Taylor-made Victory

Notts scraped home at the Rose Bowl last night thanks to an outstanding innings from James Taylor and a fine all-round game from Samit Patel. In front of a smallish crowd on a dull dank evening, Read won the toss and elected to bat. Pattinson made his seasonal debut and Steve Mullaney returned after his paternity leave. Andre Adams as expected was rested. Fletcher remains absent for unexplained reasons. The innings got off to a poor start as Lumb against his old teammates was out to the fifth ball of the innings, plumb leg before to Kabir Ali bowling from the Pavilion End. Wessels look in good nick following his monumental innings down the coast at Hove, and raced to 18 including three fours until clipping Mascarenhas to mid-wicket, 31 for two. Hales and Patel added 58 for third wicket in 11 overs, before Dawson bowled Hales (33) who was attempting a sweep. Patel carried on at a rapid rate with many shots over his favoured extra cover area. He eventually fell for a 75-ball 66, bottom edging Dawson on to his stumps. His innings contained nine fours;  Notts were now 135 for 4 in the 27th over. Taylor’s first 20 or so runs were all singles and gave no indication of what was to come. Taylor suddenly latched on a poor ball from Ervine and hit an enormous six over square leg. This was the start of the carnage that saw Notts add 111 runs off the last seven overs of the innings, which included four overs of the batting power play. An over from Briggs cost 23, as Taylor hit two huge sixes. Light drizzle was now falling as the 100 partnership came up in just 11 overs. The fifth wicket List A record was overhauled as Taylor and Voges added an unbroken 142, beating by six runs the previous record stand between Nicky Boje and KP against Durham at the Riverside in 2002. Taylor brought his ton up with a six off Ervine whose two overs had cost 34. Ouch! The Toby Carvery put down Taylor off penultimate ball off the innings, as Taylor finished with 115 off 77 balls with seven fours and seven sixes, a superlative innings against bowling that clearly wilted under pressure. With KP throwing in his limited-overs towel, this innings could not have been bettered timed particularly as it was made in front of Messrs Hussain and Atherton in the Murdoch gantry; his last 90 runs coming off just 32 balls.  Voges provided the perfect foil with 32 off 30 balls. The Notts score looked about 25 over par on the what was an easy paced wicket but which did provide a little turn. The rain disappeared at the interval as the sky got a little clearer. Notts seamers though bowled poorly first up as Pattinson with a mixture of the good, bad and the ugly was clearly working off the rust. Hampshire raced to 50 off only seven overs and the score got to 89 in the 11th over when captain Jimmy Adams was caught in the ring by Taylor off Patel who had to bowl in the power play. Adams gone for a 36-ball 51. Vince followed in Patel’s next over being  caught at extra cover. The prolific Katich became Patel’s third victim being triggered out leg before for five, 105 for three in the 15th. Notts were now back in the game. Voges was introduced as he replaced Patel at the Pavilion End, he nearly got a leg before but after bowling three overs for 18, he returned to his fielding duties. Voges also appeared to be more than just a deputy to Read as most of the fielding placing appeared to made by the thoughtful Western Australian, clearly getting into the groove for the upcoming baseball series which he will be captaining the Green and Gold. Carberry (54) looked in fine form but fell to good catch low down by Pattinson off the deserving Mullaney who bowled his eight overs from the Northern End on the bounce for just 38 runs. Franks whose first to two overs cost 26, rediscovered his sat nav bowling from the pavilion end. With score on 177, Dawson was run out by a smart piece of fielding from Lumb, 101 were now required from 11.5 overs but with the batting power play still to be taken.  Carter bowling with good pace rapped Ervine on the knee as the Zimbabwean became the third Hampshire batsman to reach 50.  Franks got Ervine to chip the ball to Carter at short fine leg as Hampshire were now 217 for six with 35 balls remaining. Next over Chris Wood fell to catch by Patel off a slow bouncer from Pattinson who was clearly finding his MoJo as the evening progressed. Bates was run out as Hampshire now needed a stiff 41 off 19 balls. Mascarenhas hit two massive sixes of Pattinson but could not get enough of the strike as Hampshire required 15 off the last over. Kabir was bowled by Patto and two balls later Mascarenhas 35-ball 48 was terminated by catch at long off as Pattinson finished with three for 66. Hampshire had fallen 12 runs short as they were 265 all out. Patel was pick of the bowlers picking up the first three wickets with figures of 8-0-47-3. Taylor was named man of the match by Murdoch TV, an easy choice as his 90 runs had come off just 32 balls and was clearly the game changer in an enthralling contest watched by an away contingent which numbered less than ten!!. MAG