Worcestershire Rapids at Trent Bridge Vitality T20 Blast Loss 0 pts Report

 

OUTLAWS FLOP AGAIN AS SMITH STEALS THE SHOW

Notts Batting Failing For Third Time

Notts lost once more after making a pig’s ear of what should have been an easy run chase against a depleted Worcestershire side (without skipper D’Oliveira) last night at Trent Bridge.

Worcestershire won the toss and elected to bat on a cool evening in front of a poor crowd, no doubt effected by Notts poor start to the season. Pennington came in Fletcher who has a hamstring injury. This was the only change despite the obvious imbalance to the team and the long tail containing batsmen who cannot clear the rope. Coach Moores stubbornly postponing having to be make tough and difficult decisions. With the surface very much two paced and a difficult to time the ball, Notts only played one specialist spinner.

Notts dominated the opening quarter of a game before letting the visitors off the hook. Pollock hit Lister (Radcliffe Road End) for successive boundaries off the second and third deliveries of the opening over, the other four balls being not scored off. Waite edged Pennington for four and three balls later cover drove him to the ropes. The last ball was top edged for six by Pollock, 17 off the second over. Waite (11) top edged Stone to Pennington to short fine leg, 25 for 1. Pollock (16) lost his middle stump to Stone, 28 for 2; three off the third over. Hose was dropped on 0 by Moores diving to his right of Pennington, a crucial miss, one run off the 4th over. Cobb drove Stone for 4 and Hose straight drove him to the boundary, nine off the 5th over. Cobb (11) hit Pennington for a straight four but next ball holed out to Harrison on the deep square leg ropes, 42 for 3. Brookes hit Pennington to the point boundary. Worcestershire 50 for 3 after 6 overs.

The Pears lost three more wickets in the next three overs with Notts seemingly in a match winning position. Brookes was run out for 6 by Jack Haynes, running to fine leg, hesitating going for a two off Harrison, 52 for 4. Four off the 7th over. Jones (1) hit Lister straight down James's throat at long leg, 55 for 5. Taylor was dropped on 0 by Haynes at deep square leg but was dismissed the very next ball bowled by Harrison, going for an expansive legside shot, for 2, 58 for 6, two off the 9th over. Montgomery was introduced in the 10th over and the pressure was released, from this point Worcestershire dominated with Hose (36 off 37 balls, 3x4, 1x6) and Smith (51 not out, 5x4, 2x6) adding a match winning 82 in 9.3 overs for the seventh wicket.

Smith pulled Montgomery for successive legside fours. Worcestershire 69 for 6 after 10 overs. Eleven off Montgomery’s only over. Harrison conceded four off the 11th over. Smith hit James for 6 over long on, 10 off the 12th over. Harrison (4-0-14-1) went for four singles off his last over. Harrison along with Lister, the only two Notts players on the night who could say had performed well. Smith hit James for fours through extra cover and backward square leg, 11 off the 14th over. Hose hit Pennington (4-0-39-1) for six over square leg. Worcestershire 107 for 6 off 15 overs.

Smith hit Lister for six over long on, 12 including 2 leg byes off the 16th over. Smith hit Stoke for a legside four then Hose ramped him for four and then pulled Stone to the long leg boundary, 18 off the 17th over, Worcestershire now very much in the contest. Lister (4-0-20-2) bowled an outstanding last over conceding a single and two leg byes before bowling Hose with a slower delivery with his last ball, 140 for 7. Smith got to his 50 off 33 balls with a single off Stone (4-0-34-2), four off the 19th over. Walsh edged James for 4. Walsh was out next ball caught by Hales at long on, 148 for 8. Roderick (5 not out) was dropped on 2 by Moores stretching above his head off James (3-0-30-1). The stumper injuring his shoulder in the process, he continued after treatment Worcestershire closed on 154 for 8. The fifth and sixth bowler for Notts proving a weak link.

Notts entered a tricky chase knowing that if the top three failed the game was up. They all departed within the powerplay. Clarke leg glanced Smith for 4, seven off the first over. Clarke hit Taylor to the extra cover ropes. Clarke (9) was caught and bowled by Taylor, 11 for 1 in the 2nd over. Finch went for 5 off the third over. The out of form Hales (5) was caught at deep square leg off Smith, 18 for 2. Just one run off the 4th over. Taylor went for 4 off the 5th over. Haynes (11) hit Finch for a straight six but was adjudged lbw to the next ball, 29 for 3. Notts a paltry 30 for 3 at the end of the powerplay. The destination of the contest already decided.

The Notts batsmen were struggling to time the ball and reach the ropes. The statistics are telling, Worcestershire hitting 16 fours and four sixes against 8 fours and 2 sixes for Notts. Ethan Brookes went for eight for the 7th over and Walsh six off the 8th over. Young hit Brookes for 4 through mid-wicket, 10 off the over. Cobb went for 7, Notts 61 for 3 off 10 overs.

Young cut Walsh to the point ropes, 10 off the 11th over. Although scoring too slowly, Young and Montgomery were at least consolidating, their 4th wicket partnership of 44 lasting 6 overs. They were out to successive balls. Montgomery (20) was caught in the covers by Pollock off Taylor. James, who came in above the injured Moores, hit his first delivery to bowler Taylor who deflected the ball onto his stumps with the unlucky Young (25 off 27 balls) well out of his crease, 73 for 5 in the 12th over. Young has an uninspiring T20 record and apart from his mammoth innings at Taunton has disappointed this season. The crowd were once again leaving in great numbers after an insipid and uninspired batting performance.

