v Durham Dynamos FLT20 at Chester le Street

Another superb innings by Michael Lumb ensured Notts cantered to the easiest of victories at sun baked Chester-le-Street yesterday.

Hussey won the toss once more and had no hesitation in inserting Durham.  After three expensive matches Butler was dropped and Shahzad came in. Durham meanwhile were without Onions and Collingwood.

It was apparent straight away that the pitch was true, the ball was coming on and the outfield was fast. The par score appeared to be around 180 it was to Notts great credit that the home side got nowhere near a defendable total.

Shahzad opened up with Gurney, the left armer once again bowling very well with dot balls a plenty. Shahzad was a little more expensive. The left handers Mustard and Stoneman added 38 in 29 balls before The Colonel (15) was caught low down at mid on by Hussey off Jake Ball, French’s nephew having another pleasing match. Borthwick joined Stoneman and the pair added 61 in eight overs. This was clearly not a pitch for Mullaney’s dibbly dobblers and after solitary overs from both the Finchale and Lumley ends, he spent the rest of the innings grazing in the outfield with figures of 2-0-22-0. Patel was proving economical; his first three overs going for 16.

Mark Stoneman reached in fifty off 40 balls but Hussey bowling from the Finchale End bowled him  with his arm ball. The left-hander and skipper for the day had scored 51 off 42 balls with four fours and one six. Hussey was turning the screw. The returning Ball got Ben Stokes (7) out playing a false ramp shot that only succeeded in looping up to Taylor, 114 for three in the 17^th. Next over Borthwick (44) was yorked by Hussey as the skipper finished with 4-0-23-2. Finally Durham opened up Patel’s last over, the nineteenth of the innings went for 18. Gurney returned at the Finchale End and Breese (18*) was lucky to survive a swirling chance that Read running backwards failed to get his gloves to; Durham 154 for four at the intermission, Gurney’s (4-0-30) last over going for 10. Ball could be well pleased with 3-0-21-2.

Notts needed 7.7 RPO, a target which appeared to relatively easy. After an economical first over from former Notts man Smith and a respective second over of the innings from Rushworth, Notts stood at 11 for 0. After this point the floodgates opened as Lumb was timing the ball well and the ball was disappearing to all parts. He survived a run out scare when on 14 when Stokes missed the stumps but sped to 50 off 30 balls. Hales still looking far from his best eventually put bat to ball. He hit two four through the covers off Ryan Pringle and Wood’s first over went for 15 including a huge six over square leg.

In the tenth over with the score on 91 Hales was bowled through the gate by Breese for 34 off 24 balls. He would appear to be the favourite ahead of Wessels to play in the championship game at The Oval tomorrow. Notts were cruising to victory. Lumb was now in overdrive and nothing appeared to be stopping him, the Durham scoreboard appeared to give up and with the big screen showing drivel from Murdoch TV, no one was certain how many runs Lumb actually had. He hit a huge six which transpired to get him past Ealham’s 91 made against the Tykes at a windy TB nine years before, but going for another big shot was stumped off Borthwick for 96 off 52 balls with 14 fours and three sixes, a man of the match performance. Hussey hit the disappointing Stokes for a six over long on to win the game with 27 balls to spare. The large crowd of 5,000 left extremely disappointed that their heroes had played so poorly. Their batting lacked urgency and their bowling was erratic at best. Notts now four wins out of four. Another three wins should see them through to the quarter finals.

Notts head to London with renewed confidence but no doubt a much changed bowling line up. This game will prove an extremely tough assignment as the heatwave is set to continue all next week. I expect a turner which Notts will probably struggle on, the best hope is we bat first.  MAG