v Durham Jets RLODC Chester le Street

Notts crashed to their first limited overs away defeat of the season at The Riverside as Durham cruised to an easy victory.

Durham won the toss and elected to bowl on a blustery day. Despite the DofC insisting that Wood and Kelsall would given three games to prove themselves, Gurney replaced the Calverton youngster as Notts line up looked imbalanced, with too long a tail.

Kelsall and Lumb were a strange choice as an opening pair one out of form and the other untested but they put together a reasonable partnership.  Although Mullaney surely should have opened? They were aided by Onions going down with a side strain three balls into his spell, his over being completed by Calum MacLeod. In fact it was a strange start all round, George Sharp was injured and was replaced by Peter Hartley but until he did not arrive until 1230 so square leg duties were performed by 73 year old former England, Yorkshire and Derbyshire player John Hampshire.

The opening partnership raised 51 in 12 overs before Lumb miscued a ball from Ben Stokes (surprisingly not playing for the Lions) at the ball looped up to Muchall at mid off. Lumb’s 31 came off 41 balls with four fours and one six. Durham’s bowling was somewhat wayward early on and Notts had reached 85 in the 19^th over when Mullaney (16) was caught at short extra over by Collingwood bowling from the Finchale End. This wicket sparked a collapse, Moddershall youngster Sam Kelsall had reached 30 in 50 balls before falling next over later to an attempted sweep of Borthwick leggies. It got worse as in Borthwick’s next over, Patel inside edged and was bowled for three, 94 for four in 22^nd over. The wicket was a bit two paced and was not the easiest to bat on and with such a long tail Notts had to be cautious. Wessels once again looked a class apart and scored an excellent 44 off 46 balls including three fours and two sixes, but with the fifth wicket partnership worth 61 in 14 overs, Wessels was strangled down the leg side off Aussie import John Hastings, 155 for five in the 36 over. Notts wasted the power play and Franklin and Read became becalmed. Franklin the bowling all-rounder who rarely bowls has been a curate’s egg of a signing, seemingly batting too high at six. There were plenty of dot balls once again but having reached 28 in 66 balls Franklin was caught at mid off off Breese’s who bowled three overs late on for just 11 runs. The sixth wicket partnership had added 29 runs in eight overs, far too slow. The rest of the innings was not much better after hitting a six Shahzad was caught behind of Stokes for 10. Read’s patient 42-ball 29 ended when he holed out to deep mid-wicket. Ball fell with one ball left also holing out as Notts closed 30 runs under par on 222 for nine. Hsatings was the pick of the bowlers with 10-1-38-2.

Notts bowled well first up with Fletcher (Lumley Castle) and Gurney (Finchale) opening up with maidens. With the score on 31 in the 11^th over, the Colonel was caught at point by Mullaney for eight and then McLeod became Fletcher’s second victim when he was trapped leg before for a duck, 35 for two in the 13^th. Stokes first ball was drilled back to The Metronome but Fletcher could not hold the hard chance. Fletcher bowled eight overs on the bounce but as soon as he was replaced the pressure came off. Shahzad and Ball bowled poor opening spells bowling too short and leg side. Stoneman and Stokes batted excellently and with them chasing a relatively low target could afford not to take risks. The batting power play was taken and Stoneman hit Jake Ball for successive sixes. The game was already over as a contest though. With the second wicket stand worth 150 runs in 26 overs, Stoneman miscued a pull to be caught at mid off as Fletcher picked up a deserved third wicket. Stoneman’s 86 came off 103 balls with nine fours and two sixes. Fletcher finished with 10-2-27-3 as he proved to his colleagues that if you could bowl line and length then scoring runs proved difficult. Stokes holed out to long on off Patel for 103 off 121 balls with 15 fours. A brilliant knock. It was galling he was not at Worcester with Taylor and Hales as teammates. Collingwood finished the game with a ball six over deep mid-wicket off Patel, as cruised home by six wickets with 27 balls unused, a result that meant Notts net run rate took a severe dent. Patel was the only other Notts bowler who came out the game with any credit with 9.3-0-37-1. Gurney was very poor when he returned as his second spell and uttered a loud expletive at the end of his spell clearly frustrated. A bad day at the office. Hales and Taylor return for Lord’s match tomorrow, but the forecast for tomorrow is not promising. It could well boil down to having to The Bears next Wednesday to ensure qualification. MAG