v Birmingham Bears NWT20 Blast 2015 at Trent Bridge.

In front of a Trent Bridge crowd of 10118, Notts romped to easy eight wicket victory over defending baseball champions Warwickshire on a cool windy night.

Greg Smith made his first team debut as Brendan Taylor took over the gloves from Chris Read. There was welcome seasonal debut for the Metronome, who somewhat bizarrely has been loaned to Surrey for a month for championship matches only.

Notts who won the toss and inserted the Bears, Gurney (Radcliffe) and Ball (Pavilion) opened up and bowled superbly and off the ninth ball of the innings Porterfield (1) played Ball straight to Captain Titch at backward point, three for one. Off the last ball of the third over left hander Tom Lewis making his first team debut was bowled for a four ball quack, Gurney the bowler.

Ambrose hit three fours on the trot off the disappointing Philander who went for 13 RPO off the two overs he bowled. In the ninth over with the score on 50 Tiny Tim was yorked for 20 as Fletcher bowling his second over from the Radcliffe Road roared in celebration. The cheer from the crowd could probably be heard in Bulwell. Four balls later Clarke (1) had his stumps flattened as Fletcher celebrated his second wicket.

Chopra batting well added 77 runs in 10 overs with Laurie Evans, but the Bears never truly broke the shackles off the tight Notts bowling; Mullaney bowling four overs for 26 runs. Ball was unlucky not to pick up a second wicket when Brendan Taylor dropped an easy change offered by Evans when on 28.

The returning Fletcher located the stumps once more as Evans was comprehensively bowled making room to depart for a 29 ball 35. Philander dropped a sitter off Gurney as Chopra survived in the dying stages, the next ball went for six. The last two balls of the Warwick innings saw successive batsman run out going for two. Chopra who scored 80 off 61 balls when run out by Mull from mid off. Then Barker was run out by Wessels. Both batsmen out by the proverbial country mile. Bears closed on an inadequate 141 for seven, a score at least 30 runs below par. Gurney and Ball shared eight overs for 49 runs, but the star with the ball was Fletch with 4-0-24-3.

Notts set off like a train as Wessels took the lead as he blasted 30 off 16 balls with five fours and a six. Clarke who had earlier been hit on the leg by one of Wessels drives got his revenge as Wessels holed out to deep mid wicket. Mumbai-bound Hales then literally blitzed the Bears who had no answer to his brutal assault. Brendan Taylor departed for a subdued 12 as he became Lewis’ second catch of the innings, this time off Jeetan Patel. The New Zealander had earlier been hit for a massive six by Hales.

Three successive balls from Rankin went for leg side sixes. The first in the upper deck of the Randall at deep mid wicket were followed by two sixes into the Fox Road, 50 up off 33 balls. Off the next three balls Hales received he repeated the dose as this time Ateeq Javid’s off spinners proved irresistible the first over long on and another a couple more leg side swipes. Six sixes off consecutive balls he faced; brilliant stuff.

Notts got home with 33 balls unused as Jeetan Patel bowled a wide to his namesake Samit who scampered a single. Hales’ innings was simply brilliant scoring 86 not out off 43 balls with five fours and eight sixes. He was named man of the match. This was an extremely welcome win following the disappointing start to the championship campaign. Such was the entertainment expect another large crowd next Friday as The Tykes hit Town, hopefully the weather will be much more favourable. MAG