That Friday feeling

The day was greeted by more rain, torrential rain in the small hours of the morning in fact.

• Raining in Nottingham at 10.00
• Early lunch with an inspection at 1.40
• Covers off no rain about
• Bainton and Bailey do their stuff and inspect at 2.00, no rain
• ditto                                                                      at  3.00, rain is on the way, west of Derby heading for Nottingham
• Play abandoned for the day
• 3.40 spotting with rain, west of the City.

Time for a Crunchie!

Dirk and Dom

But who's the fool?

Grounded!

Somerset in a quest to sign a record number of Overseas players in one season have now grabbed the signature of Abdur Rehman, only to find his arrival is delayed by visa issues.

Sounding familiar?


Mitchell Starc had a farcical trip around the world with a visa problem, but Somerset are clocking up an almanac of excuses this term:

• Roelof van der Merwe - couldn't get a visa
• 
  
• Kieron Pollard - turned his back on Somerset in favour of the Windies.
• 
  
• Chris Gayle - agreed to join the Cidermen for T20 but then re-built bridges with the Windies and rescindered on the deal.
• 
  
• Faf du Plessis - again signed but then decided to honour an International agreement.

Brian Rose's wisdom in opting for South Africans in a Protea's  tour year is open to question; they have already used the services of Albie Morkel, Richard Levi and Vernon Philander in LV= and T20 games.


Somerset's unavailability problems have been compounded by George Dockrell's inclusion in Ireland's U19 World Cup plans.

Notts will share some of those headaches with Somerset, having; Brett Hutton and Sam Wood also heading south for that World Cup, Graeme Swann and Stuart Broad doing whatever they do with senior England, Samit Patel, Alex Hales and James Taylor likely to be England Lions soon again and Michael Lumb has also be included in the England T20 preliminary squad, making the Notts contingent 6.


Tresco has let it be known that he looking to make a comeback in the T20 Q/F

The Boy is Back

The man-mountain, otherwise known as Luke Fletcher, returned to cricketing action against the Tykes 2nds for the Notts 2nd XI returning 3/27.

Out of the Park

Garry Park has left the Sheep of Derby, after he was told they wouldn't be re-newing his contract for next season; he leaves by mutual consent.


What the odds on:


Foxes or Unicorns?


Forest?

Testing Times

Andrew Strauss out in the First Over of the First Test LBW via a DRS, 0/1


At the end of the day England 267/3, Alastair Cook 114*, Jon Trott 71, KP 42

Voges and Read Rescue Notts between the showers.

Rain was the final winner once again on entertaining opening day against Surrey at TB. Notts were unchanged from Uxbridge; visiting captain Zander de Bruyn inserted Notts on winning the toss

Bright knocks from Hales and Taylor

Seal Outlaw win

A rapid opening partnership of 89 in fewer than 10 overs between man of the match Alex Hales and Riki Wessels ensured an easy victory under the Trent Bridge lights over a disappointing Hampshire outfit.

Read won the toss and inserted Hampshire. Gurney and Lumb (with a slight back niggle) were rested from the Guildford line-up and were replaced by White and Carter as Notts decided to use an extra bowler.

Weather, will it make or break the season?

We're now approaching a crucial time of the season at Trent Bridge, fixtures in all 3 competitions now come thick and fast over the next couple of weeks, but will the weather behave?


Rain is falling again on the East Midlands today, play at Northampton delayed, but tomorrow is the start of 11 days cricket at Trent Bridge in the space of 16 days featuring LV=, Pro40 and a T20 Quarter Final. Some forecasters predict a wet week ahead, brightening towards the weekend, but as always, we will get whatever the weather throws at us but could it cost Notts too many points? Home fixtures have the added advantage of the improved drainage and also tomorrow's Pro40 is on Sky, so bring your brolly we'll play regardless.................


Warwickshire grabbed an advantage of playing a game a day out of sync with Notts and clocked 5 extra points that they might not have gone for if they weren't aware of the points taken elsewhere, playing on the best day of the week, weather-wise.. Of course its all swings and roundabouts, Notts will get their chances too, hopefully. Roll on the summer, soon.

Today posted on the BBC a picture of New Road Worcester, under 18 inches of water in places - with more rain to come.










Yesterday's fun and games on Surrey TV
: https://t.co/jAwn7VeQ

BILLY TO RETURN

Billy Dot Ball aka Bilal Shafayat has been included in the Hampshire squad for tomorrow's Pro40 game. He could face Graeme White or Andy Carter if Harry Gurney is rested!

