v Lancashire Lightning T20 2012

Sky defies the weather...................................as Outlaws steal victory! On a night of great farce Notts secured an extremely fortuitous win over Lancashire at a sodden Trent Bridge. On a night where drizzle was never far away, play got under way at 1845, 35 minutes late. Notts won an important toss with the high probability that Vera would rear her ugly head later on. In damp conditions very reminiscent of Raeburn Place earlier this season; Notts were struggling with a wet ball. Gurney bowled well first up and was unlucky not to remove Tom Smith who was dropped by Hales off a skier. The young England batsman batted with runner Jimmy Taylor later on. Mullaney and Patel the normal reliable mid-innings bowling duo could not grip the ball and proved expensive Off the last ball of the 14th over,  Smith was finally removed bowled by his former teammate Mullaney for 41-ball 56 an innings that included two sixes and six fours. Moore survived a stumping chance and number of lucky edges and added a further 41 runs in fours over with captain Croft. With the score on 160, man of the match Moore was out to a paddle sweep off Carter caught at short fine leg by Gurney. Moore out for a 58-ball 80, which on nine nights out of ten would have won the game. Gurney had Karl Brown leg before for a duck and Cross fell to a good catch by Voges off Pattinson. Croft biffed a quick fire 31 off 15 balls as the Red Rose closed on 178 for four. Gurney (4-0-28-1) and Pattinson (4-0-31-1) were the pick of the bowlers. With the score on seven for nought after six balls Notts reply was seemingly interrupted for the final time by drizzle. Murdoch TV were not happy and in clearly unfit conditions ordered the covers off for their miniscule audience at home and the equally small crowd on the ground. D/L which remains flawed and highly favouring the team batting second in bite size replies offered Notts an extremely gettable 42 off the four overs remaining when play got away again at 2124. Furthermore they were offered a powerplay that lasted 40% of their innings rather than 30%, clearly completely unfair. Never mind Leicestershire have made a name for themselves in baseball with similar huge slices of luck. The hobbling Hales after hitting the first ball for four failed to score off the next three as departed skiing spinner Parry to Karl Brown. Michael Lumb in fine form hit 22 off 12 balls including a straight six into the lower deck of the Radcliffe Road.  Lumb tickled Smith into the keepers gloves, but Notts now only needed nine runs off ten balls and Wessels (21*) and Voges (3*) saw Notts home with two balls unused. Notts now top the Northern group with three games to play. Two wins out of three including the Tykes scalp would see Notts to a home quarter final. One win is probably sufficient for qualification. But the overriding memory of the night was influence of Sky over the proceedings; the match would have not been played to a conclusion without their ridiculous intervention.  Capel sacked Northamptonshire have sack their head coach and life-long servant, David Capel. In the short term David Ripley takes over the team, which is in a fairly poor state.