Walsh conceded five off the 13th over. Cobb (2-0-13-0) went for 6 in the 14th over. James (7 off 11 balls) was caught on the mid-wicket ropes by Jones off Walsh (4 0 25 1), 90 for 6 after 15 overs. Finch went for 6 in the 16th over. Harrison (19) scooped Taylor (4-0-23-2) for 4, but he was run out off the last ball going for a single to Hose in the covers and losing his footing, 105 for 7. Moores, clearly in discomfort with his shoulder, edged Smith for 4, eight off the 18th over. Stone (14 not out) hit Finch (4-0-28-1) for four through extra cover and ramped him to boundary, 11 off the 19th over. Moores (20 not out off 15 balls) hit Smith for 6 over mid-wicket in the last over. Notts limping to a sorry 134 for 7 off 20 overs had comfortably lost a low scoring contest by 20 runs. A very satisfying win for a Worcestershire side against a Notts team fielding three of their former players.

The Notts batting line-up is weak, lacking hitting power and desperately short of confidence. Will coach Moores finally make belated changes. The punters not happy with an inspiring match and a Notts batting line-up lacking fight. The pressure very much on, with the local Derby tonight. If the current run continues it will cost the club considerably gate money. Both home games have been poorly attended as the fans vote their feet. Notts just one win in 10 competitive games in 2024. MAG

Match day... hoping for a surprise.

If the eleven isn't: Clarke, Hales, Young, Montgomery, Haynes, Moores, James, Harrison, Stone, Pennington, Lister; I'll be very much surprised.

Patterson-White, Martindale and Pettman all playing at Worksop in the  first match

All three are absent from the  second match after victory in the first which saw some tight bowling from Pettman and Patterson-White and a run chase finished off by Freddie Mccann and Dane Schadendorf.

Ben Slater opening the batting with a South African 22 year old LHB trialist, Jack Lees, who's currently doing the rounds at different counties.

Rapids will be from: Jake Libby, Josh Cobb, Matthew Waite, Ed Pollock, Gareth Roderick, Tom Taylor, Brett D'Oliveira, Nathan Smith, Ben Gibbons, Adam Hose, Adam Finch, Ethan Brookes, Hayden Walsh and Rob Jones.

Squad of 14:

Ben Martindale

Joe Clarke

Alex Hales

Will Young

Matt Montgomery

Jack Haynes

Liam Patterson-White

Lyndon James

Calvin Harrison

Olly Stone

Dillion Pennington

Toby Pettman

Ben Lister

Tom Moores

05/06

Pravda are doing the ground work for a Haseeb Hameed Blast return, it's got a Peter Moores risk adverse, backward step written all over it... but not quite yet.

04/06

Featuring eight players from their last Blast fixture at the weekend, Derbyshire posted 206/4 in their 20 overs in the first game at Worksop College. Notts were 125/3 in the 15th over when rain intervened (12 runs behind par). The Notts XI featuring only Hameed and Slater that have Blast experience.

Both games at Worksop featured a similar pattern, both won by the visitors.

Match 1 Match 2

So why didn't Notts use these games to give certain players that haven't yet fired in the Blast 2024 the opportunity find some form in readiness for the coming group games?

Two defeats in the two games played, it's not the end of the world, nor is it the end of the tournament but it is a strong indicator that something has to change.

Eight wins from the last twelve should secure a quarter-final place away from home, so has the coach got it in him - the force to bring about change?

If you read the competition preview on this blog, you may remember that it was expected that the modern world-wide approach to bowler strategy would be followed, ie slow the bowling down, make the batsmen put the pace on the ball, select multiple spin options for the captain to switch and changeabout. However, Peter Moores has gone his own way and hasn't followed the tried and tested approach.

The departure at the last minute of Matt Carter must have been a hammer blow for the head coach and he hasn't yet had time to react, as change comes so slowly to him. The three pronged pace-on assault did relatively well at Edgbaston, but how much more control might three spinners have had? Certainly Bears used a double complement of spin (compared to Outlaws) and won the game with some comfort. So why did Matt Carter leave so unexpectedly and at the last minute, "by mutual consent" (whatever that really means)? Supporters and those others that shell out their hard earned cash on match days deserve a better explanation Trent Bridge dot com.

Samit Patel is seeing something of a renaissance in this first week of his honeymoon at Derbyshire, but the writing had been on the wall at Notts for Samit for two or three years; he had stayed too long (in collusion with a change-adverse coach) and we saw that development of alternative bowlers had stopped, as did development of middle order batting muscle. We are seeing the results of that now; no spin bowler with any T20 match experience that can now walk into the team (now that Samit has left / Matt Carter has been ejected) and no one batting outside of the top four that can hit a ball over the boundary with regularity. These are the failures of this management team. Mr Moores did not inherit this problem, this situation is of his own making. Steven Mullaney's decline and role change can't have come as a surprise to the coach either, but little preparation for the transition took place.

I think Peter Moores sees change as risk, and that he by his own nature tries to eliminate risks. I think he'll have to take a risk or two if we're going to find our next Samit Patel. 

The second eleven have two SET20 matches at Worksop College on Tuesday, team selection ought to be more competitive than usual, but will it?