turner at long off. An identikit dismissal to Munro’s departure 4 overs earlier. Patel and Moores had shared a partnership of 38. Notts 150 for 5 off 16 overs. Sowter is the leading wicket-taker in this year’s Blast with 17 @9.05 with an impressive economy rate of 5.50.

Patel (28 off 26 balls, 2x4), promoted once more to number 5 on the slow deck, was bowled by de Leede, 153 for 6. Five off over number 17. Mullaney hit Parnell to the mid-wicket ropes, seven off the 18th over. Afridi hit de Leede (3-0-30-1) for six over mid-wicket and Mullaney found the backward point ropes off the Dutchman, 14 off the 19th over. Eleven runs were accumulated off the last over, Mullaney (21) hit Parnell (4-0-36-1) for consecutive fours through extra cover and but fell to a catch on the cover ropes, 184 for 7. Harrison was dropped on 0 at long leg by Glover off Parnell. Notts 187 for 7 after 20 overs with Afridi on 11 and Harrison on 1. It looked a winning score with all the batsmen struggling to consistently time the ball in the second half of the innings on the tricky deck.

Afridi bowled the opening over from the Radcliffe Road End, Lees hitting a four through long on off his third ball. A wide followed and Lees hit him for 6 into the Fox Road, 13 off the first over. The next four overs of the power play were all given to the slow men. Lees (11) reverse swept Patel 's first delivery and was excellently caught by Ball diving low to his right at short third man, 13 for 1. Four runs off the second over. Clark (3) hoisted Carter into Harrison 's hands at deep mid-wicket, 17 for 2, three off the third over. Robinson hit Patel for consecutive fours (extra cover and point), 11 off the 4th over. Jones hit Carter for 4 through long on. Robinson hit Carter for four through point, 14 off the over. Jones (11) fell to Ball’s first delivery well caught by Montgomery running backwards from mid-off, 45 for 3. De Leede hit a four off Ball. Durham 52 for 3 at the end of the powerplay.

De Leede hit Mullaney for four through the covers, eight off the over. Robinson hit Ball for 6 over mid-wicket, 10 off the 8th over. De Leede found the backward point ropes off Harrison, 10 off the over. Patel then took two wickets in three balls. He bowled Robinson (27) on the sweep, 80 for 4 in the 10th over. Turner was smartly caught by Ball on deep extra cover ropes off Patel for a two-ball duck, 80 for 5. Patel was hit for a straight six by Parnell. Parnell (8) fell to the last delivery of Carter's over, caught by Mullaney at deep extra, 91 for 6 off 11 overs. The match was effectively over as a contest, although de Leede with Trevaskis as his partner added an innings high of 44 for the 7th wicket in 5.4 overs.

Six runs came off the 12th bowled by Afridi including a leg bye. De Leede pulled a short delivery by Carter (4-0-25-2) for 4 through mid-wicket, six off the 13th over. Patel (4-0-30-3) conceded seven off his last over. De Leede hit Mullaney (2-0-18-0) for 6 over long on, 10 off the 15th over. De Leede found the mid-wicket boundary off Harrison (2-0-18-0). A single later in the over saw him to 50 off 36 balls, Durham 128 for 6 off 16 overs.

De Leede hit Ball for 4 through mid-wicket. Ball picked up his second wicket having Trevaskis (10), attempting a reverse scoop caught by Patel on the run at short third man, 135 for 7. De Leede’s (58 off 41 balls, 6x4, 1x6) fighting innings came to end as he was caught by Mullaney at deep extra, Afridi the bowler, 137 for 8. Afridi, Notts’ leading wicket-taker in the Blast (11 @ 25.00), kept up his record of taking a wicket in all his 8 appearances in the Green and Gold. Raine hit Afridi for four through long off, eight off the 18th over. Raine edged Ball for 4, Raine (11) fell to a well-judged catch on the mid-wicket ropes by Hales off Ball, 150 for 9. Glover hit Ball (3-38) for a boundary through wide third man. Only four singles were obtained by Glover (9 not out) and Sowter (4 not out) off the last over of the match bowled by Afridi (4-0-30-1). Durham finishing on 161-9 off 20 overs had been comfortably beaten.

