Nottinghamshire will host their final home game of the 2016 Specsavers County Championship, when they face Middlesex at Trent Bridge this week.
The match begins on Tuesday 6 September 2016, with a 10.30am start time each day.
Notts’ hopes of recording a win this week will be tested by the side currently sitting at the top of the Division One table. The reverse fixture, at Lord’s in April, was drawn after rain wiped out the final two days of the contest.
Head-To-Head
Nottinghamshire versus Middlesex is one of county cricket’s most established fixtures, having first been played in 1866.
In first class competition there have been a total of 227 meetings, with the southern county having had the better of things.
Middlesex have registered a total of 77 victories in the series of matches, whilst Nottinghamshire can claim 56 wins. 90 other matches have been drawn, whilst two matches were abandoned without a ball being bowled.
The two county sides have met on 112 previous occasions in Nottinghamshire, with all but three of them taking place at Trent Bridge.
Middlesex were the victors by 61 runs at Newark in 1970, Notts won by 192 runs at Worksop, the following year, a ground which had also staged a draw in 1963.
Perhaps unusually, the away team have had the better of things over the years, with Middlesex boasting a 34 to 25 winning advantage, with the other 53 matches ending in draws.
Nottinghamshire’s relatively poor record is undoubtedly due to them going without a single victory between 1934 and 1955.
Nottinghamshire’s last 5 home wins came in 1988, 1998, 2002, 2006 and in 2014. Middlesex’s last 5 wins at Trent Bridge occurred in 1991, 1996, 2000, 2003 and 2013 and the last 5 draws were in 2001, 2005, 2007, 2012 and last year.
Last Time
The mid-season match at Trent Bridge last year featured two healthy first innings totals and a number of stoppages for bad weather.
Middlesex made 374 after being inserted, with Dawid Malan making a career best score of 182 not out. James Harris, once linked with a move to Notts, made 73.
The home side managed to gather a slender advantage after a collection of handy contributions took them to 419 for nine declared.
Chris Read scored 108 and a trio of batsmen, Steven Mullaney, Brendan Taylor and Brett Hutton, all scored 70s.
Middlesex skipper James Franklin returned figures of three for 41, the best in the match, on his return to the ground where he’d played the previous season.
The visitors were 162 for one in their second innings when the game drew to a close.
History
The 1925 match between the two clubs at Trent Bridge remains firmly entrenched in the record books. Middlesex’s 502 for six is the highest fourth innings total ever achieved in first class cricket in this country.
What made the feat more remarkable is that it came after a first innings score of 127 and a poor start to their second innings, which saw them slump to 66 for four.
After being totally outplayed by Notts, the visitors mounted a rear guard through Patsy Hendren, Clarence Bruce and captain Frank Mann.
Hendren and Bruce added 154 before the latter fell for 103. Notts picked up a further wicket but then came unstuck as Mann helped add an unbroken 271 for the seventh wicket to guide the London side to a famous win.
Hendren finished on 206, with Mann on 101, as the target was reached, having also compiled the highest seventh wicket stand ever witnessed at Trent Bridge.
Two Nottinghamshire players turned in sensational performances in the 2002 win over Middlesex at Trent Bridge. Kevin Pietersen scored 254 not out and Australian leg-spinner Stuart MacGill claimed 14 wickets in the match with figures of six for 54 and eight for 111.
Apart from Pietersen’s knock, four other Nottinghamshire batsmen have registered double-hundreds against Middlesex in Nottingham.
Arthur Shrewsbury made 267 in 1887, Charlie Harris scored 234 in 1933, Joe Hardstaff jnr hit 243 in 1937 and Derek Randall, who followed his first innings score of 209 in 1979 with an innings of 146, the only instance of a Nottinghamshire batsman scoring centuries in both innings against the London side.
The most recent Nottinghamshire debutant in the home series of matches was 16-year old Bilal Shafayat, who made scores of 72 and 24 against Middlesex in 2001. Just six days away from his 17th birthday Bilal seemed on course for a debut century until trapped lbw by former England spinner Phil Tufnell.
Played For Them Both
Imran Tahir’s first taste of county cricket came with Middlesex in 2003, when he played in three championship matches and three one-day fixtures for the Lords-based side. Perhaps surprisingly, the six matches only brought one wicket, that of Lancashire’s Mal Loye.
Since that period Tahir has also played for Yorkshire, Warwickshire and Hampshire before joining the Trent Bridge staff for the first time last season.
Despite his extended stays in county cricket, the South African international leg spinner has never played a first class match against Middlesex.
In the opposition ranks this week will be James Franklin, who made several appearances across all three formats, for Notts in 2014. He has assumed the Middlesex captaincy in the second half of the season, after another former Outlaws player, Adam Voges, went off on international duty for Australia.
Others to have turned out for both Notts and Middlesex include David Alleyne, Stephen Fleming, Mike Harris, Lance Klusener, Harry Latchman, Dirk Nannes, Scott Newman, Vernon Philander and
Bob White.
Stats (for all Notts v Middlesex first class fixtures)
Highest Team Total
Notts 642-9 dec (2006) Lord’s
Middlesex 621-9 dec (1931) Trent Bridge
Lowest Team Total
Notts 40 (1895) Lord’s
Middlesex 32 (1882) Lord’s
Highest Individual Score
Notts 312* WW Keeton (1939) The Oval
Middlesex 245 WJ Edrich (1938) Lord’s
Best Bowling in Innings
Notts 8-31 CH Shreck (2006) Trent Bridge
Middlesex 9-32 JT Hearne (1891) Trent Bridge
Best Bowling in Match
Notts 14-165 SCG MacGill (2002) Trent Bridge
Middlesex 15-154 JT Hearne (1893) Trent Bridge
Did You Know?
Nottinghamshire’s highest-ever individual score came against Middlesex, when Walter Keeton made an undefeated 312 in 1939, in a match played at The Oval (Lord’s was being used for the annual Eton v Harrow fixture, which was given priority).
Milestones
Nottinghamshire players approaching first class milestones this week are:
Steven Mullaney (4,926) needs a further 74 runs to reach 5,000 for Notts
Steven Mullaney (900) needs a further 100 runs to reach 1,000 in the county championship this season
Samit Patel (873) needs a further 127 runs to reach 1,000 first class runs in England this season. This total does not include the 27 he scored for MCC v Yorkshire in Abu Dhabi in March.
Jake Libby (829) needs a further 171 runs to reach 1,000 first class runs this season.
Imran Tahir (2,486) needs 14 more runs to reach 2,500 in first class cricket.
Chris Read (990) is only 10 catches away from reaching 1,000 in first class cricket. He has also taken 51 stumpings.
Harry Gurney (198) needs 2 more wickets to reach 200 for Notts.
Tickets
For admission prices and all other matchday information please refer to the official Nottinghamshire County Cricket website www.trentbridge.co.uk
Coverage
All four days of Nottinghamshire's Specsavers County Championship fixture against Middlesex will be streamed live, in HD, with integrated commentary via Trent Bridge Live...