v Essex Eagles FLT20 QF at Trent Bridge

Outlaws arrested in the chase

Notts were eliminated from the Twenty/20 quarter finals for the third successive year in front of 12,106 crowd at Trent Bridge last night.

Hussey won the toss and elected to bowl on a pitch at the centre of the square. Unlike all other Twenty/20 games at The Bridge this season there were no short boundaries. Steve Mullaney who had not bowled well in the competition this season was dropped and Wessels, despite recovering from a broken finger, retained his place in the line up as Titch Taylor returned from Sussex duty!

Things went relatively well early doors. Rutherford edged Ball into Read’s gloves. Pettini who started with to two fours through the vacant slip region was adjudged leg before to Butler, three balls later non striker Greg Smith got into a muddle with new batsman Bopara and was run out easily by Michael Lumb for 21, 46 for six after six overs.
It all went downhill from this point onwards, Patel and White, who had bowled well in the later part of the group stages, both bowled miserably, repeatedly too short or too wide. Bopara and ten Doeschate gorged themselves to the never ending free buffet. Notts though had no real plan B, the non-selection of Mullaney in good form with the bat in 2013, meant other than bringing himself on all Hussey could have done was bring back his pace men. There was no rotation of the bowling and in a manic half an hour 72 were added in seven overs. Bopara holed out to long on off the returning Ball for a 25-ball 38. Essex unlike Notts though stack their big hitters in the middle order and the carnage continued as 34 runs came from the next three overs as ten Doeschate eventually hit five sixes. Foster became Butler’s second victim caught by White. With three balls left ten Doeschate finally holed out at the long on ropes off Butler for a man of the match 82 in 44 balls. With the long boundaries, Essex 187 for six seemed to well off the radar. Butler so innocuous in his previous nine T20 games finally came good with 4-0-23-3. Patel and White had combined figures of 8-0-98-0; numbers that speak for themselves! Patel’s figures of 4-0-54-0 were the most expensive for Notts in the 11 seasons of the competition beating Greg Smith’s 4-0-53-0 against The Tykes in 2005.
Lumb was dropped at slip off the first ball as he added 46 off the first 20 balls of the innings with Hales.  Hales went for one big shot for too many as he holed at deep wicket for a 12-ball 31. Four balls later Lumb was caught behind by Foster for 19 as Masters picked up his second wicket of the over. Hussey should have appeared at four, Notts though kept to the script as Taylor came in. Big hitting is not his game at all, having survived a confident caught behind appeal off Reece Topley, two balls later he found Tim Phillips in front of Fox Road Stand, Masters now had three wickets.
Patel hit 60 off 33 balls and had figures of 4-0-26-3 at the same stage last season against Hampshire but tonight was having a nightmare game batting twelve balls before being caught and bowled by Shaun Tait for 2. At 64 for four in the eighth over and with a long tail, the game was well and truly over!Wessels clearly not timing the ball to normal effort batted gamely but neither him or Hussey could get any boundaries. Essex decided not utilise Phillips tweakers as Foster stuck to his pace men.  Wessels finally went for the big shot but outstanding reflexes by Bopara at deep midwicket saw him parry for the ball back in play as Phillips took the catch, Wessels gone for a run a ball 22.
Read having an absolute stinker with the bat in 2013 lasted one ball run out going for a nonexistent single. Three balls later Hussey’s one man show was ended as he holed out off Tait. That man ten Doeschate taking the catch in front of the Clarke stand. Hussey had made 61 off 37 balls with four fours and three sixes. The crowd headed for the exit gates as Tait removed Butler and White off his next two balls as he completed a hat trick. Gurney went two balls later as Notts had subsided to 140 with 16 balls unused. Essex had won by an extremely comfortable 47 runs. Tait with 4-0-29-4 and Masters 4-1-26-3 both had very good nights.
Did Notts freeze once again on the big occasion?
The spinners clearly did not bowl to form; but the fielding was slick enough and no wides/no balls were given away as the extras count stood at four. Ten Doeschate and Bopara had batted well. It was clear from the other quarter final results that the Northern Group was by far the weakest of the three. You always got the feeling that the batting replied too much on the two openers plus Hussey and Patel with no other reliable big hitters. Patel had a nightmare game but he normally performs on big nights like these. A disappointing night, but far more important games have to played out as Notts battle to retain their Championship Division One status.   MAG

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Somerset suffer hangover from 2012

Surrey easily disposed of a below par Somerset in the first of the Quarter-Finals at the Oval. The game's main talking point being the friction existing between Peter Trego and Gareth Batty, believed to be a hangover from last season's county game at Taunton when the non-striking Alex Barrow was run out backing up and when offered by Umpire Hartley to withdraw the appeal, Batty declined to. Surrey won the QF by 3 wickets with six balls to spare. 

Dynamos run flat.

The second QF saw Northamptonshire smash Durham's bowling to all parts of Wantage Road and beyond as the Dynamos' game plan fell apart. Sticklebacks managed to record a total reportedly 50 runs above the 2013 par for the ground (183). Durham's reply followed the familiar line, lose wickets then Ben Stokes chases down the target but on this occasion the target was too much for Ben Stokes who could do no more than boost the Durham card to a degree respectability. Northants won by 36 runs.

Carberry ton and Dirty Tricks

A Michael Carberry century helped holders Hampshire set Lancashire a monumental target to chase, a target that they got within touching distance of, losing by 1 run. Architects of the chase were Stephen Moore, Steven Croft and initially Karl Brown. Brown was unlucky to have been given out," bowled" by the keeper Wheater's glove rather than the ball, when he was well set. With Hampshire batting first and going so well through-out their innings, there wasn't any opportunity for any "gamesmanship" with runners or alike but during the Lancashire reply, mid-innings, the sprinklers "somehow" activated but on that occasion the batsmen held their concentration. 

So the three home teams have won the three quarter finals so far, fingers-crossed for the fourth.

Outlaws have James Taylor available again; will Mick Newell weaken the batting to accommodate him by dropping Riki Wessels or will he reduce the bowling options available to David Hussey by dropping Jake Ball, Steven Mullaney or Graeme White. Will Ajmal Shahzad play instead of Jake Ball or Ian Butler.................... plenty for Mick to ponder there.

Taylor

James Taylor has been included in the England Lions squad to play Bangladesh A at the end of the month. Taylor will as a consequence miss the visit of Yorkshire to Trent Bridge.