Durham Vitality T20 Blast at Riverside, Chester le Street Loss 0 pts

 

OUTLAWS SPUN OUT AGAIN

Durham comfortably beat Notts by 30 runs at the Riverside last night. An unchanged Notts won the toss and elected to bowl on a cold evening. The feature of the games up in the North East season is the slowness of the pitches and a pace off approach is the only option. Notts had not done their homework and Patterson-White was only given two overs. With Durham 106-6 after 16 overs, Notts reverted to timetable and as a result Turner and Raine blasted 50 runs off 4 overs with Stone going for 34. The game over! Notts batting was woeful once again 46-1 became 96-9 in just over nine overs. It was left to last pair Stone and Farooqi to at least put a bit of respectability on the total.

Light rain was falling for most of the Durham innings on another bleak weather day. Montgomery (Finchale End) conceded nine off the first over, including a legside boundary for Clark. Farooqi bowled Clark for 6 off the fourth ball of the second over,  12 for one. The right hander dragging a wide ball onto his stumps. Robinson guided Stone's opening two deliveries to the fine leg ropes, 10 off the third over. Farooqi conceded six off the 4th over. Stone went for five singles in the 5th over. Montgomery (2 0 19 0) conceded 10 runs off the last over of the powerplay. Durham 45-1 off 6 overs.

Lees hit James for consecutive straight boundaries, 15 off the seventh over including four leg byes. Harrison went for four singles off the 8th over. Robinson (21) drove James straight to Martindale at mid off, 66 for 2. Three balls later, James had Lees (29) playing onto his leg stump; 67 for 3. Three of the 9th over. James ending the night with career best T20 bowling figures. Harrison went for five singles in the 10th over. James conceded 7 off the 11th over. Ackermann hit Harrison for a straight boundary, 8 off the 12th over including a leg bye.

Patterson-White conceded six singles off the 13th over. Harrison (4 0 20 0) went for four singles in his last over. Ackermann (20) was caught at deep mid wicket by Harrison off Patterson-White, 98 for 4. Four balls later, Jones skied Patterson-White (2 0 9 2) to Montgomery at backward point, 100 for 5 off 15 overs.

Turner guided James to the third man ropes. De Leede (0) tamely hit James (4 0 31 3) to Harrison on the mid wicket ropes, 106 for 6, 10 off the 16th over. Notts lost the plot from this point onwards with Patterson-White unbelievably not given another over.

The last four overs were an absolute nightmare for with Turner (44 not out off 31 balls, 4x4) and Raine (23 not out off 13 balls, 2x4, 1x6) scoring 50 runs. Stone was hit for a straight boundary by Raine, 13 off the 17th over including 4 leg byes. Farooqi conceded three singles off the 18th over. Turner edged Stone for 4, next ball Turner drove him to mid off ropes.  Raine then found the point ropes.  The last ball Raine deposited Stone (4 0 45 0) over the mid wicket ropes, 21 off the penultimate over. Turner hit Farooqi (4 0 27 1) for a straight four , 13 off the last over. Durham 20 runs over par at 160 for 6 off 20 overs.

The sunshine appeared between the innings. Clarke swept Parkinson (Finchale End) for four, 5 off the opening over. Dwarshuis only conceded a single off the second over. De Leede presented Martindale (2) with a juicy full toss but somehow all the left hander could do is sky the ball into Robinson's gloves who was running towards fine leg: 6 for 1. Slater guided de Leede to the backward point ropes, 5 off the third over. Clarke lofted Dwarshuis to the mid wicket ropes, nine off the 4th over. Slater hooked De Leede for 6 over backward square leg and next ball went for 6 over mid wicket hitting a spectator in the members enclosure, 14 off the over including a leg bye. Clarke hit Raine for consecutive fours through extra cover and mid off. Two balls later Clarke inside edged a ball from Raine onto his pads, the ball going to the fine leg ropes  Clarke (23) perished the following delivery, caught at mid off by Lees off Raine, 46 for 2. Next ball went for five wides down the legside with Robinson standing up. Notts 51-2 at the end of the powerplay, six ahead of Durham at the same stage albeit with an extra wicket lost.

Parkinson returned and had Slater (20) lbw to his first delivery, 51 for 3. Moores (0) first ball went for 2 byes, but very predictably he fell for yet another duck edging his second ball through to Robinson, 53 for 4. Sowter went for four in the 8th over. Parkinson got a delivery to stop in the pitch and Haynes (3) popped the ball to Lees diving forwards at cover, 60 for 5 in the 9th over. Sowter conceded four off the 10th over. Parkinson (4 0 15 3) went for six off his last over. James (7) was comprehensively bowled by a turning delivery from Sowter, 75 for 6 after 12 overs.

