Mick Newell is challenging the Notts Outlaws to take an attacking approach as they embark on a run of four white ball matches in nine days.

The Outlaws start their Royal One-Day Cup campaign against Northamptonshire Steelbacks on Monday, two days on from claiming their first limited overs victory of the season against the Lancashire Lightning.

“You've got to go out there with an intent to attack from the word go,” said the Director of Cricket on the 50-over format.

“I would expect - especially playing at this time of year, in June, on good batting pitches - that there will be a lot of runs around in that competition.”

“We’ll need people to make 100s rather than 50s and 40s, so there will be an emphasis on individual players to do more with the bat, to score more runs.”

Notts topped their group in the national List A cricket competition last year. However, with James Taylor retired, Alex Hales absent with England and captain Chris Read injured, Newell believes his side face a significantly heightened challenge this time around.

“Expectations should be high, you know, we should be looking to get through to the knock-out stages and beyond”,” he said.

“Those three players are a significant loss to the batting line-up from the side that reached the semi-final last year.

“But we have some mature players, the likes of Brendon Taylor, Dan Christian and Samit Patel. It’s not a young team, its quite an experienced team, but they have got to step up and seize the opportunity.” 

Last time out against Lancashire, Notts appeared to be cruising to the required total of 185 with half-centurions Riki Wessels and Michael Lumb in full flow, before a nervous collapse saw seven of the eight wickets fall while just 38 runs were added to the total.

The imposition of a six run penalty on Lancashire, a timely Sam Wood six and a scampered Luke Fletcher single combined to secure a nail-biting win - and Newell’s reaction was unspurisingly more of relief than delight.

"It would have been a terrible game to lose,” he said. “It’s a good game to win but a loss would have been devastating because we were dominating the game with the bat.

“Riki and Michael were playing well, Greg Smith went in and played well and we were so far ahead of Lancashire all the way through that you would have had to seriously question yourself if we had lost.”

Notts Outlaws squad to face Northamptonshire Steelbacks (from): Jake Ball, Matt Carter,Dan Chistian, Luke Fletcher, Harry Gurney, Brett Hutton, Michael Lumb, Steven Mullaney, Samit Patel, Greg Smith, Brendan Taylor, Riki Wessels and Sam Wood.

 

Notts Outlaws NatWest T20 Blast Fixtures & Ticket Information

Vs. Derbyshire Falcons – Friday 10 June 7.15pm BUY TICKETS

Vs. Durham Jets – Friday 1 July 6.30pm BUY TICKETS

Vs. Worcestershire Rapids – Saturday 9 July 2.30pm BUY TICKETS

Vs. Yorkshire Vikings – Friday 15 July 6.30pm BUY TICKETS

Vs. Leicestershire Foxes – Friday 29 July 6.30pm BUY TICKETS

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