Notts Outlaws head to Wantage Road, Northampton on Wednesday evening (6.30 pm) to play their penultimate match in the group stages of this year’s NatWest T20 Blast competition.

The Outlaws currently sit in second spot in the North Division, with 16 points, 4 behind leaders Lancashire, who have one game left. Notts will be mathematically certain of advancing to the knockout phase, with a win in either this match or in the final contest (v Yorkshire Vikings, Friday 5.30pm). Victory in both matches would guarantee a home tie in the quarter finals.

Northants Steelbacks are the defending domestic T20 champions, a title they won at Edgbaston last August after defeating Surrey in the final.

Their defence is still mathematically alive – but only just. The Steelbacks are 6th, on 11 points and need to win both of their final matches, hope other results go their way and vastly improve their run-rate.

 

Head To Head

The two county sides have usually competed in different qualifying groups, so have only met before on 5 previous occasions in the domestic T20 competitions.

One of those, the 2011 match at Northampton was abandoned without a ball being bowled.

The other four matches have featured 2 victories for the Outlaws and 2 ties, one of which was the 2010 clash at Wantage Road.

 

Last Time

As mentioned above the last scheduled meeting at Northampton was called off, due to rain, so the only time they have actually met on the ground was on 11th July 2010.

Three weeks earlier, at Trent Bridge, Notts had stumbled in the final over of the match. Beginning it, needing 5 runs to overhaul Northants’ 121-7, they lost Steven Mullaney early in the over – then brought the scores level with 2 balls left.

Consecutive run outs accounted for Darren Pattinson and Graeme White to leave the Outlaws 121 all out – with each county taking one point.

At Wantage Road Notts made 144-7 (Hussey 41 Patel 40) and this time it was the Steelbacks who made a hash of the final over, losing three wickets to run outs in the final over (Hall Middlebrook, Howgego) before closing on 144-8.

They say lightning doesn’t strike twice – but it did – although another tied one-point apiece contest is impossible as the regulations would now take us to a ‘Super-Over’.

 

History

The first time the sides met was in the quarter finals of the 2006 competition and the Outlaws dominated throughout the evening, eventually triumphing by 63 runs.

With David Hussey and Samit Patel adding 121 together for the 3rd wicket, the Outlaws posted a total of 213-6, their highest score in the competition to that point (it has still only been surpassed twice).

Hussey made 71 from only 34 deliveries (5x4 5x6) and Patel scored 65 from 38 balls (5x4 4x6).


Lance Klusener, a former Outlaw, punched a typically ebullient 72 not out (52 balls 3x4 5x6) in Northants reply but the task was always too steep and the home side restricted the visitors to 150-6 to advance through to Finals Day.

Apart from Klusener, the Steelbacks side contained five other players (Bilal Shafayat, Riki Wessels, Ben Phillips, Usman Afzaal and Jason Brown) who would represent Notts during their careers. A former Northants player (Graeme Swann) was in the home line-up as well.

 

Played For Them Both

New Zealand international Ian Butler has represented both Notts Outlaws and Northants Steelbacks over the past 12 months.

Last summer he came to Trent Bridge to bolster the squad for the T20 competition and played his part in helping the side to the quarter finals, taking 12 wickets in the 10 matches he played, as well as scoring 41 runs from a handful of opportunities.

This season he joined the Steelbacks and appeared in four T20 matches and 2 first class matches, which featured a score of 48 not out.

Sadly, injury has forced Ian to return home early, with his scheduled replacement, countryman Neil Wagner, due to make his debut for the county in the forthcoming LV= County Championship match against Notts.

A number of other players, particularly in recent seasons, have turned out for both Nottinghamshire and Northamptonshire. Among them are, Usman Afzaal, Nicky Boje, Mark Bowen, Jason Brown, Phil Jaques, Lance Klusener, Richard Logan, David Lucas, Wayne Noon, Ben Phillips, Bilal Shafayat, Graeme Swann, Riki Wessels and Graeme White.


Stats (for all domestic T20 fixtures between Notts & N’hants)

Highest Team Total

Notts: 213-6 (TB 2006)

N’hants: 160-6 (TB 2006)

Highest Individual Innings

Notts: 71 DJ Hussey (TB 2006)

N’hants: 72* L Klusener (TB 2006)

Best Bowling

Notts: 4-19 DJ Pattinson (TB 2010)

N’hants: 3-16 WPUJC Vaas (TB 2010)

 

Milestones

Michael Lumb requires 29 runs to become the 21st player to reach 4,000 runs in worldwide T20 cricket. Lumb has scored 3,971 from 175 matches.

Only 5 players have scored 1,000 T20 runs for Notts Outlaws. Riki Wessels should be the 6th, he has 947 to his name.

Samit Patel needs only two wickets to become the first to take 100 T20 wickets for Notts.

 

Tickets

For admission prices and all other matchday information please check the official Northamptonshire County Cricket Club website www.northantscricket.com

 

Coverage

BBC Radio Nottingham will be providing commentary on their 103.8FM frequency and on-line. The match is being screened by Sky Sports 2.