Notts Outlaws Vitality T20 Blast Block One Review

 

02/07

BLAST BLOCK ONE REVIEW

To summarise Outlaws performances in the first block of Blast matches in one word, disappointing, would be being generous.

Disappointing performances, disappointing team selections, disappointing crowds, disappointing weather... would you pay thirty quid for an evening of disappointment and feeling cold?

Outlaws blasted off on cool evening with below expectations crowd and lost heavily to a stellar David Willey led Steelbacks.

The following day at the show piece Blast Off double header at Egbaston, Outlaws lost out again being bogged down by spin. Coach Moores opting not to go the tried and test approach used by the vast majority of clubs worldwide in T20 these days, and only employed one full time spinner as opposed to the norm of three or more. Fletch got injured too to end his campaign (probably).

Another poor crowd on another cool evening at Trent Bridge saw another disappointing defeat to a rag-tag misfit Rapids, overseas Young not firing big or fluid for a third game. Outlaws let down by their top order and their unbalanced bowling set up. Same problems leading to the same result.

Another cool night at Derby hailed another embarrassing, crushing defeat at the hands of Samit Patel's Falcons, familiar problems hadn't been addressed by the head coach for a fourth game on the bounce.

Game six again at home and another poor crowd, saw Liam Patterson-White make his belated debut in T20 cricket against Lightning. Another defeat, but a glimmer of hope for the Outlaw diehards with LPW showing some big hitting prowess to boost a below par score which was comfortably chased down by the table toppers.

Worcester was the soggy scene of Outlaws duck breaking, DLS first win, Alex Hales showing his vast experience and matchplay nous, getting us over line by the slimmest of margins.

Another point was gained as even more rain ended the match with Durham in the first power play, a match which saw Ben Martindale making his debut at the expense of Will Young (av 9.33 from his 6 starts).

The last game in the block was a narrow win over Falcons, a game littered by tactical errors on both sides but hopefully a result that will provide a platform to build on for the rest of the competition, with both Lyndon James and Liam Patterson-White showing great courage and resilience. For the mediocre crowd at Trent Bridge, it was the first match this season to have traces of the old pre-H*ndred Trent Bridge vibe. The weather was decent too.

With Alex Hales now gone to Sri Lanka, will Peter Moores, in his tenth season at Trent Bridge, continue to invest in bringing in new younger players through from the second XI or will he revert to his preferred, familiar tried and failed favourites?

There's a suggestion Ben Duckett will be available for game nine and of course we have the Afghanistani Fazalhaq Farooqi coming in for Ben Lister, if that is still the case. [Pravda have now mentioned his arrival for the weekend.] We might know more after Thursday's SET20 back to backs against Yorkshire at Weetwood, but don't hold your breath.

28/05

DOORS OPENING?

Before the inception of The H*ndred, the cornerstone of the Notts business plan (outside of hosting International fixtures) was to pack a T20 team with plenty of big names with proven pedigrees and bag a home quarter-final drawing-in bigger and bigger crowds towards that Q/F climax.That plan generally worked.

There's been no pretense in 2024, the old plan is long dead. Some might say that the Blast isn't important to Trent Bridge dot com anymore, their fish is frying in a different pan these days and that'll be a Teflon 100.

So what are Notts Outlaws' chances in 2024? Well we've certainly been dragged-back to the rest of the pack. The experienced players of even last year have all gone: Patel, Mullaney, Munro, Carter, Ball, Afridi - gone. The experience of Alex Hales is only strictly limited this year too, as he goes chasing faraway paydays during his already shortened commitment to Notts.

As it stands the composition of the squad is probably a mystery to all but Peter Moores. Did Samit's departure open a door of Liam Patterson-White, who has been so far allowed little experience at T20 cricket, now add to that the recent release of Matt Carter and who will bowl his overs in 2024, Fateh Singh? Pace-off has proved to be key to Outlaws success in the past. Steven Mullaney had been a lynchpin in many of Daniel Christian's triumphs with the Outlaws, so who have we got that offers that kind of option? We might have to buck the trend and move away from the universally successful pace-off strategy in T20 cricket.

Last year we plugged some of the gaps by signing a stellar overseas name or two, but this year our DoC has been uncharacteristically canny or perhaps some would say that the jury's out on his choices. 

So with this new squad of largely inexperienced heads with important roles to perform, you'd say we needed to have an experienced leader, but we haven't! We have a brand new captain.

As the door closed after some old wise heads' departures, you'd hope another door would open for some new emerging talent and not for another fish out of water dalliance with familar names, as we had last year. 

We all know which players aren't suited to T20 cricket, well we all do except for.... you know who! 

Do Outlaws have any strengths that they can build a team around? Obviously yes: if Pennington and Stone remain fit and the Trent Bridge wickets can be encouraged to have bounce and carry; with the addition of the overseas bowlers in relay, that's 60% of the bowling taken care of. Joe Clarke opening the batting with Hales/and or another, with the bulk of the heavy lifting having to come from the openers, Young, Monty and dare I say Tumbling Tom. You can imagine that Peter Moores has got Hameed, Slater and James in mind to make-up numbers but all three have shown that their strengths are best served in other formats of the game. Sammy King is an obvious candidate to come in with license to clear the ropes as is Fateh Singh but Peter Moores moves to change slower than the continents shift and the only young player to get his chance is likely to named just that, Will Young.

We might have known more about Peter's plans after the games in the North-east early this week, but both games have now fallen foul of the weather. How well Outlaws will fair isn't as clear-cut as it has been in recent years but a quarter final ought to be in our target sights as much as anyone else's. Any team could string a good run together and the weather can be a good leveller and there aren't many world stars around at any county because of the World Cup. Come on Notts!

23/03

Alex Hales will only be available for the first eight of these fixture "having got a better offer"  from the Lanka Premier League which takes place during July. Should Outlaws reach the knock-out stages of the Blast, Hales could return then, if selected. Newell spins it on Pravda Hales' gig with Trent parasites R*ckets remains unaffected.

Six minute review of the fixtures by DoC Newell, men and "girls".

After the PCA, in the interest of players' welfare, wanted less/no back to back fixtures - is there an increase in such scheduling in 2024?

Date	Day	Opposition	Venue	Days off since last match*
31 May	Fri	NORTHANTS STEELBACKS	TB	3
1 June	Sat	Bears	Edgbaston	0
6	Thu	W RAPIDS	TB	4
7	Fri	Derbyshire F	Derby	0
9	Sun	LANCS LIGHTNING	TB	1
14	Fri	Worcs Rapids	New Road	4
15	Sat	DURHAM	TB	0
21	Fri	DERBYSHIRE FALCONS	TB	5
5 July	Fri	LEICS FOXES	TB	1
7	Sun	BEARS	TB	1
12	Fri	Durham	CLS	4
14	Sun	Leicesters Foxes	Grace Road	1
17	Wed	Lancs Lightning	Old Trafford	2
19	Fri	Yorkshire Vik	Headingley	1

*competive match scheduled

Only 3 lucrative Friday night fixtures at Trent Bridge, oddly.