Notts look a better-balanced outfit with Harrison and Ball in the ranks. In a group where then results continue to be unpredictable, with teams going on winning and losing runs, Notts mettle will be tested with four consecutive Blast away games. First up the clash against Derbyshire tonight, a fixture where Hales and Patel have done so consistently well in the past. MAG

08/06

In spite of everything, a win today would see Outlaws propelled to top of the group.

Ticket prices "frozen" they say in messages on SM - just checked it out, frozen at £25 or £50 (for the silly Century club). We'll see how many show up mid-week with the schools back!

07/06

Conor McKerr has returned to Surrey and into the squad enters Jake Ball, the squad of fourteen otherwise remains unchanged from all previously published squads.

Joe Clarke
Alex Hales
Colin Munro
Matt Montgomery
Steven Mullaney
Tom Moores
Samit Patel
Calvin Harrison
Matt Carter
Jake Ball
Jack Brooks
Haseeb Hameed
Lyndon James

After today's results, Outlaws have dropped another position but still have the same points as Durham who now lead the group.

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The Club must be struggling to sell tickets for a Thursday night, as I've just had a rare text from Notts CCC, reminding me that this fixture is the last Blast game at Trent Bridge for 3 weeks. Improving the home form might attract some of the more casual supporters. £25+ isn't helping either.

The North Group is tight, very tight nearing the break. All the top five teams in the table have current got the same points and are positioned according to net-run rate. Outlaws are fifth, unsurprisingly, after several hapless, crushing defeats in the first week (v Lightning and v Rapids).

Durham are in second and still have a game in hand after coolly dispatching Steelbacks last night. Handicapped by net-run rate, Outlaws have to obviously beat our next two opponents and probably beat them well into the bargain. There aren't any prizes for fifth place. With the weather due to change to more unsettled, yet warmer conditions, permutations beyond anyone's control might still come into play in 2023. So we need to take wins where and when you can. If we have played 14 matches at the end of the group stages and still have only lost three games, then we will have qualified for the knock-out round.

However, games are still coming thick and fast for all counties. Get the next two games badly wrong and Outlaws could be vying for eighth place at next week's break for a Championship cricket and not third.

Concerns

To win, Outlaws need to have learned lessons from earlier games and have their best eleven on the field.

We obviously have fitness concerns over: Alex Hales, Joe Clarke, Jake Ball and Olly Stone, to name just four. Another concern is that we have someone picking the team that sadly doesn't appear to retain knowledge from past lessons. How many games did it take before Calvin Harrison was on the actual teamsheet this year?

Samit Patel isn't going to play for Notts forever, not even under Peter Moores tenure (if that lasts more than Samit's current contract), and many see LPW as the heir to Samit Patel's place in the side. It's my opinion that Samit's heir could actually turn out to be another young spinner who's useful with the bat too. We have at least two young prospects knocking on doors already in Fateh Singh and Farhan Ahmed. Whilst Samit Patel remains built of kevlar and carbon fibre, so never breaksdown, Patterson-White or anyone else aren't going to get a chance to show what they can do, or to learn what they need to do, with on the job training (as it were). Again, no eye to the future, just as we've had to do in the opening/death bowling department!

Yes we've hired a very quick overseas player who has taken time to settle but we've also taken the short term fix route for the other, unforeseen gap in the attack owing to both Ball and Stone being unavailable for various reasons. Moores opted to go to the loan market rather than select players that the club has already given professional contracts to. Where is the sense in that and why is the club employing players that the coach won't use? It could be the case that PM has pigeon holed the likes of Toby Pettman and James Hayes as red ball bowlers (only), in which case we might find out at the weekend, if Brett Hutton still joins Luke Fletcher as being incapacitated, that that is the case. We have a division one starting on Sunday. Games of all hues, coming thick and fast!