A composed 97 from Jason Gallian helped Notts Outlaws brushed aside Scottish Saltires to stay in contention for a semi-final place in the Friends Provident Trophy.

Notts 293-6 (Gallian 97, Read 58, Shafayat 45)
Scotland 216 (Swann 3-31, Ferley 2-31)

Notts Outlaws won by 77 runs

Scorecard

The 35-year-old faced 118 balls as he provided the ballast for the Notts innings, hitting 12 fours before falling three short of the ninth one-day hundred of his career.

After being put in to bat, Gallian put on 82 for the first wicket with Bilal Shafayat, who made a useful 45 in quick time.

Bilal’s dismissal set off a mid-innings wobble as Mark Wagh, David Hussey and Samit Patel all fell cheaply, but Gallian stuck it out in partnership with Chris Read.

With the Scottish spinners keeping things tight, Read waited for the return of the seam bowlers before attacking in spectacular fashion, with 76 runs added in the last four overs.

That included launching one over from Scotland’s overseas player Ian Moran for four sixes and two fours.

Mark Ealham and Graeme Swann hit three more maximums as Notts went into the interval with real momentum, and once Read caught Fraser Watts off the second ball bowled by Ryan Sidebottom, the hosts were never really in the hunt.

Skipper Hussey soon decided to rest the frontline seamers, with Graeme Swann and Rob Ferley tying Scotland down in the middle overs with accurate spin bowling.

And Bilal closed out the match with two wickets to leave Notts sitting second in the table behind leaders Warwickshire.

Notts Director of Cricket Mick Newell said: “Overall it was a very pleasing performance and it keeps us well placed for a push for the semi-finals.

“Gallian batted well and kept things ticking over when their spinners took a couple of wickets in the middle of our innings.

“He set things up nicely for the big finish from Read and Ealham and once we picked up a couple of early wickets with the new ball we were always in charge of the game.

“It gave us the chance to rest the likes of Sidebottom, Shreck and Ealham and Swann and Ferley did an excellent job to push us out of sight.”