Lancashire Lightning Vitality Blast T20 Finale at Trent Bridge Win 4 pts Report

 

18/07

TOM MOORES THE STAND-OUT BATSMAN 

as spin dominates at Trent Bridge 

In a dead rubber game, Notts beat group winners Lancashire by 4 wickets to end their mixed T20 campaign on a winning note.

Lancashire won the toss and elected to bat in front of a crowd of around 7,500. Sam Seecharan made his first team debut and also coming back into the team was his fellow teenager Farhan Ahmed along with Lyndon James. Out went McCann, Henriques and Pennington.

The pitch was being used for the third consecutive time and was tired, worn and taking spin. A low scoring encounter was expected.

Lancashire raced to 38-0 off the first 19 balls of their innings. Ten came off the opening over - Salt smashing Stone (Radcliffe Road End) tor six over square leg. Jennings hit Montgomery for a straight six and a straight four; 11 off the second over. Salt lofted Stone (2-0-23-0) for a straight four and a boundary through square leg; 13 off the third over. Jennings (20) hit Farhan for a four through point but the off spinner bowled him next ball – a spinning delivery hitting middle and leg – the former England left-hander bamboozled (38 for 1); five off the 4th over. Patterson-White picked up two wickets in 4 balls in the fifth over. Another big turning delivery bowled Salt (18) off stump (40 for 2). Wells attempting a reverse sweep against the turning ball was lbw for a three ball duck (40 for 3), one off the 5th over. Buttler hit Sams for four through extra cover, seven off the 6th over. Lancashire 47 for 3 off 6 overs.

Patterson-White conceded three off the 7th over. Montgomery topped and tailed his opening over with wickets. He bowled Buttler (9) off stump. Turner (4) switched hit the off spinner straight to Farhan at short third man (53 for 5), three off the 8th over. Lancashire in disarray. Hurst and Green got them out of the hole by adding 63 in 9 overs. Patterson-White conceded three off the 9th over. Green hit Montgomery for six over mid-wicket, 9 off the over. Lancashire 65 for 5 off 10 overs.

Harrison conceded five off the 11th over. Hurst hit Sams (2-0-14-0) for four through extra cover’ 7 off the 12th over. Notts stuck with an all-spin attack for the remaining 8 overs of the Lancashire innings. Harrison went for four in the 13th over. Green hit Farhan for a cover driven boundary. Hurst hit Farhan for a six over long on; 13 off the 14th over. Hurst reverse swept Patterson-White (4 0 14 2) for four through backward point; seven off the over. Lancashire 101 for 5 off 15 overs.

A short ball from Montgomery (4 0 32 2) was clubbed for six over long on by Hurst, nine off the 16th over. Lancashire’s innings had a dramatic end as they lost their last five wickets for 10 runs off the final 19 deliveries of their innings. Top scorer Hurst (36 off 32 balls; 1x4, 2x6) was run out attempting a two off Harrison, Stone with the throw to Moores from extra cover – the right hander well short; 116 for 6 off 17 overs. Next ball, Green (29) was caught with his hands clasped above his head by Sams on the mid-wicket ropes (116 for 7) – a second wicket for Farhan four off the 18th over. Harrison (4 0 17 0) conceded two runs plus a leg bye off the 19th over. The Lancashire innings ended in dramatic style as 17-year-old Farhan became the first man to take a T20 hat trick for Notts. Hartley and Wood had scored three runs off the opening three deliveries of the last over. Then Luke Wood (5) reverse swept Farhan straight to Seecharan at short third man; 126 for 8. Aspinwall fell first ball via an excellent catch by Harrison diving forwards at deep backward square leg. Harrison has taken 17 catches during the T20 campaign only Northants stumper Lewis McManus with 19 has taken more. Stanley charged the hat trick ball and missed and was stumped by Moores, a hat trick for Farhan and final figures of 4-0-25-5. Only Graeme White has better innings figures for Notts in T20 matches taking 5-22 also against Lancashire at Trent Bridge in 2013. Darren Pattinson took 5-25 at Edgbaston against Warwickshire in 2011. The other 5-wicket bag for Notts was the 5-26 taken by Richard Logan versus Lancashire in the competitions inaugural year of 2003. Lancashire 126 all out off 20 overs with Hartley 4 not out – a disappointing total for the visitors. The quartet of Notts spinners had bowled 16 overs and had taken 9-88.

