Notts Outlaws travel to Edgbaston to face Birmingham Bears in the NatWest T20 Blast this Friday looking to build on the victory over Worcestershire Rapids last time out.
The Bears, formerly known as Warwickshire Bears, are the defending champions and have won the last three of their matches after losing their season-opener to the Outlaws, at Trent Bridge in May.
Victory over Worcestershire Rapids last Sunday has maintained the Outlaws’ second place position in the North Group table, with three wins out of their opening five fixtures.
Riki Wessels will captain the Outlaws for the first time in a competitive domestic match, although he did lead the side during the pre-season tour of Barbados and skippered them to a win over Friday’s opponents, at the 3Ws Oval in Bridgetown.
This match will also be the fourth and final match that Darren Sammy will play for the Outlaws, before he returns to the West Indies to play for the St Lucia Zouks in the forthcoming Caribbean Premier League.
Head-To-Head
For only the fourth of the 13 seasons of the domestic T20 competition, Notts and Warwickshire find themselves in the same qualifying group. More often than not, the Edgbaston-based county have been in the Midlands, Wales and West section but are again paired with the Outlaws this year.
Only seven previous clashes have taken place, four in Nottingham and three in Birmingham, with the Outlaws currently ahead by five wins to two.
At Edgbaston the Bears were victorious in 2010 but the Outlaws have won on their last two visits, in both 2011 and 2014.
Last Time
The Outlaws went to Edgbaston on July 8 2014 in the T20 Blast competition and scraped home by six runs. Put in, the visitors made 158 for nine, with captain James Taylor contributing 44, backed up by Steven Mullaney’s 36 and Riki Wessels’ 29.
Jeetan Patel was the chief tormenter with the ball, returning figures of three for 16 from his four overs.
Notts had to wait until the final ball of the sixth over before breaking the opening stand of 51, with Ajmal Shahzad dismissing Varun Chopra.
Mullaney, who enjoyed a fine all-round match, dried up the runs during the middle overs as he and Samit Patel each picked up two wickets.
13 runs were required from the final over but Luke Fletcher denied the home side, sending down an accurate over that removed Ateeq Javid and only leaked half a dozen runs.
The opening match of this year’s competition also saw the Outlaws emerge with the points, after Alex Hales had blasted an unbeaten 86 to help his side to an eight-wicket success.
History
2010
On 16 June 2010 the sides met for the first time in the shortest format, with the Bears recording a home win, by five wickets, after chasing down a victory target of 177 with seven balls remaining.
David Hussey had made an unbeaten 81 as Notts posted 176 for six but the home side reached their target with five batsmen scoring over 20.
Since then Notts have won four out of the five meetings, beginning with the 2010 return. The football World Cup was in full swing and the start time of that Sunday fixture was brought forward to 11am so that supporters could get away to watch the England v Germany match.
Notts made 149 for six, with Hussey again to the fore, blazing his way to 56 before his side ruthlessly dismantled the Bears’ reply, bowling them out for just 117.
2011
In 2011 Notts won by 28 runs in Birmingham, with another 56 from Hussey, adding to a belligerent 70 from Riki Wessels, taking the visitors to 193 for seven.
Both Darren Pattinson (5-25) and Luke Fletcher (4-30) returned their best T20 figures with the ball, as Warwicks fell for 165, with Darren Maddy making 61.
Later that summer Notts completed the double over the Bears, winning the return by ten runs. Alex Hales made 67 out of 173 for six before some late hitting from Chris Woakes got Warwickshire up to 163 for seven.
2014
At the start of last season the Bears ended their run of five straight defeats against the Outlaws after an 18-run win in Nottingham, with Laurie Evans blazing his way to a quickfire 45 not out, out of 156 for five.
Alex Hales and Michael Lumb rattled up 57 for the opening wicket but the middle order lost their way and Notts could do no better than make 138 for seven.
Played For them Both
Vasbert Drakes spent the 1999 season on the Trent Bridge staff and produced, arguably, the most stunning bowling performance in domestic one-day cricket.
Playing against Derbyshire at Trent Bridge, the Barbadian star was entrusted with bowling the final over of the match with only ten runs needed.
To everyone’s sheer astonishment, Drakes produced a once-in-a-lifetime finish. He yorked Phil DeFreitas with his first ball, removed Adrian Rollins’ middle stump with the next and had James Pyemont given out lbw for his hat-trick.
For good measure a full-length delivery then took out the leg stump of Simon Lacey. Four wickets in four balls – the only time it has happened for a Notts bowler in the one-day format of the game.
A dot ball and a single ended the over, enabling Notts to defeat their closest rivals in the most dramatic fashion imaginable.
Drakes played 17 first class and 16 one-day matches for Notts and made a total of 32 appearances for Warwickshire, who he joined in 2001.
Others to have appeared for both counties include; Deryck Murray, Dilip Doshi, Eddie Hemmings, Daniel Vettori, Anurag Singh and Mark Wagh.
Stats
Stats for Notts v Warwickshire in T20
Highest Score
Notts 193-7 (2011) Edgbaston
Warwicks 178-5 (2010) Edgbaston
Lowest Score
Notts 138-7 (2014) Trent Bridge
Warwicks 117ao (19.5ovs) (2010) Trent Bridge
Highest Individual Score
Notts 86* AD Hales (2015) Trent Bridge
Warwicks 61 DL Maddy (2011) Edgbaston
Best Bowling
Notts 5-25 DJ Pattinson (2011) Edgbaston
Warwicks 3-16 JS Patel (2014) Edgbaston)
Did You Know?
Nigel Murray, the son of former Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire wicketkeeper, Deryck Murray, is the Ticket Office Manager at Trent Bridge.
Milestones
Samit Patel (2442) needs 58 runs to become the first player to score 2500 T20 runs for Notts Outlaws.
Luke Fletcher (48) needs two more T20 wickets to reach 50 for Notts Outlaws (to add to his eight for Wellington).
Tickets
For admission prices and all other matchday information, please refer to the official Warwickshire County Cricket Club website www.edgbaston.com
Coverage
Follow the live scorecard, regular text updates and radio commentary through your perfect match-day companion Trent Bridge Live.