Notts Outlaws meet Hampshire on Sunday 92.30pm start) in the quarter finals of the NatWest T20 Blast competition. The winners will go through to the Finals Day, which will be held at Edgbaston on Saturday 23rd August.
The Outlaws secured home advantage by finishing in second place in the North Division with a points tally of 20 from their 14 matches.
Notts won 9, lost 3 and had 2 matches rained off – having began the group by losing 3 of their first 5 matches.
Including the rained off fixtures – and the 3 Royal London one Day Cup matches – the Outlaws are unbeaten in 12 in white ball cricket.
Hampshire finished 3rd in the South Division, behind Essex and Surrey.
They claimed 18 points, having won 9 and lost 5 of their contests.
Head To Head
This will only be the second time that Notts Outlaws have met Hampshire in the domestic T20 competition.
Two years ago, at the same stage of the 2012 competition, Hampshire defeated Notts by 4 wickets.
Notts have only advanced to Finals Day on two previous occasions, in 2006 and in 2010, failing to win the tournament on either occasion.
Hampshire are bidding to reach their fifth straight Finals Day, winning the overall event in 2010 and 2012.
Last Time
On 25 July 2012 the sides met at Trent Bridge at the same stage of the competition. Hampshire won the toss, elected to field first and received an immediate lift as Alex Hales fell first ball for nought.
A pinch-hitting 19 from just 6 balls (3x4 1x6) by Riki Wessels restored the balance slightly and 39 from Michael Lumb and 33 from captain Adam Voges kept up the pressure.
The one innings of real substance came from Samit Patel, who scored 60 (33 balls 7x4 1x6), before falling in the final over.
A total of 178-7 certainly appeared challenging. Glenn Maxwell returned the best figures with the ball, of 3-36.
Hampshire seldom looked like getting anywhere near their target as they slumped to 78-5 in the 10th over, with dangerman Maxwell stumped for a single.
Neil McKenzie had fired his side to an unlikely championship victory at Trent Bridge two years earlier and was the sole specialist batsman standing between Notts and the Finals.
Early in South African’s innings he was hit on the pads by a delivery from Jake Ball which didn’t create much enthusiasm from the fielding side. The television technology showed that McKenzie should have gone lbw.
He rarely gave Notts a sniff after then, timing his innings to perfection. He brought the scores level with one ball to go and then caressed Andy Carter to the ropes from the final ball of the match to pull off a stunning victory.
McKenzie ended on 79 not out (49 balls 9x4 2x6). Although it didn’t mean much in defeat Patel completed a fine individual match, with figures of 3-26.
Having lost to Somerset at the same stage in 2011 and to Essex in last year’s quarter finals, Notts will be hoping that they can break their last 8 hoodoo by turning the tables on Hampshire this weekend.
Teams for the 2012 clash:
Outlaws: Lumb, Hales, Wessels, Taylor, Voges (cap), Patel, Read (wk), Mullaney, Ball, Gurney, Carter.
Hampshire: Vince, Adams, Katich, McKenzie, Ervine, Maxwell, Dawson, Mascarenhas (cap), Wood, Bates (wk), Briggs
Played For Them Both
Adam Voges captained Notts Outlaws during the quarter final clash of 2012. The Western Australian played a total of 39 T20 matches for the Outlaws between 2008 and 2012 , scoring 1,193 runs at an average of 37.28, with the highest of his 7 half centuries being an unbeaten 82 against Yorkshire.
Voges’ first experience of county cricket had been with Hampshire, in 2007, when he featured in 7 T20 matches for the south coast side, scoring 106 runs at an average of 17.66.
The Australian international played for Middlesex last summer but has been absent from this year’s competition, playing instead for Jamaica Tallawahs in the Caribbean Premier League.
Other cricketers to represent both Notts and Hampshire over the years include Mike Taylor, Kevin Pietersen, Richard Logan, Bilal Shafayat and current Outlaws favourite, Michael Lumb.
Stats (Notts Outlaws v Hants in T20)
Highest Team Score:
Notts: 178-7 (TB 2012)
Hants: 182-6 (TB 212)
Highest Individual Innings:
Notts: 60 SR Patel (TB 2012)
Hants: 79* ND McKenzie (TB 2012)
Best Bowling:
Notts: 3-26 SR Patel (TB 2012)
Hants: 3-36 GJ Maxwell (TB 2012)
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.
Samit Patel needs only one more wicket to become the first to take 100 T20 wickets for Notts.
Steven Mullaney has taken 46 wickets in T20 cricket for the Outlaws.
Tickets
Tickets remain on general sale with the Trent Bridge ticket office opening hours extended to 4pm on Saturday. Click here to secure your seats.
NatWest T20 Blast Quarter-Final Ticket Prices:
In advance (before midnight on Saturday 2 August)
Public:
£16 - Adults
£12 – Over 65s and Under 21s
£8 – Under 16s
£40 - Family ticket (2 adults + 2 under 16s)
Members:
£15 - Adults
£10 – Over 65s and Under 21s
£5 – Under 16s
On the day:
£20 - Adults
£15 – Over 65s and Under 21s
£10 – Under 16s
£50 – Family ticket (2 adults + 2 under 16s)
Coverage
The match will be broadcast live on Sky Sports 2 and full match commentary can be heard on BBC Radio Nottingham.