v Kent YB40 at Trent Bridge

Taylor plays it perfectly

Notts cruised to an easy victory over Kent by the Vera Duckworth Method at an empty Trent Bridge last night.

Read won the toss and with rain forecast he put Kent in. Notts were unchanged from Northampton as Taylor despite his selection for the Lions was given permission to play.

The scheduling of this game was bordering on insanity, May 8^th is far too early in the year to play a floodlit game, hence the poor crowd. The only logic behind the madness was to keep the handful of devotees of Murdoch TV happy.

Gurney opened with a maiden. In the game’s second over, Kent protégé Sam Billings played the ball on the legside but he was run out by a smart throw from Patel going for a second; 2 for one.

Kent accumulated steadily on a good pitch for batting. Notts opening trio proved unthreatening. Experienced pair Rob Key and Brendan Nash added 96 in 18 overs for the second wicket. Mullaney bowling from the Pavilion End then got the West Indian left hander to play on, Nash departing for 42 (47 balls with six fours). In his next over, Darren Stevens hit him for two fours, but Mullaney got his revenge as the former Fox was smartly stumped by Read for 10; Grim Tim in his job as third umpire taking his time before delivering the verdict; 110 for three.

Notts then got the Key wicket, as former the Kent skipper chipped Mullaney straight to Samit Patel at midwicket, 127 for 4. Key’s 62 came off 85 balls with eight fours. Mullaney claimed his fourth scalp as Sam Northeast skied a slower ball as Chris Read caught the ball as it returned from orbit, Mullaney who was Man of the Match finished with figures 8-0-29-4. A fine spell from Graeme Swann from the Radcliffe Road helped turned the screw; he followed his economical figures from Wantage Road with 8-0-24-0. The par score for the wicket looked around 250 and Kent were well behind as they stood at 163 for five with five overs remaining. They did have a joker up their sleeve as they called the 4-over batting power play, Kent succeeded in hitting a mammoth 63 in the last five overs as Carter in particular took excessive punishment. He did not help himself bowling a couple of no balls, but figures of 6-0-55-1 accurately reflect the standard of his bowling. He is clearly still work in progress, but the rate of progression seems rather slow in the extreme. He did though pick up the wicket of Geraint Jones who skied to Patel, who had a good game in the field. Jones’ 39 came off 21 balls with five fours and one six. Ben Harmison in a rare appearance for his adopted county made an unbeaten 33, as the Hop County closed on 220 for 6.

Rain arrived during the interval delayed the proceedings as Vera Duckworth set Notts 201 in 33 overs. After five balls from Charlie Shreck (making his first one day appearance for three years) the rain returned with Notts three for no wicket. After a frustrating 56 minute delay the players returned with Notts now needing a further 137 runs off 18.1 overs.

The first wicket fell on 18, when Lumb (11) was run out by a country mile. Hales (21) pulled Darren Stevens for six but then was caught by the same man off the former Notts loanee Mark Davies bowling from the Radcliffe Road End; 39 for two. Patel and Titch Taylor added 34 in five overs until Patel (17) rather disappointedly holed out to long off off Stevens' dibbly dobblers; 78 for three. Taylor joined forces with Riki Wessels and took the Kent attack was torn apart. Sixty seven runs were knocked off in six overs, as one over from The Tinman went for 18 runs; bringing back painful memories of Murray Goodwin’s effort against him in 2008.   Taylor hit Matt Coles for three successive fours to win the game with 15 balls unused; his well paced innings of 50 came off 42 balls with six fours. Wessels was unbeaten on 37 off just 21 balls.

Notts now head to New Road without Taylor and Swann. Cowan seems to certain to return. Expect Fletcher to return for Swann and I would give Shahzad a go over the disappointing Carter.  

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