Montgomery hit Raine for four through wide third man. The next ball he edged for four. Ball three was hit four through backward square leg. The next ball was lofted boundary over the head of mid on, 17 off the 13th over. Montgomery (30) fell to catch right on the mid wicket ropes by Clark off Sowter (4 0 15 2), 94 for 7. Three off Sowter's last over. Ackermann came on and had Patterson-White (1) caught at backward point by de Leede, 96 for 8. Just one off the over. Harrison (2) was caught on the square leg ropes by Clark off Dwarshuis,  96 for 9. Farooqi hit Dwarshuis to cover ropes, eight off 16th over. Farooqi hit Ackermann (2 0 10 1) for 6 over long on, 10 off the 17th over. Dwarshuis (4 0 22 1) conceded four off the 18th over. Raine (3 0 37 1) returned and went for three off over number 19. The last over was bowled by de Leede (3 0 27 1) and went for nine includimg a sliced four by Stone through third man. Notts 130 for 9 off 20 overs with Stone and Farooqi both unbeaten on 16. The unbroken last wicket partnership was worth 34 lasting 29 balls the highest ever recorded for Notts in T20 cricket. Notts now rooted to bottom spot with Worcestershire beating Warwickshire.

Fletcher,  bringing some much needed team spirit, along with King and Schadendorf would be in my line up for Sunday. Stone, Martindale and Moores being the three left out. However, we all know that this will be very unlikely to happen. MAG

Lyndon James put on the spot this time but he doesn't explain why Clarke under bowled Patterson-White.

I believe that I know what I am doing, but I might be alone in that belief.

Spectator information for the Riverside

Read Belligerent Martindale from Pravda who redefine what the Notts Academy is,  as it now encompasses Kwa-Zulu Natal, Somerset and Oxford University, all of which must keep Mr Newell a busy boy keeping a beady eye of those pathways.

Not one for surprises, Peter Moores has announced the same squad that got mauled and eaten alive at the weekend:

Joe Clarke
Ben Martindale

Ben Slater

Jack Haynes

Matt Montgomery

Tom Moores

Lyndon James

Liam Patterson-White

Calvin Harrison

Ollly Stone

Fazalhaq Farooqi

Luke Fletcher

Sammy King

Toby Pettman

Having just watched Yorkshire Vikings make light work of beating Durham, the commentary reminded me of a concept which has been forgotten by Notts this year (not that we have been realistically in any chase so far), the concept being that of someone that would be considered "a finisher". Remember we used to employ Dan Christian as our finisher, so who would you consider to be our finisher from the list above?

Rapids beating Foxes sends Outlaws to the bottom of the league again.

The crushing defeat at the paws of the Bears on Sunday, feels like a point from which Notts Outlaws will be measured in the future from; a low point and hopefully our nadir. From here on in, Notts should build for the future!

In the last four matches, new faces must appear in the eleven, there's less pressure now, the campaign is lost. Yes any youngster will have self imposed pressure to succeed and to oust a regular senior player, but there's no better time to find out who's got what it takes and upset a few apple carts.

There has to be some casualties from Peter Moores' list of favourites. The coach's skill, and it's what he's paid to do, is required to find that blend of players and have a balanced eleven with the power to play T20 cricket, something that he's failed to achieve this year! He will be tested and judged. Is he up to the task?

England U19 commitments allowing, Freddie McCann and Farhan Ahmed have to be given a chance to see if they can step up again at these early stages of their careers, as at every step to this point, they both have done so with flying colours.

We've seen in previous One Day Cup campaigns that Sammy King and Fateh Singh can wallop a ball on occasion; Liam Patterson-White apart, outside the top order the current Outlaws eleven have been found lacking in the walloping department. There's two names straight in for Friday's team, sack whoever you like from your previous attempts Peter. 

The club clearly rate Ben Martindale, as they've been generous in the length of contract he's been given (until the end of 2026), but we're not seeing any potential for him as an opener at the moment, there's too many dot balls and not enough strike rotation (surely the objective with a left and right hander combination at the crease), but with the pressure off he may now florish, or perhaps Peter could try batting him in another position. Remember the Jake Libby 2.0 of a few years back? Was he first batting at 9, but that soon changed...