26/05
UNTIDY NOTTS WILT IN THE HEAT
Comprehensively Outplayed Again!
For the second time in four days Notts were comprehensively beaten in the Vitality Blast - Lancashire winning yesterday's match by 39 runs.
Lancashire won the toss and elected to bat on a sweltering day with the temperature 32 degrees C.
Notts made three changes with McCann, Linde and Farhan Ahmed coming up for Duckett, James and Stone. Lancashire without Salt, Buttler, Livingstone, Anderson, Wells and Wood had more than a half a team missing but proved far too good for a Notts team who bowled poorly, fielded indifferently and had a batting line up desperately requiring an overseas batsman. Debutant George Linde already looks a luxury item even from this early stage.
Linde (Statham End) conceded a single off the first over. Jennings hit Ali for four through point. Two balls later, Jones (1) going for a wild smish was caught behind by Tom Moores off Ali; 8 for 1 off 2 overs. Jennings swept Linde for 4 through long leg and next ball hit him for a straight four, 10 off the third over. Jennings guided Ali to the backward square leg ropes. Hurst hoisted Ali for six over mid-wicket. Twelve off the 4th over including a leg bye. Jennings scooped Pennington's opening ball for four. Jennings cleared the square leg ropes with the next delivery. Hurst found the mid-wicket ropes and hit a straight four off the next delivery, 19 off the 5th over. Farhan conceded five plus a leg bye. Lancashire 55 for 1 off 6 overs.
Hurst hit Howell for six over mid-wicket, eight off the 7th over. Jennings hoisted Farhan for a straight four. Hurst smashed Farhan for six into The Point, 15 off the 8th over. Five runs were scored of Pocklington's opening over. Hurst lofted Howell for four. Lancashire 90 for 1 off 10 overs.
Jennings reverse swept Pocklington (3 0 27 0) for four through third man and next ball hit a straight four, 12 off the 11th òver. Jennings got to 50 off 28 balls with a single off Howell, three off the 12th over. Linde came back and with his first delivery had Jennings (51 off 31 balls, 8x4, 1x6) caught at wide long off by Howell (105 for 2). Hurst reached his 50 off 38 balls with a six over mid-wicket off the South African. He then cover drove Linde for four, 11 off the 13th over. Hurst (57 off 40 balls, 4x4, 4x6) was caught low down at long on by Pocklington off Howell (117-3). McDermott lofted Howell (4 0 24 1) for a straight four, six off the 14th over. Howell the best bowler by far. Joe Moores, a body clone of cousin Tom, hit Farhan (2 0 20 0) for six over mid-wicket. Lancashire 132 for 3 off 15 overs.
Ali went for six in the 16th over. The wheels then came off with 69 coming off the last four overs with Notts bowling and fielding quite frankly woeful.
McDermott hit Pennington for successive fours over extra cover and through third man. Pennington bowled a beamer which McDermott hit for six over square leg. The free hit was smashed by the Aussie for six over extra cover, 23 off the 17th over. Moores (13) was caught on the square leg ropes by Howell of Ali (162-4). McDermott hit Ali for consecutive fours through third man and long leg. Green hit Ali (4 0 37 2) for a backward point four, 12 off the Pakistanis last over. McDermott smashed a full toss from Linde for six over square leg. McDermott got to his 50 off 22 balls with a single off Linde (4 0 37 1), 14 off the penultimate over. Notts had criminally failed to bowl their overs on time an extra fielder was forced back into the circle. Why did the skipper only bowled nine overs of spin? McDermott should have been caught on the long off ropes on 52 but Haynes somehow failed to catch the chance. The next ball Pocklington failed to execute a routine stop on the boundary another four for McDermott. The large crowd could not contain their collective laughter. Another short ball from Pennington (3 0 61 0) was hit by Green for four through extra cover, 19 off the over. Lancashire 208 for 4 off 20 overs with McDermott on 63 (off 27 balls, 6x4, 4x6) and Green on 13. The late acceleration provided by the Aussie had virtually ensured a Lancashire victory, tucking into some pretty average bowling. What ever happened to those yorkers that were a regular fare for Luke Fletcher and Harry Gurney?
Mahmood (Pavilion End) conceded three singles in the opening over. Munsey reverse swept Hartley for six over backward point. nine off the second over. Clarke lofted Green for successive fours over extra cover and mid-wicket. Munsey swept Green for four towards wide third man. Clarke hit Green for six over long off, 20 off the third over. Munsey hit Balderson for a straight four. Munsey hit consecutive fours off Balderson, the first a free hit, 18 off the over. Notts 50 for 0 off 4 overs. Munsey hit Mahmood for four through long leg, seven off the 5th over including a leg bye. Blatherwick went off with a leg injury after a conceding a single off his only ball. Hartley replaced him and bowled Clarke (21) with his first delivery (58-1). It went rapidly downhill for Notts from this point with their weak batting line up exposed. Notts 60 for 1 at the end of the powerplay.