Any thoughts of an easy chase for Notts were soon erased as they lost four wickets for 4 runs in 13 balls. Clarke (5) cover drove Wood for four but departed three balls later caught at mid-wicket by Wells (6 for 1). Seecharan (1) was caught and bowled by the leaping Hartley who took the drilled return above his head (6 for 2). Montgomery (4) hit a full toss from Hartley to the mid-wicket ropes but two balls later departed leg before attempting a sweep shot off Hartley, 10 for 3 off 2 overs. Haynes (4) hit Wood to the point ropes but miscued the left arm seamer to Salt who took the catch in the covers (14 for 4), 4 off the third over. James dropped anchor and Notts T20 leading scorer for 2025 Tom Moores (459 runs @45.90; strike rate 157.19) went for his shots with the game turning decisively with 81 added for the fifth wicket in 8.5 overs.

Moores chipped Hartley for four over mid-wicket; 5 off the 4th over. Moores lofted Wood (3-0-20-2) for four over long on and then pulled him for four over fine leg; 10 off the 5th over. Moores hit Hartley for a six over mid-wicket and the following ball went to the cover boundary. Two balls later he got a four through backward point, 15 off the over. Notts 44 for 4 off 6 overs.

Off-spinner Green conceded two boundaries in the 7th over which went for 11. Moores and James both finding the extra cover ropes. Wells went for seven off the 8th over. Moores hit Green for six over mid-wicket and then hit a full toss to the point ropes. A single to long off brought Moores his 50 off 23 balls, 12 off the 9th over. Aspinwall went for 5 in his only over of the contest. Notts 79 for 4 off 10 overs looking comfortable.

James smashed Stanley for a straight four, eight off the 11th over. Moores hit Wells for a six over long off. James (20 off 24 balls; 2x4) was bowled by a turning delivery from Wells (95 for 5). Sams hit his first ball from Wells (2-0-21-1) for six over long on; 14 off the 12th over. Off-spinner Turner went for five in the 13th over – his only over of the innings. The buccaneering Moores hit Hartley (4-0-37-2) for six over square leg and then Sams hit the slow left-armer for a straight four, 13 off the 14th over. Green (3-0-29-0) went for 6 off the 15th over. Mitch Stanley (1.2-0-10-0) returned for the 16th over. Sams went for a two to win the game but Moores (75 off 42 balls; 7x4, 4x6) was run out by a direct hit from Green positioned at deep mid-wicket (126-6). At 21:02, Sams (17 not out) tapped the next delivery on the legside and ran an easy single to win the game for Notts (127-6) with 28 balls to spare.

Back to back sixes by former Notts seamer Matt Milnes off the final two deliveries of the match at Grace Road meant that Notts went above the Foxes to finish sixth in the Northern Group standings. However, Notts appalling net run rate meant that they were six points off quarter-final qualification and missed out for the third time in four seasons. Notts’ fell victim to poor overseas recruitment and the fact that it took them deep into the tournament to realise they had to play on slow pitches at home. The seam bowling resources available were just far too light and predictable. The batting, if anything, probably exceeded expectation with Tom Moores having the season of his career, currently lying sixth in the leading T20 run scorers for 2025 a list headed by D’Arcy Short of Gloucestershire with 551 runs. MAG

Silver Fox talking about exposure, adds Sam Seecharan back into the squad, surely to get a game this time. Likewise with Ben Martindale.

Sam had a strike rate of 182 for the SET competition, only bettered by Dane Schadendorf. Ben's 158.

Full stats here

Joe Clarke

Ben Martindale
Freddie McCann
Jack Haynes
Moises Henriques

Sam Seecharan
Tom Moores
Lyndon James
Matt Montgomery
Daniel Sams
Liam Patterson-White
Calvin Harrison
Rob Lord
Olly Stone
Dillon Pennington
Farhan Ahmed

Billed as a"finale", yet circumstances mean this is effectively a "dead rubber" with nothing other than four points at stake.

Win, lose or draw Lancashire will probably win the group and certainly will have a home quarter-final to look forward to, unless their own particular shaped county cricket resenting executives have scheduled some other event for Old Trafford at the beginning of September and the match is taken to another venue (again).

Notts are playing for pride, not Pride, this week as Silver Fox believes an end result of 7 wins and 7 losses holds no shame - its all part of the [team] building process but only after he allowed the old team to go to seed and had to cut the dead wood away. No gradual transition, always looking forward to the future; only maximise today and forget about tomorrow, sell them tickets! 

From the sound of it Silver Fox isn't in the ultra optimistic camp that believes Outlaws can win and qualify with 28 points, over coming the worst net run rate in the north garnered over several crushing one-sided defeats, with one cracking win tonight [is it even mathematically possible in 20 overs]and have Warwickshire suffer an overwhelming crushing defeat at Derby as well as Foxes losing. Worcester have a better chance.

So might Silver Fox be less conservative with his squad, bring in some fresh faces?