Starting with a thrilling last ball victory over the Derbyshire Falcons in a NatWest T20 Blast fixture in early July, and culminating in the recent five-wicket success over Worcestershire, Nottinghamshire have won their last ten completed fixtures in all competitions.
Be it the drama of run-chases that almost - but not quite - go wrong, the anguish of James Taylor falling agonisingly 21 runs short of the highest ever individual score for Nottinghamshire or emerging triumphant on List A cricket’s first ever outing at Welbeck, each of the victories has their own sub-plot and story.
Here is the story of the Notts perfect ten, and long may the run continue.
Game One: Falcons Grounded At Trent Bridge
The 13,582 crowd was a record for a Notts Outlaws fixture at Trent Bridge. What better way, therefore, for the game to pan out then a nerve-jangling last ball finish, with Harry Gurney holding his nerve in the final over, off which Derbyshire needed 11.
Notts Outlaws' players compared the atmosphere to that of an international as Derbyshire, chasing 173 to win, somehow faltered despite being 131-2 with 4.7 overs still to go.
Jake Ball came to the party in the nick of time, clean bowling Hamish Rutherford and Alex Hughes with pacey yorkers, and Outlaws’ captain James Taylor said post-match that he would have wished for nobody other than Gurney to bowl the final over of a cliffhanging contest.
With the home side needing to win to stay in the competition, Derbyshire needed five off the last ball, Wayne Madsen failed to find the boundary and both crowd and players alike erupted in celebration.
Game Two: Another Last Ball Thriller as Taylor Guides Outlaws To Win
If Notts Outlaws supporters were relaxed at the halfway stage, safe in the knowledge that their bowlers had restricted Lancashire to 137-4 off 20 overs, they hadn’t reckoned on an unlikely 13 runs being required off the final over.
In truth, on a turgid surface, Notts had made a mess of their run-chase. But they still had James Taylor.
If the Outlaws lost, they were out of the competition. No pressure then Titch.
Chris Read also had a significant part to play in the late drama; the Club Captain striking 11 off five deliveries, including a boundary off the first ball of the last over, which put the visitors to Emirates Old Trafford in with a chance.
Six were needed off two balls when Taylor returned to strike. The first was swatted down the ground for four; the second - with two needed to win - disappeared through the leg-side for four more.
Some of the celebrations in the away dugout were ungainly to say the least, but they were heartfelt, and the Outlaws’ hopes of a late surge into a quarter-final position remained alive.
Game Three: Jets Snipered In The North East as Outlaws’ Run Continues
Two last ball victories had been tough on the nerves of the Notts faithful, no to mention the coaching staff, so a straightforward drubbing of Durham at Chester-le-Street was just what the doctor ordered.
Riki Wessels scored an explosive 97 off 51 balls as the wait for a Notts centurion in Twenty20 cricket goes on.
As it turned out, he had laid bat on an earlier delivery that was adjudged as four leg byes, but that’s another story.
Notts defended 198-5 with consummate ease, the home side finishing on 156-6, to keep NatWest T20 Blast tournament hopes alive for the men from Trent Bridge.
The Outlaws’ journey home proved to be more fraught with obstacles than the match itself with the inconvenience of M1 closures compelling James Taylor to tweet Prime Minister David Cameron his disapproval.
Everybody eventually got back to Nottingham, but the NatWest T20 Blast story didn’t supply a happy ending as the Outlaws' hopes of qualification were washed away by Grace Road rain a week later.
Game Four: The Perfect Four Day Performance
If Mick Newell is describing a display by his team as ‘perfect’ it must have been pretty special. In this instance, having won by an innings and 103 runs at the idyllic Sussex outpost of Horsham, it was an apt description.
From a starting point of 30-3, posting a first innings total of 570-7 was an impressive performance, none more so than James Taylor who enjoyed a particularly memorable couple of days.
First he batted himself into some red ball form, then he eased to his first century of the season, then he compiled 291. He was just 21 runs shy of the all time Nottinghamshire record.
The ever dependable - and by now seriously in-form Chris Read - scored a century of his own and enjoyed a mammoth stand of 365 with Taylor which ensured that Sussex waited over 24 hours between wickets.
With so many runs on the board, batting for a second time wasn’t on Nottinghamshire’s agenda, meaning the bowling attack of Wood, Hutton, Gurney, Patel and 40-year-old Gary Keedy were staring down the barrel of a significant workload.
They set about the task with relish, dismissing their opposition for 213 and 254, ensuring that the game was done and dusted in three days, handing Nottinghamshire their third victory of the LV= County Championship season.
Harry Gurney, who by his own admission had endured a period of below-par form, demonstrated that his nerves-of-steel white ball exploits had been well-and-truly transferred into the four day format.
The left-arm paceman finished with match figures of 8 for 131, including a first innings five-fer, in what - by all accounts - was one of the quickest spells of the season.
Finally a thought for Keedy, these days an occasional on-field performer alongside his full-time role as Assistant Physiotherapist, who finished on the winning side in a game of championship cricket for the first time in four years. He took 5 for 107 in the match.