Haynes lofted t20 debutant off spinner Harry Singh for four over extra cover, seven off the seventh over. Joint top scorer Munsey (37 off 21 balls; 5x4, 1x6) skied Balderson to Jennings at extra cover (67 for 2). Tom Moores (6) hit his first delivery from Balderson to the backward point ropes but perished in the same over caught on the square leg ropes by Hartley, 73 for 3 off 8 overs. Singh conceded four off the 9th over. Balderson conceded six off the 10th over including a leg bye. Haynes was caught at mid-wicket by Hartley off Singh (85 for 4). Singh conceded a single and a leg bye off 11th over. Green went for 4 in the 12th over.
Linde and McCann hit Singh (4 0 27 1) for straight sixes, 15 off the 13th over. McCann (13) was caught on the square ropes by Singh off Hartley (105 for 5), five off the 14th over. How fit McCann was open to conjecture. Should he have been risked? Linde (14) was caught at long on by Singh off Green. Pocklington swept his first two balls for four, 11 off the 15th over.
Hartley took two wickets in three balls. He bowled Pocklington for 9 (120-7) and then had Howell (2) caught at backward point by substitute Tom Aspinwall (120-8). Four off Hartley's last over. His final analysis 3.5 0 20 4.
Pennington hit Green (4 0 50 1) for a straight six, 15 off the 17th over. Farhan(7) skied Mahmood to Jennings at mid-off (140-9).
Pennington (37 not out – a T20 best) and Ali (5 not out) put on an unbroken 29 off the last 26 balls as the crowd headed for the exit. Pennington hit successive fours off Mahmood (4 0 33 1) in the 18th over and a four and a six over square leg in the last over which went for 13 runs. Balderson (4 0 35 2) went for six singles in the 19th over. Notts 169 for 9 off 20 overs. No Notts batsman exceeded the 21 balls that Munsey had faced!
Notts travel to Derby on Friday. This already appears to be a must-win game. Notts require at least six wins from their last 10 games to stand any chance of qualifying….
25/05
Freddie McCann ... has it been six weeks already?
24/05
Will the disappointing performance of Friday serve to remind those that strategise the Outlaws where the squad's strengths lie; where we have found those rare T20 successes of recent seasons in?
In Peter Moores' tidying-up exercise, we should expect the binning of Ben Duckett and his replacement with George Linde with his visa now correctly dated.
Linde's inclusion should be a move in the right direction, towards playing to our perceived strengths, George being another slow left armer as well as an explosive batsman down the order (in more recent times), another LPW if you like.
Luckily for Outlaws, pace off is usually the modus operandi at Old Trafford, regardless of who Lancashire are playing against, so can we expect Farhan to be recalled into the eleven as well?
Announced squad:
82 NOT OUT
ReplyDeleteSLATER when in the mood with his eye in can certainly whack the ball to distant parts and score quite quickly . If Notts lose the next one or two Blast matches then perhaps Slater should be given his chance . Some players , as we know full well can just not adapt to having to score virtually from the first ball of a Blast game . But you get the impression Slater actually could ?
What do others think ?
:82 NOT OUT
ReplyDeleteSo it’s played two and lost two - and neither were close games .
Not so long ago Notts were a decent white ball side but a mediocre red ball side . So it’s now changed round .Looking and listening to Notts Blast matches you just get the impression from virtually ball one that they are going to lose . We need someone at the top to anchor the team down and provide steady scoring and stability . Is it time to give Slater a go ?
Friday at Derby is going to be a mighty interesting game .
All those slater(ing) “Baz”Hales as well down the years !!!!
ReplyDeletethe old Baz just now would be just what the doctor ordered
Delete82 NOT OUT
ReplyDeleteYes Hales and Wessels scoring 106 in the 6 power play overs seem a distant memory. If you blinked you missed a boundary. Dan Christian was also around back them to whip the boys into shape.. We should have won more silverware back then with that team but we often bottled out and it became frustrating for the loyal fans . I notice last Friday that the crowd was 12,000 - an excellent . But that was just the average crowd for most Notts Blast 20 matches back then .
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ReplyDeleteCall 116 123
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteWe don't do fully anonymous on here anymore, please try again.
