Northamptonshire Steelbacks Vitality T20 Blast at Wantage Road Loss Report

 

OUTLAWS ARRESTED

Notts sequence of victories comes to a crumbling end

After winning their previous four T20 games, Notts crashed to woeful 78 run defeat at a dank and humid Wantage Road this afternoon. After allowing Northants to score 60 off their last four overs to register a slightly above par 177-5. Notts though lost three wickets in 5 balls early doors with Hales, Munro and Montgomery all registering ducks. Once Clarke (29) fell to the last delivery of the power play with Notts standing at 48-4 the game was as good as over. Mullaney’s first three scoring strokes were edged boundaries but he top scored with 31 as Notts were bowled out for 99 with 5.3 overs to spare. Northants had registered only their second win in 14 T20 contests against Notts. There only win being registered in T20 semi-final at Edgbaston in 2016.

Northants won the toss and elected to bat. Afridi (Lynn Wilson End) bowled the first over and conceded just a wide. Vasconcelos hit Carter for four through point and three balls later Gay straight drove Carter to the boundary , 10 off the second over. Vasconcelos, who looked in fine form, drove Afridi for a straight boundary. Gay (5) fell to a catch at mid-wicket by Carter off Afridi, 17 for 1. Seven off the third over. Willey pulled Ball to the square leg ropes, nine off the 4th over. Willey hit Carter for a four through mid-off, seven off the 5th over plus a leg bye. Vasconcelos hit Ball for a four through extra cover. Willey hit the last delivery of the power play to long on ropes.. Northants 45 for 1 off 6 overs.

Vasconcelos swept Montgomery for 4 through square leg, 10 off the 7th over including a leg bye. Montgomery did not bowl again. Harrison meanwhile did not bowl a single over during the innings. Vasconcelos pulled Mullaney to the square leg ropes, 10 off the 8th over. Patel bowled Willey off stump for 22, 70 for 2 off 9 overs. Mullaney conceded five off the 10th over.

Patel went for 5 in the 11th over. Broad reverse swept Mullaney (3-0-26-0) for 4 and hit him for an extra cover four 11 off the 12th over. Vasconcelos straight drove Patel for 4 to reach 50 off 40 balls, seven off the 13th over. Vasconcelos on 51 survived a stumping chance off Carter. Luckily to save Moores blushes, he fell next ball, well caught by Afridi at backward point off Carter, 98 for 3. Six off the 14th over. Justin Broad, the South African who was a German passport, was smartly caught and bowled by Patel (4-0-23-2) for 16, 109 for 4 , six off the 15th over.

Keogh was dropped on 2 by Moores off Carter (4-0-30-1), a difficult chance with Moores running towards leg side in a desperate attempt to reach the ball. Northants 117-4 off 16 overs. With light rain now falling, Ball and Afridi were tasked with bowling the last 4 overs with a wet ball, Northants preceded to take, with a dollop of fortune, 60 runs off these 24 deliveries to swing the game decisively in their favour.

Zaib hit a beamer from the disappointing Afridi for 6 over long leg, 13 off the 17th over. Keogh hit Ball for successive fours (mid-wicket and a top-edged four through third man) at the start of the 18th over. Zaib (26) pulled Ball for 6 over square leg. Two balls later, Zaib skied Ball to Munro at mid-off, 145 for 5 off 18 overs. Tye hit Afridi (4-0-38-1) for a straight six and for consecutive boundaries, 17 off the 19th over. Ball had Keogh caught on the ropes off a no ball, the free hit that followed was also caught! Tye then top edged Ball to the third man boundary. Tye missed the last delivery from Ball but Moores inexplicitly allowed the ball go for 4 byes. Northants 177 for 5 off 20 overs. Tye on 21 (off 8 balls) and Keogh on 20; seemingly out of the game 15 minutes before had registered a competitive total. Ball rather expensive with 4-0-45-1.

The light rain blew north during the interval. Willey ( Lynn Wilson End) bowled the first over and it was a maiden which contained five leg byes. Clarke found the ropes off three consecutive deliveries off Sanderson. The first was straight, the second was edged through third man as Clarke advanced down the pitch, the third was over long on. Hales was bowled by Sanderson nip-backer for 6-ball 0, 19 for one after two overs. Munro (0) mistimed Willey and was caught at mid-off by Tye, 20 for 2. Montgomery fell first ball caught at first slip by Vasconcelos off Willey, 20 for 3. Three off the third over. Patel found the long leg boundary and then the point ropes off Sanderson, 11 off the 4th over. Willey (3-1-9-2) bowled four dots and then Clarke ramped a six off him, the last ball was another dot. Patel hit Taylor for a straight four. Patel was dropped on 15 by Keogh at backward point off Taylor. Clarke hit Taylor for a straight four and then was bowled Taylor going for another big shot for 23 (off 15 balls), 48 for 4 off 6 overs. Notts almost complete reliance on their top three was underlined as they collapsed disastrously to lose their last 7 wickets for 51.

Mullaney edged Heldreich for consecutive fours, 11 off the 7th over. Sanderson conceded five off the 8th over. Patel (20) holed out to the mid-wicket ropes off Heldreich, 64 for 5. Moores hit his first ball off Heldreich for 4 through backward point. Mullaney then edged another four off Heldreich, 11 off the 9th over. Moores (5) edged a Sanderson delivery to McManus behind the stumps, 75 for 6. Afridi became the 4th Notts batter to fall for a duck skying Sanderson (4-1-29-3) to Taylor in the covers, 75 for 7 off 10 overs. Sanderson had bowled the second maiden of the innings!

Heldreich conceded 5 off the 11th over. Harrison hit Tye (2-0-7-1) through the covers for 4, six off the 12th over. The game was over, Notts should have now tried to bat out their innings to improve their net run rate, sadly they preceded to carry on with going over the top.

Harrison (8) mistimed a slower delivery from Taylor (2-0-17-2) and was caught by Willey, 86 for 8 in the 13th over. Mullaney hit Taylor for 6 over long off, 8 off the 13th over. Carter (1) skied Tye into the covers where Zaib took the catch, 9 off 14 overs. Mullaney hit Heldreich for a straight four but two balls later, the match was over as Mullaney (31 off 25 balls, 4x4 1x6) became the slow left arm wrist spinner second victim being caught on the deep extra-cover ropes. Notts 99 all out off 14.3 overs. Northants, without star batsman Chris Lynn (unwell) had won by the large margin of 78 runs. Luckily for Notts, Yorkshire were hammered by 144 run at Queen’s Park which means that Notts remain third in the table, as Yorkshire net run rate is even worse than Notts. Notts though may need to win three out of the four games to qualify. They face bottom of the table Leicestershire twice (their T20 bogey opponents) and also have to travel to New Road, a venue that where they have never lost at in T20 cricket. MAG

So what damage has been done?

18/06

Still no word about the squad, but if all are fit why would they change it? Unfortunately there's been some news this morning which by implication must be bad (fitness) news, Conor McKerr has been re-borrowed from Surrey for the remainder of the competition.

17/06

Last night's results have now pushed Outlaws down the table to third.

Those heavy losses still hampering Notts' NRR. If the order was decided on Net Run Rate rather than points, Notts would be in the bottom half, sixth! 

From here on in, if we keep winning we'll finished no lower than second, NNR won't matter, but that'll be a tall order even with four of our last five games being against sides below us in the current table. In the topsy-turvy North group this year, there's still plenty of time for a surprise or three more.

 Congratulations to Ben Martindale on his new contract which keeps him with Notts until 2026 - perhaps he'll even be given an opportunity to play a match before the contract expires!