Dan Christian says he will be proud of Notts’ achievements in the 2016 NatWest T20 Blast, but only once he’s had time to get over the bitter disapointment of semi-final defeat. 

The Outlaws captain led his side to nine successive victories en route to the semi-final, a club record, only to fall at the penultimate hurdle against the Northamptonshire Steelbacks at Edgbaston.

“Right now it hurts but, looking back in a week, we will be pretty proud of the way things went," said Christian.

“We set a record for Notts with the most T20 wins in a row. We played some great cricket all the way through and probably saved our worst performance for today.

“We’ve had a pretty good summer in the T20 stuff. The boys have been very good at separating their championship form from the T20, and they’ve been fantastic with the white ball.

"It’s just unfortunate that we put in a performance like that today.”

Christian praised the performance of Andre Russell, but admitted that Notts’ chances of victory plummeted when the West Indian all-rounder was dismissed, brilliantly caught on the boundary by Rob Keogh.

“He was class today and that’s what all we expected form him really," said the 33-year-old skipper.

“He’s always involved in the game, taking wickets and hitting massive sixes. He’s a joy to watch.

“At 4-40, that’s where the game was lost. They played really well and took a lot of good chances, obviously that catch of Andre was a massive turning point.

“We still had a few very good batsmen in the shed at that stage and if he had gone on and got another 20 or 30 it would be a reasonably comfortable chase.”

Christian stated that the Outlaws were content to be chasing 162 at the halfway stage, but ultimately being 15-3 early-on provided too big a mountain to climb.

“We were pretty confident that the wicket was good, the outfield was fast and that it was a decent sized boundary,” he added.

“We probably thought it was a 180 wicket, given that we took those early wickets up front ourselves and they only got around 30 off the last five overs. 

“Most of us got out playing normal cricket shots. Alex Hales got one that nipped back a bit. I got bounced out and Samit Patel just punched one back to the bowler. It was just one of those days unfortunately.

“We were pretty confident going into today that we had the team and the form on the board to be able go all the way - let alone win the semis. Everyone is obviously very disappointed."