Game 5: Hales Goes Ballistic As Welbeck Weekender Gets Off To Explosive Start
Alex Hales struck seven fours and nine sixes as Notts Outlaws made light work of scoring the 221 runs required for victory over last season’s finalists, Warwickshire, on a day that saw Welbeck Cricket Club emerge as a thoroughly pleasant venue from which to enjoy county cricket.
Dan Christian’s Notts teammates were clearly thrilled to see him take five wickets on a surface that just offered the seam bowlers enough. Riki Wessels scored his 85 not out at a shade better than a run a ball.
Notts won the match, by nine wickets, with fully 21.5 overs to spare before rain washed out Day Two of the Welbeck Weekender against Glamorgan.
Game 6: Ball Pegs Back Sussex
At 96-0 after 11 overs, to say Sussex got off to a flyer having won the toss at Hove would be a monumental understatement.
Luke Wright steamed out of the blocks for the Sharks, scoring 40 off 34 balls, before the introduction of Jake Ball proved a remarkable turning point.
Less than four overs later, the scoreboard was reading 108-3 with all three poles having fallen to the homegrown Notts paceman, who extracted searing pace and volatile bounce from an otherwise benign surface.
He later added the wicket of Yardy to finish with 4-47 and Sussex were pegged back to 282-9 from their 50 overs.
Despite losing Riki Wessels to the first ball of the innings, Notts were always ahead of the rate thanks to Brendan Taylor’s sensible 62 to complement cameo contributions from the likes of James Taylor and Samit Patel.
But when the sixth wicket fell with 56 still required for victory and only the tail-end to come, the home side still fancied their chances of victory.
But Steven Mullaney and Chris Read were the perfect experienced heads to combine and ease Notts over the line, ensuring that the winning runs arrived with 3.4 overs remaining.
Game 7: Patel And Taylor Pile On The Runs To See The Outlaws Home
Essex’s score of 268-8 was no better than par as South Africa leg-spinner Imran Tahir took 2-45 on his Outlaws debut at Chelmsford.
However, having slipped to 56-3 in reply against the wily swing and seam of David Masters, the visitors were in a world of trouble.
To the England international duo of James Taylor and Samit Patel, however, it was an opportunity to go big and put in a match-winning performance.
The going was tough at the start with Taylor opting to dig-in while his partner embarked on a calculated counter-attack, but both emerged with flying colours.
And by the time Patel struck the winning runs with eight deliveries to spare, the ghost had long since been given up by a dispirited home side who had no answer to the class of the two Outlaws' batsmen.
Patel scored 124 off 112 balls, his fourth List A century to go with 27 fifties. Taylor finished unbeaten on 94.
Together they added an unbroken stand of 215; a record for the fourth wicket in one-day cricket against Essex.
Game 8: Lower Order Duo Pull Fat From The Fire In Liverpool
Both batting line-ups struggled in a low scoring encounter at Aigburth, and Notts were clear second favourites having stumbled to 146-6 after 34.4 overs in pursuit of 217 to win.
Chris Read and Brett Hutton have shared a number of productive partnerships in the red ball arena, but - with the pressure of a limited-overs chase well and truly on - could they repeat the dose?
The answer was a resounding yes as an unbroken stand of 71 steered the visitors to victory with 3.2 overs to spare, underlining Hutton’s status as a rapidly emerging all-round, all formats cricketer and one of the finds of the 2015 season.
Game 9: Tahir and Patel Put Middlesex In A Spin
Riki Wessels graced the home of cricket with a sparkling century as Notts, who rested Chris Read and Harry Gurney having secured their place in the last eight with three games to spare, posted 295-9 from their 50 overs.
Tahir, playing his last match prior to a temporary sabbatical playing for South Africa, took 3-38, and Samit Patel 3-45, to ensure that Eoin Morgan-less Middlesex got nowhere near the victory target.
Game 10: Wessels Digs In As Notts’ Winning Streak Continues
Nottinghamshire’s bowlers shared the wickets on Day One to bowl out Worcestershire for 269 after losing the toss at New Road.
Alex Hales, with 85, and Chris Read, with 90, spearheaded Nottinghamshire’s 330 in reply and - with Worcestershire 78-4 in their second innings late on Day Two - an early victory for the visitors seemed likely.
It was testament to the fighting spirit of Steve Rhodes’ youthful side - and to the notorious ebb and flow of four day cricket - that Worcestershire still managed to put Nottinghamshire’s victory pursuit in jeopardy on the penultimate day.
Ross Whiteley top-scored with 78 and looked capable of taking the game away from Nottinghamshire before he was bowled by Samit Patel shortly after the lunch interval, and the home side posted 292 meaning Nottinghamshire needed 232 for victory.
They floundered to 37-3 against the new ball, putting Worcestershire in a position of supremacy for the first time in the match, only for Riki Wessels and James Taylor to rescue their side with a match-winning partnership of 157.
Saeed Ajmal dismissed the two half-centurions early in the Day Four afternoon session, but by then just 35 runs were required, and duly collected by Read and Patel.
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