v Leicestershire 2 Day Friendly at Trent Bridge

Day 2

Day two began with overcast skies and with the floodlights switched on. A breeze blew across the ground from the direction of the river at Lady Bay and this made it feel decidedly "Baltic" and resulted in the Leicestershire having a jumper swap through-out the 60 overs with multiple duplicate players on the pitch for much of the time..


Raine and Wells opened the bowling with a tardy over rate. The fielding side were clearly up for the challenge, vocal and chirpy when bowling to Greg Smith. Brendan Taylor on the other hand, gave little away, blocked anything with a good line and ignored anything wayward, so the fielding mood was much more subdued when bowling to him. BT left a lot and defended the rest during his morning vigil and retired not out at lunch. Greg Smith however played so nice shots in his innings of 40 out of an opening stand of 60 before falling to a catch behind off the best Foxes' bowler of the day, Wayne White. James joined Brendan and the Taylors took Notts to lunch.

Over lunch Brendan Taylor retired and so on resumption, Micharl Lumb took his place. In contrast, Lumb played fluidly from the start, timed the ball well and generally looked in good-nick. It was no surprise when Lumb reached his 50 and then he and James Taylor, on 44*, both retired at the end of that particular over.

Samit Patel came in with Brett Hutton, Samit hitting his first two balls for a 4 and then a 6. Hutton was unfortunately trapped LBW for duck to a low one and was quickly followed by Luke Wood, chipping the same bowler, Naik, to Shreck for 4. Will Gidman came and initially only dealt in boundaries, looking to be in reasonable batting form, timing the ball almost as well as Lumb.

Patel was ultimately out caught on the boundary by Wayne White, masquerading as Wells. Jake Ball thrashed a rapid 17, leaving young Jack Blatherwick to see out the remaining balls with Gidman, Notts making 255/5 in their 60 overs.

After tea, Leicestershire's top order tucked-into  the young attack, cashing in with 141/1 after their 30 overs. 

A good work out for Notts, but it was "blinking code". DDG

Day 1

The match was played to four-day regulations like yesterday’s 50-over match but the format was slightly different. Leicestershire had 60 overs to bat today in two sessions of play while Nottinghamshire batted for the final session and will have the first 60 overs tomorrow.

Aadil Ali made a wonderful unbeaten 106 as Leicestershire scored 259-5 from their allocation of overs. Niall O’Brien made a second successive half-century and Ben Raine chipped in with 42 not out.

Ali and O’Brien came together with the score on 50-3 after Paul Horton (6), Lewis Hill (5) and Mark Pettini (16) fell to Luke Wood, Harry Gurney and Will Gidman respectively.

At the start of the day Notts opened up their bowling effort with the two left-arm pace men, Wood and Gurney. Neither gave much away in a challenging passage of play for the Leicestershire top order pair, Paul Horton and Lewis Hill.

Horton (6) was first to succumb to the pressure, losing his off pole to a delivery from Wood that just shaped back in before flattening the stump.

Wicketkeeper Tom Moores was then cruelly debited with four byes when a Gurney delivery swung prodigiously down the leg side and away from him on its way to the fine leg fence.

A happier moment was just around the corner for Moores, though. Lewis Hill had taken 22 deliveries to get off the mark and had only reached five when he nicked Gurney behind.

Mark Pettini made a stylish 16 but fell in the 15th over to the first bowling change of the day. Will Gidman’s pre-season tour was disrupted by an ankle injury in Barbados but a clean bill of health produced a toe-crunching yorker to trap the former Essex captain lbw for 16. 

Wicket-keeper O’Brien (50) and Ali then added 97 for the fourth wicket in a highly entertaining partnership. After the Ireland international departed to Gurney the ball after he reached fifty, Wayne White scored 13 before dragging a delivery from Samit Patel on to his stumps.

Raine was aggressive and helped Ali share an unbroken 91 for the sixth wicket. The youngster moved to his landmark off 152 balls with 16 fours and a maximum.

Nottinghamshire progressed to 116 without loss from their 30 overs in reply with Chris Read unbeaten on 69 and Jake Libby 46 not out.

Chris Read and Jake Libby had a fairly trouble-free passage in adding their first 50 inside only 12 overs. The Club Captain, in particular, timed the ball sweetly on both sides of the wicket as Raine and Charlie Shreck struggled to build any pressure.

A straight six off James Sykes took Read to a sparkling 50 (81 balls 1x6 8x4) in the 20th over and he repeated the treatment by hoisting the same bowler over deep midwicket.

Libby provided the perfect foil, content to rotate the strike or punish width and a sweet clip through the leg side brought up the century stand in the 24th over.

In bright sunlight an absorbing day of cricket concluded with the two batsmen remaining in full control before walking off together after a very impressive two-hour partnership.

Reported extracted from both Notts and Leics websites

Preview

Notts have released their squad for the two day "warm-up" practice game against our southerly neighbours Leicestershire, starting tomorrow.


With weather conditions unlikely to be warming, an extended squad have been lined-up to share the conditions and to maximise important playing time in the middle for all players.

Jake Ball, Matt Carter, Anuj Dal, Will Gidman, Harry Gurney, Brett Hutton, Ben Kitt, Jake Libby, Michael Lumb, Steven Mullaney, Samit Patel, Chris Read,  Greg Smith, Brendan Taylor , James Taylor, Riki Wessels, Luke Wood.