James Taylor and Samit Patel led Notts Outlaws through to the semi finals of the Royal London One Day Cup with an 85 run victory over Derbyshire Falcons at Trent Bridge.
The Outlaws’ captain scored an unbeaten 146, as Notts scored 313 for five, before bowling out the Falcons for 228 in 44.5 overs.
Taylor scored his runs from 154 balls, with 8 fours and 5 sixes, to reach his 11th and highest, one day hundred. He had fine support from Patel, who scored 55 in a third wicket partnership of 136 and then returned figures of four for 49 with the ball.
With Alex Hales and Harry Gurney absent on England duty Notts were forced into two changes and brought Sam Wood and Jake Ball into their starting eleven.
Taylor, playing the 100th one-day match of his career, won the toss and elected to bat first.
Mark Footitt opened the contest up by bowling a maiden – the only one of the innings, although Notts sneaked a leg bye from it. His second over, the third of the match provided a stark contrast.
Michael Lumb hit four of the first five balls to the boundary and took a single from the last – all with authentic, powerful, cricket strokes.
The fourth over saw the early momentum then swing dramatically back towards the Falcons. Steven Mullaney (9) drilled the fourth ball back straight, only for it to deflect off the bowler’s fingers and onto the stumps to run out the unlucky Lumb. Ben Cotton’s good fortune continued as Mullaney then nicked the final ball of the over into the hands of Wayne Madsen at slip.
Taylor and Patel joined forces and added 50 from 84 deliveries, although Taylor, on 26, had a scare when a direct hit from Madsen was referred upstairs but not given out.
The Notts skipper brought his 50 up in 75 balls 4x4 1x6) and had another upstairs referral go his way when on 71.
Patel’s 50 had come in 65 balls 4x4) but he fell in the Powerplay overs for 55, holing out to Billy Godleman, off Footitt. Notts scored 40 runs for that sole loss in the 5 PP pvers.
Riki Wessels hit his first ball for 4 and soon reached double figures, advancing him to 3,000 career runs in List A cricket.
Wessels (28) helped add 48 for the fourth wicket, before hitting David Wainwright to Scott Elstone at midwicket.
Taylor’s hundred (134 balls 7x4 1x6) came during a Footitt over, the 45th, that began with 5 wides.
James Franklin was dropped at short third man, by Footitt, at the start of the next over and it proved costly as Taylor then hit the bowler, Cotton, for consecutive sixes.
Franklin (27) was run out in the final over but Chris Read finished the innings in style scoring six, four, one from his 3 deliveries as Notts ventured beyond 300 for the fourth time in this season’s competition, with 63 coming from the final 4 overs.
Notts quickly removed Wes Durston (1) at the start of Derbyshire’s reply as Mullaney took a sharp catch at extra cover to give Jake Ball an early wicket.
Godleman (25) unluckily chopped Ajmal Shahzad onto his stumps and the same bowler then had Madsen (14) caught at midwicket by Sam Wood.
Marcus North had taken 3 fours from Ball to get his innings under way but he was rapidly running out of support as Patel ran through the middle order.
Alex Hughes (5) was beaten by the turn and bowled, Scott Elstone (10) superbly caught behind and Gareth Cross (23) well caught by Taylor on the run.
Patel’s other wicket was the big one – North, smartly stumped after wandering down the track.
Shahzad, who finished with 3-33 and Fletcher, 2-39, finished the innings off by bowling Palladino (8), Cotton (10) and Footitt (11), leaving Wainwright unbeaten on 41.
Notts now await Friday’s draw to see who they will face in the semi finals, whilst Derbyshire can reflect on reaching the knock-out stages of a domestic competition for the first time since 2005.