Notts Outlaws take their unbeaten start to the Royal London One Day Cup to Lord’s to face Middlesex on Thursday (6th August, 10.30am). The Outlaws top Group B with nine points from five matches and will be looking to round off a perfect week on the road which has already brought wins at Hove, Chelmsford and Liverpool.
Their opponents have also triumphed at Sussex’s County Ground in the last few days and are one of a number of counties locked on five points, still hoping to squeeze into the four qualifying spots in the group.
Head To Head
There have been 54 meetings between Notts and Middlesex in all one-day cricket, with matches being played in the various competitions between 40 and 60 overs.
Notts have won 19 but lost 30 of the contests, 2 matches ended in no results with 3 more abandoned without a ball bowled.
26 of the fixtures have been hosted by Middlesex, 22 of them at Lord’s plus 1987 and 1989 meetings at Uxbridge, a clash at Richmond in 2000 and in 2005 the two counties met at Southgate.
On home territory Middlesex have won 17 times and lost 8, with the 1982 match being completely washed out.
Notts have been victorious in each of the last four one-day matches played against Middlesex at Lord’s, 2004, 2006, 2008 and last season – as well as winning on the ground in the Yorkshire Bank 40 Final against Glamorgan in 2013.
Last Time
Brilliant centuries from Alex Hales and James Taylor helped Notts Outlaws to a convincing 77 run victory under the Duckworth Lewis method when the sides met at Lord’s in last season’s Royal London One Day Cup.
The two England batsmen led the way for Notts to reach a colossal 368 for two, a county record in one-day cricket, after the match had been reduced to 45 overs per side after an earlier stoppage.
Notts’ total is the highest ever posted at Lord’s in List A cricket, beating the 353 for eight that Hampshire scored on the ground in 2005.
Middlesex’s chase was temporarily halted due to more bad weather, before being reduced to a target of 158 from 16 overs.
Wickets fell steadily from the outset and the home side could only muster 80 before being dismissed in only 13.3 overs, with Harry Gurney taking four for 16.
Hales collected the man of the match award and admitted he’d fulfilled a dream. “I’ve only played at Lord’s a couple of times,” he said. “As a former MCC Young Cricketer I always wanted to score a hundred here so I’m delighted. Every credit must go to Lumby – he batted beautifully and kept rotating the strike nicely.
“To then go and watch that innings from Titch (James Taylor) was something else, an amazing knock. We knew what we had to do but to go out there and achieve it like that is very special.”
Panthers’ captain Eoin Morgan won the toss and, presumably with a variable weather forecast in mind, elected to field first.
Lumb hit the first ball of the match, from James Harris, though point for four and then pulled another boundary in the same over.
Harry Podmore entered the attack in the 9th over and very nearly brought about the breakthrough. His first ball was pulled away and only just fell short of Ryan Higgins at deep midwicket.
The over went downhill from there and eventually leaked 14 runs and the powerplay ended with Notts on 54-0. One more ball produced a single, at which point umpires Jeff Evans and Michael Gough took the players off, with heavy rain arriving only seconds later.
After a stoppage of almost an hour Notts quickly got into their stride, with the first scoring shot being a Hales 6, swept off Patel and he soon followed it with another.
A briliant 50 (44 balls 6x4 2x6) seemed to be the catalyst for the right-hander to really kick on. He put all the Middlesex bowlers to the sword and the fielders under pressure.
Lumb had played a fine supporting role to this point, bringing up his own 50 (69 balls 6x4) but it was all eyes on Hales as he neared his ton (73 balls 14x4 3x6).
Hales hit another maximum, one reverberating around inside a hospitality box in the Grandstand as the 200 came up in 27.5 overs.
A rank bad ball from Dawid Malan eventually broke the stand, Hales slapping it straight to Neil Dexter at extra cover.
Lumb (81) fell inside the batting powerplay, launching Roland-Jones into the leg side and picking out Chris Rogers.
James Taylor had arrived in the middle in the 31st over and immediately went on the attack. He blazed his way to his own 50 in just 38 balls (4x4 3x6) but then put his foot on the accelerator.
