Nottinghamshire’s second eleven claimed victory over a strong Durham side in the first of their two SET20 fixtures at the Nottinghamshire Sports Ground, before being overcome in the second.
In the first match, Nottinghamshire won the toss and chose to bat first, Sam Kelsall and Matt Cross opening. The home side reached 38 without loss by the six over but then three wickets fell in seven balls, Kelsall, Cross and Adam Tillcock the batsmen out. At 41-3 Brett Hutton joined Sam Wood and the pair put on 40 for the next wicket, Hutton bowled for 31. By the 16th over the score was 101-6, trialist Guy Walker (5) run out and Sam Wood (18) bowled. Hassan Azad and Simon Webster put on 31 for the 7th wicket, Azad out for 16 (-7) and Luke Fletcher joined Webster to negotiate the remaining balls, the final score 140-7, Webster unbeaten on 23 and Fletcher 2*. Andrew Ireland finished with 3-14 off 3 overs.
In reply, Durham lost Rammi Singh (2) off Luke Fletcher’s bowling in the 2nd over (7-1) but Ben Stokes came in and started to put bat to ball, the visitors moving to 48 by the sixth over when he misjudged a ball from trialist Gemaal Hussain and Luke Wood held the catch (39 off 19 balls). Nottinghamshire stuck to their task in the field and apart from Paul Coughlin, unbeaten on 31, the visitors could not reach the required target, finishing on 125-7 after 20 overs, a win for the home side by 15 runs.
After a break, Durham won the toss for the second match, choosing to bat first. The visitors lost Rammi Singh early, but Ben Stokes then joined skipper Callum Macleod and they added 75 for the 2nd wicket, Stokes scoring 54 from 26 before getting caught on the boundary by Simon Webster off Sam Wood’s bowling. Macleod added another 46 with Gareth Breese before being caught by Luke Fletcher off Adam Tillcock in the 13th over (124-3) and Breese (30) was caught off Luke Wood in the 15th. The 150 came up in the 16th and an unbeaten 42 from Stuart Poynter helped the visitors to 187-6 by the innings’ close.
Nottinghamshire, requiring 9.35 runs per over, opened with Sam Kelsall and Matt Cross but Kelsall (22) was caught by Paul Coughlin off Andrew Ireland in the 4th over (28-1). Luke Fletcher came in but Cross was run out by David Foster in the 6th over and Fletcher (26) was caught behind off Breese in the 7th. Adam Tillcock joined Sam Wood at 67-3 but Wood (14) was caught behind off Stokes in the 12th over (98-4) and Brett Hutton (25) was bowled by Stokes in the 16th (130-5).
Simon Webster joined Tillcock (22) who was caught by Foster off Breese in the 18th over (145-6) and with first ball of the 19th Webster (13) was bowled by George Bacon (145-7). Two more wickets fell in the last over, Guy Walker (2) run out (148-8) and Luke Wood (4) caught on the leg-side boundary by Singh off Ireland, 153-9 which was the final score, Hassan Azad (2*) and Gemaal Hussain (0*), a win for Durham by 34 runs.