DeleteIt’s interesting most comments focus on the batting. That is right in this sense: I would say the evidence of the first two games is that unless the pitch is highly bowler-friendly for both sides our attack is unlikely to bowl twenty overs for less than 180/185 absolute minimum and usually rather more so unless we are posting or chasing down 200 consistently we will lose more than we win. That generally requires at least one batter to get a big score quickly. We have a few players who can do that mainly Clarke and Moores plus Haynes on the evidence of last year and hopefully Munsey but it is a lot of pressure always to have to score at 9 or 10 an over and as a previous comment says we don’t have the depth of previous sides where we half-expected almost every batter to be able to swing a game or at least play a savvy and effective supporting role to the one who was scoring big. Let’s hope they get going but the batters need to excel as unless there is a slow scoring pitch i don’t see us winning any matches where we get less than 190.
ReplyDeleteIn reality, Notts have lost too many players for various reasons during the last 5 seasons in this competition and have struggled to find adequate replacements. This includes a bowling attack consisting of Ball, Gurney, Patel, Carter, Harrison, and Fletcher.
ReplyDeleteThe upfront replacements ie Stone and Pennington haven't the necessary skill set in their respective lockers, and some of the spin replacements are still learning their trade.
I find it hard to comprehend, why Harrison who has excelled in his new environment, was allowed to leave while still under contract, as leg spinners who can also bat,are deemed to be gold dust, in the T20.
Certainly 110% spot on with The Pub Landlord and Jake Ball not being replaced skill set wise Mark. Bowling in the PP and death ☠️ is a real skill we just don’t really possess any longer. BIG Fletch was worked out a bit and became too over predictable and reliant on nailing his yorkers ultimately, but it was still very rare to see him being flogged into the stands the way Dillon and The Rolling Stone can be. Dunno 🤷 if Sir Calvin wanted to leave to play more red ball 🔴 championship cricket ? He looked out of his depth in Division One and and lost his place to LPW
ReplyDeleteand we have the potential of the young magician Farhan also
Certainly also very true we are missing Samit’s left arm darters fired in coupled with his legendary brilliance of taking crucial wickets on the big stage. Very, very hard to replace so many world 🌍 class players in the white ball format.
As each game passes, the complete mismanagement of Calvin , being released a year early from his contract and the underappeciation of Montgomery become so bleedy obvious.
DeleteManagement failings by Newell and Moores. Yes we won the championship, but yet they let down two of our best and in doing so let supporters down.
Obviously no words against Peter Moores we be allowed so I expect to be deleted again.
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DeleteYes I like your words anonymous "Blimey. I have been highly critical of the cricket management in past years and stand by it but are we really that grumpy? What have the Romans ever done for us? Well yes we are the county champions and currently top of the table and clearly one of the best first class teams in the country but ….." but Neon has a point of sorts.
DeleteTo answer 82 NO, below what does the average Notts supporter want?
If you measure the average supporter by physical bums on seats, you would have to say that they would want success in the Blast, without a doubt. That is something that the Mick and Peter partnership have failed to deliver since the departure of Dan Christian.
Anonymous please just give yourself a name, even if it's "No fan of the Romans"
No Fan of the Romans I don't disagree with any of that and I guess you would blame a lack of forward planning and some unfortunate/unimpressive overseas signings - and also note the massive influence of Dan Christian as captain which became even more apparent after he went - for us going from a perennial contender through the whole history of T20 to also rans at best. It is not easy to be winners across formats - look at Surrey, no white ball wins since 2011 but champions three of the last four years and four times since then. As a matter of nuance therefore I would prefer "Rejoice rejoice we are the county champions wouldn't it be great if we could get our white ball game back up to standard" to "our cricket management is wrecking our t20 team through bad decisions and never mind that we were last year and might still be the very best team in the country and county champions".
DeleteI also, as another commenter suggested, can put forward a Devil's advocate view of Montgomery and Harrison. Those are very talented and well-liked players who once the championship-winning side put itself together were not going to get significant red ball opportunities here. Assuming, as I do, that they wanted to play first team cricket regularly we, rather than having a dog in a manger "you stay here and practice your switch hitting and defensive bowling while your mates try to retain the Championship and then do a job for us in the Blast, where we look uncompetitive" attitude, said we appreciate your wish to play first team cricket to improve and gain experience in what we hope will be a long and successful career, you are right that you might not be able to do that here, go with our blessing and our best wishes. Someone with old-fashioned attitudes might think that, if that is broadly what happened, something to be proud of.
82 NOT OUT
ReplyDeleteQUESTION !
What does the average Notts cc supporter want ?
A- A red ball team who play hard and can and do win the County Championship?
B- A white ball side who can score 200 plus in the Blast and draw big crowds ?
Is it possible to have both these days ?
Perhaps not .
It’s like playing musical chairs these days with many different team members just playing one or two games .
Management are well paid these days but they have a difficult job to find the right player combination .