Taylor and Samit Patel (37 not out) punished some indifferent bowling and lacklustre fielding in a punishing stand of 124 in only 8.3 overs.
Taylor, in particular, was brutal. Six mighty maximums had already been heaved high over the boundary ropes, taking him to 94 ahead of the final delivery of the innings.
Roland-Jones, a Lions’ team-mate of Taylor’s 24 hours earlier, had no answer as the Nottinghamshire captain launched him spectacularly away over the midwicket rope to reach his 100 from just 55 balls, with 8 fours in addition to those 7 sixes.
Paul Stirling had taken a single from the bowling of Harry Gurney at the start of the reply but the torrential downpour that followed brought a premature halt to proceedings.
When play resumed Stirling (1) fell immediately to Luke Fletcher and Harry Gurney then removed Malan (4) and Ryan Higgins (0) with successive deliveries. Eoin Morgan hit a quickfire 19 before lifting James Franklin into the hands of Lumb at long on.
Samit Patel removed both Dexter (7) and Rogers (4) to leave the innings in tatters at 45 for six. A catch at long leg sent back Roland-Jones (9) off Franklin, Gurney again grabbed wickets in consecutive deliveries and it was left to Ajmal Shahzad to finish it off with the wicket of Ravi Patel (0).
History
A couple of interesting dismissals feature in the history of this fixture.
SUNDAY 30th MAY 1976
It always pays to check with the umpires! Needing four to win a John Player League match at Lord’s, Middlesex’s Mike Gatting thought he’d hit the required boundary and walked towards the pavilion in celebration. A smart stop and throw from Nottinghamshire’s Barry Stead brought about one of the easiest – and most controversial – run outs ever seen at the Home of Cricket. Gatting’s 85 wasn’t in vain though as his team-mates clinched victory in the next over.
SUNDAY 18th SEPTEMBER 1994
Playing against Middlesex at Trent Bridge, in the AXA Equity and Law League, Nottinghamshire’s Greg Mike became only the second batsman in English domestic List A cricket (after Surrey’s DM Smith in 1982) to be given out handled the ball. He hadn’t even scored a run when the incident happened.
Stats (for all one-day matches between Notts & Middx)
Highest Team Total
Notts: 368-2 (Lord’s 2014)
Middx: 314-5 (Southgate 2005)
Highest Individual Score
Notts: 141 AD Hales (Lord’s 2014)
Middx: 119 PHF Parfitt (TB 1969)
Best Bowling
Notts: 5-33 EE Hemmings (Lord’s 1990)
Middx: 6-33 CB Keegan (TB 2005)
Played For Them Both
James Franklin played in this fixture last season as a member of the Outlaws’ side. The former New Zealand international made a total of 16 appearances for the Trent Bridge club last summer, playing in one first class, six T20 and nine one-day matches.
Earlier in his career the all-rounder also represented Essex, Glamorgan and Gloucestershire and is now playing for his fifth English county after joining Middlesex for the 2015 season.
Imran Tahir, Nottinghamshire’s recent overseas signing, played in three first class and three one-day matches for Middlesex in 2003.
A significant number of other players have represented both counties in more recent times, including David Alleyne, Stephen Fleming, Mike Harris, Lance Klusener, Harry Latchman, Dirk Nannes, Scott Newman, Vernon Philander, Tom Reddick, Adam Voges and Bob White.
Milestones
Jake Ball (47) and Luke Fletcher (44) are both closing in on 50 one-day wickets.
Chris Read (298) needs 2 more catches to reach 300 in one-day cricket.
Riki Wessels (99) needs one more catch to reach 100 in one-day cricket.
Tickets
Admission to the ground can be purchased on the day with ticket prices for this match being displayed on the Middlesex County Cricket Club website www.middlesexccc.com
Coverage
BBC Radio Nottingham will be providing on-line commentary on this and every Notts match throughout the season. Access the on-line coverage via the BBC Sport website or app.
Follow the live scorecard, regular text updates and radio commentary through your perfect match-day companion Trent Bridge Live.
Royal London One-Day Cup at Trent Bridge: Fixtures & Ticket Information
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