v Durham Jets NWT20 Blast at Chester le Street

OUTLAWS ON A ROLL BUT STILL NEED A FAVOUR

Notts stayed in contention in the Twenty/20 Blast with a comfortable 42 run victory at the Riverside last night. However with Lancashire winning in Birmingham they will have to rely on them not winning in Worcester next Friday or Northamptonshire losing their last two games to qualify for the last eight by winning at Grace Road. 

Notts were unchanged after their exciting win in Manchester 48 hours previously. On a windy but sunny night Mark Stoneman won the toss and inserted Notts.

The new floodlights at Chester-le-Street meant the game started at 1900 hours but the crowd was a meagre 4574. Hales was out in the third over caught on the deep mid wicket ropes off the burly Hastings for three, 10 for one.

Lumb and Wessels put bat to ball adding 65 in six overs as old foe Rushworth proved particularly expensive. Notts hit 54 runs in the power play overs. Lumb got to 31 before chipping to deep cover off the wily Collingwood, 75 for two in the ninth.
  
Samit Patel only lasted seven balls before cutting Rushworth to third man to depart for 4, 85 for three in the 11th. The ball was coming onto the bat but the boundaries were long so a par score seemed around the 180 mark. Wessels and Captain James Taylor took the game away from Durham by adding 98 in just eight overs of destruction.

Wessels who always bats well against the north easterners hit five sixes and eight fours in getting to 97. Then he top edged a sweep off the expensive Arshad; Mustard taking the catch. His innings which lasted 51 balls was the highest individual score ever made for Notts in 13 seasons of Twenty/20 cricket. The previous high being Michael Lumb's 96 two years previously on the same ground. Notts incidentally fielded nine players from that 2013 fixture in the match yesterday. The batsman crossed and next ball James Taylor was caught at deep square leg for 37. Christian and Mullaney added 15 runs in seven balls as Notts closed on 198 for five. Off spinner Pringle was the only bowler to escape the carnage as his four overs cost 24 runs. Arshad and Borthwick went for 12 an over apiece.


Notts were strong favourites with Durham requiring nearly 10 an over. Gurney and Ball opened the bowling but proved expensive as Mustard got Durham off to a good start. He got 25 for 15 balls before hitting Christian to long on where Mullaney took the catch, 39 for one in the 4th. Graham Clark then came in. The younger brother of Lancashire player Jordan failed to score off his first three balls and then he had his leg stump removed by Ball off his fourth. The Whitehaven youngster out for a duck. Stoneman was next man to depart having made 21 off 20 balls he fell to boundary catch by Mullaney off Patel, 57 for three off 8 overs. The game was over for Durham.

Richardson was the next lemming off the cliff holing out to Sam Wood off Patel for six. Three overs later Collingwood who got to 24 became Mullaney's second victim caught by Dan Christian. Durham now needed 111 runs off 6.3 overs as the crowd started to drift home.

Hastings took a liking to Jake Ball who went for 45 in his four overs. Muchall and Hastings added 62 in five overs but it was too little too late. Gurney bowled Hastings for 42 with just six balls left. The last over bowled by Christian went for five runs as Durham closed on 156 for 6 with Muchall undefeated on 30. Mullaney had taken two for 28 and Patel one for 25 off their respective four overs. They will be hoping to make it four wins out of fours at Leicester next Friday as Notts will be praying for a big favour from Worcestershire. MAG