Two unbeaten teams meet at New Road on Sunday in Group A of the Yorkshire Bank 40 competition. After victories over Northants Steelbacks and Kent Spitfires, the Outlaws currently sit in pole position in the group, whilst the Worcestershire Royals began their campaign with an impressive win at Hove against Sussex Sharks.

Head to head
In domestic one-day competition Notts have met Worcestershire on 61 occasions, winning 26 times but losing 28 of the other matches. Six contests failed to produce a result due to bad weather, whilst the 1983 match at Hereford resulted in a tie.

Notts’ away record isn’t particularly strong against the Royals, with Worcestershire leading by 14 wins to 13, with the one tie and four wash-outs.

Most of the away fixtures have been staged at New Road, Worcester, although the matches in 1973 and 1977 were played at Dudley and the 1983 fixture was staged at Hereford.

In August 1971, captaining Notts against Worcestershire at Elm Avenue, Newark, Garry Sobers scored an unbeaten 116 to lead his side to a 6-wicket victory.

The first encounter was a Gillette Cup tie in 1966 which Worcestershire won by 19 runs and they also won the most recent meeting, at home in May 2009, by 10-wickets under Duckworth-Lewis regulations.

Last Meeting
In a match that was frequently interrupted by showers Worcestershire Royals gained the better of the Outlaws on the last occasion that the sides met at New Road.

On 4 May 2009 in the Friends Provident Trophy 50-over competition the number of overs was continually being reduced.

The Outlaws eventually settled on a score of 188-8 after 40 overs, with Mark Wagh top-scoring with 85.

Worcs’ target of 138 in 26 overs was easily reached by the openers Steve Davies, who made 82 and Vikram Solanki, who scored 49. The 10-wicket success was completed with 17 balls unused.

Did you know?
Sir Garfield Sobers, one of the all-time greats, only ever scored one century in limited-overs cricket.

In August 1971, captaining Notts against Worcestershire at Elm Avenue, Newark, the West Indian scored an unbeaten 116 to lead his side to a 6-wicket victory.

Stats
Nottinghamshire’s highest score in a 40-over match at Worcester is the 241-1 they scored in 1984, with Clive Rice (98*) and Tim Robinson (97*) adding an unbroken 200 for the second wicket, the county’s highest stand in one-day cricket, for any wicket, away from Trent Bridge.

Notts, incidentally, went on to lose the game as West Indian Collis King scored an unbroken century in Worcestershire’s 5-wicket victory.

Worcestershire’s highest home score against Notts is the 263-6 they registered in 1994.

Alex Hales scored 150 not out at Trent Bridge in 2009 but the highest score by a Notts batsman at New Road is by Tim Robinson, who scored 139 in 1985.

Graeme Hick scored an undefeated 114 in 1990, the highest score by a home batsman in matches at Worcester.

The best bowling figures for each side occurred in the same 1974 clash. Barry Stead, Nottinghamshire’s left-arm quick bowler took 5-44, with Worcester legend Basil D’Oliveira claiming 4-18 in the reply.

There has been one hat-trick in the series of meetings, collected by Nottinghamshire’s Kevin Saxelby in the 1987 Trent Bridge clash, with Worcestershire’s current director of cricket, Steve Rhodes, amongst his victims.

Played for them both

Chris Tolley, Head Coach of Nottinghamshire’s Academy, played for Worcestershire between 1989 and 1995 before moving to Trent Bridge, where he represented Notts from 1996 to 2000.

Others to play for both counties include Bobby Chapman, Paul Pollard and Nadeem Malik.

Team News
After keeping the same eleven for their opening two matches the Outlaws will be forced into changes for the trip to New Road.

Graeme Swann has now completed his domestic fixtures, ahead of joining up with the England team preparing for the opening Test against New Zealand.

James Taylor is almost certain to be absent, on duty for the England Lions at Grace Road against those same New Zealand tourists. Should that match be completed inside four days then Taylor’s availability may be reassessed.

A number of players are likely to come into contention for a starting berth against the Royals with Australian Ed Cowan looking set for his first one-day match in the green and gold of the Outlaws.

Graeme White also comes into contention with Mick Newell electing to keep the same balance of the side and replace Swann with another spinner.

Commentary
BBC Radio Nottingham will be providing live ball-by-ball commentary from New Road on Sunday afternoon. Follow the links on either the BBC Radio Sport or BBC Radio Nottingham websites.