Mick Newell has called on the Notts Outlaws to be confident but not complacent when they face Lancashire Lightning in the Royal London One-Day Cup tomorrow.

The Outlaws have won all three completed matches in the competition to date and the Director of Cricket believes victory at Liverpool would all but secure a quarter-final place. 

“I think the group is looking good at this stage,” he said. “I kind of feel nine points will get you through and 11 or 13 will get you the home tie so that is still our target. We want to wrap that up as soon as possible and get as far as we can, as quickly as we can.

“We have put in three really good performances; three quite different run chases and in many ways yesterday (against Essex) was probably the best of the lot,” Newell continued.

“I thought we bowled really well. They only scored 14 or 15 more than what Sussex got, but I just thought yesterday we were always in control. We didn’t allow them to get away at any stage and even during the last eight to ten overs, we stopped Jesse Ryder scoring runs, which was really impressive.

“From a batting perspective, 56-3 is obviously not a fantastic position but I thought James Taylor and Samit Patel played really well.

 “Three down for around 50, you are feeling a little bit of pressure, but we have got international players with experience at three and five.

“They played really well and a 200-run partnership in a pressurised situation like that was terrific.”

Newell has maximum respect for a Lightning outfit that his side managed to beat off the final ball of the game in a recent NatWest T20 Blast encounter, but he hopes the confidence extracted from recent performances can pave the way for another victory.

“We don’t need to fear anybody, but we don’t need to be complacent,” he said.

“Lancashire have got a lot of experience in their batting. Ashwell Prince, Alviro Petersen, James Faulkner, so some good international cricketers there.

“They’re also a good fielding team with Steven Croft, Paul Horton and Karl Brown.

“They are a good side, a good all round side so we need to play really well again.

“But our confidence at the moment is so high, we need to keep milking it.

 “It will be interesting conditions, I’m not sure it will be a massively high scoring game. I’m not expecting 320s, 350s, things like that. But I am expecting a good batting pitch, a quick scoring outfield as it normally is there.

“It’s a big opportunity to win and get ourselves that bit closer to the quarter-finals.”

South Africa international leg-spinner Imran Tahir made his debut in the seven wicket victory at Chelmsford and impressed with two wickets for 45 off his ten overs.

The 36-year-old will play the forthcoming fixtures against Lancashire and Middlesex, as well as the LV= County Championship trip to Worcestershire, before returning temporarily to play a fortnight of limited-overs cricket against New Zealand for his country.

And Newell is backing his prize bowling asset to continue playing attacking cricket as he aims to spin the Outlaws to a home quarter-final.

“He got two wickets, he got their best player out Ravi Bopara, bowled him with a nice googly. I think he is going to be a major threat for us. 

“That wicket taking ability in the 50 over games is going to be crucial just to slow people down, that was clear against Essex.

“He is going to be playing against Lancashire and he is going to be playing against Middlesex. If he has a major impact in those three matches that is something we will be very pleased with.

“He is an attacking, wicket taking option. He went at four and a halves which isn’t huge anyway but because he spins the balls both ways, he is always going to be a threat to people.”

 

Notts Outlaws squad to face Lancashire Lightning (from): Jake Ball, Luke Fletcher, Harry Gurney, Alex Hales, Brett Hutton, Michael Lumb, Steven Mullaney, Samit Patel, Chris Read, Imran Tahir, Brendan Taylor, James Taylor, Riki Wessels and Sam Wood. 

 

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