Tuesday

It's not raining, yet!


Lunchtime and still not raining!




What's Wayne White been up to?


Leicestershire head coach Phil Whitticase hopes a two-match club ban handed to Wayne White for an "on-field issue" will act as a "wake-up call". (It wasn't at Uxbridge, so was it in the game at Grace Road on Saturday, game that the Foxes won?)


"I am looking to Wayne to take his medicine, come back stronger and show us what a good player he is."


"It's about the team. Every player has to do what's right for the team. There was an issue, it is something we have dealt with. We will keep it in-house and deal with it in the right way."


"He is a very fine cricketer," Whitticase added. "He bats, bowls and fields and we have to make sure he is dong those skills well for the team."


Nottsview: 

• Leicestershire have form with in-fighting and fall-outs. Wayne White and Josh Cobb were very vocal when Taylor and Gurney jumped-ship! 
• Wayne White comes across as a spirited fighter, perhaps some of his fight has been in the wrong direction. 
• Does new-Skipper Cobb need to keep a tighter rein on some of his team?
• A lack of detail always leads to speculation and rumour, so what do we think might have happened?

Big Bash - Big Shake-up

Yesterday, preliminary squads in the next Big Bash were announced, with a few changes in domestic personnel  from the last one. Our eternal David Hussey is still a Star whilst Adam Voges is a Scorcher. 

v Surrey at Guildford CB40 2012

Surrey Collapse in throwback to a Bygone Age


With a match scoring rate of less than four an over with a big crowd at a festival venue, this match was a throwback to the golden age of Sunday cricket, all that was missing were the dolly birds dishing out the free ciggies!

Pattinson early strikes destroy Surrey

The Pro40 game between Middlesex and Leicestershire at Uxbridge was abandoned because of the state of the ground after all the rain there but Nottinghamshire had  moved to the other side of London where Outlaws were able to take on Group B league leaders Surrey at Guildford

bowled 2 overs today 0/15

Gareth Batty won the toss and elected to bat with a punctual start time. Chris Read opted to open the bowling, T20-style with a spinner but this time it was Samit Patel in the firing line rather than Graeme White, as in the previous experiment. The successful first over of 4/1 was just a prelude to a Darren Pattinson induced destruction during the power-play. Surrey at one point languished at 8/5 and needed to rebuild which they did for the next dozen overs or so until Ansari became the sixth man out on 46/6. At "half way" Surrey were 51/6. From this position Surrey's tail had little choice but to go Gung-ho which was relatively effective and collectively they dragged the score to 123 off 33.4 overs


Surrey 123


Matt Spriegel 39
Gareth Batty 24
Zafar Ansari 16
Jon Lewis 16


Harry Gurney 4/22
Darren Pattinson 3/27
Jake Ball 2/20


Surrey opened their bowling with off spinner Matt Spriegel but he didn't relieve the ball and maintained a very tight spell, bowling out 8-0-20-0.


After 10 overs Outlaws were 40/2. Over 12, bowled by Stuart Meaker, went for 20 runs (2 no balls), relieving much of the pressure applied by Spriegel.
At half way, Notts found themselves 84/2; Surrey choosing to restrict rather than attack, with their battery of spinners, Kartik and Batty in tandem.
Samit Patel was third man out, 96/3 in the twenty-fourth over to Murali Kartik, bringing Adam Voges to the crease only for him to return in the next over, caught behind off Batty. Riki Wessels fell in Batty's next over 105/5, 26.4 ov.
Skipper Chris Read (13*) used his experience, seeing Notts home with 57 balls to spare.


Outlaws 124/5 30.3 ov


James Taylor 41*
Alex Hales 23
Samit Patel 21


Gareth Batty 2/23




Also in Group B; Somerset beat Scotland by 60 runs at Taunton, Craig Meschede 4/27
Hampshire beat Durham at the Armitage Shanks Bowl by 4 wickets.

Leap-frogging Bears

5/77

Warwickshire took advantage of knowing what had happened to Notts yesterday and made the most of the weather at Edgbaston today.; maximising their batting points and then bowling an unfocused Sussex out to reap 11 points from their draw, leap-frogging Notts to the top of the league in the process. 

Match Drawn at Uxbridge

Over night rain on top of the sodden playing surface combined with a yellow weather warning for the SE England region meant the abandonment of the game at Uxbridge was a formality, an hour before the game was due to begin today.

Strauss restores parity.