While most of his team-mates were taking a welcome break last week, Samit Patel was more than happy to continue doing what he does best – scoring runs.
The batting all-rounder joined Nottinghamshire wicket-keeper Chris Read and stars such as Brendon McCullum, Misbah-ul-Haq, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Yasir Shah to play for the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) against Afghanistan, who were playing at Lord’s for the very first time.
True to form at the moment, the right-hander was firmly in the runs, contributing a quickfire 53 in the home side’s innings of 217-6 which was reduced to from 50 to 40 overs by rain, before more bad weather curtailed the Afghans’ reply at 32-1.
But, come tomorrow, it’s back to the serious stuff of NatWest T20 Blast cricket as the Notts Outlaws face neighbours Derbyshire Falcons in the Club’s eagerly-awaited first match of the summer at Trent Bridge in this format (6.30pm start).
Another home game against Northamptonshire Steelbacks follows on Saturday (2.30pm start) – and Patel is anticipating an exciting weekend of action.
“It was great to play in front of 6,000 mainly Afghans supporters and a pleasure to play at The Home of Cricket last Tuesday, especially as I got a few runs,” said Patel.
“But now it’s a big game against Derbyshire and you can’t not be up for a match against them on a Friday night to get back into the competitive games. Notts v Derbyshire is always a massive game and we’re all looking forward to it.
“It’s good to get back in front of our home crowds, but we know we have to do the basics right. We’ve not played good cricket in the first two games, but that’s the way T20 goes sometimes.
“We’ve got a great chance to turn things around this weekend and put ourselves back in the mix. The good thing is that in our group a lot of the teams have been beating each other, so we’re not too far behind and it’s still wide open.
“We did the same last year – we lost the first two T20s and we came back to win the group – plus we also won the Royal London One-Day Cup this year having lost our first two group games. Things can change around very quickly.”
“The boys definitely needed a break so we could get our energy back and get our head around two important games this weekend, but now we’re ready to go.”
Patel scored 592 runs at 65.77 in the successful Royal London One-Day Cup campaign, helping his county to secure the trophy in memorable style. In five of his last eight matches for the Nottinghamshire first team across all formats, he has contributed scores of 257 not out, 66, 122 not out, 247 and 55.
That’s not to mention an ability to chip in with the ball using his left-arm spin, taking 10 wickets during those same games, which included a key spell of 3-51 in the 50-over Lord’s final victory over Surrey earlier this month.
The 32-year-old hopes to keep his good form going through the rest of the T20 campaign, particularly with the bat, and said: “We talk about rhythm all the time and hopefully I can stay in the rhythm of batting despite the break.
“It can be quite hard in T20 because it’s all crash, bang, wallop, but sometimes you do get time to get yourself in, like I had in the Birmingham Bears game.”
Tomorrow’s game will be the first since Luke Fletcher was struck on the head by Birmingham batsman Sam Hain’s powerful hit in a T20 encounter on July 8 – an injury that has ruled the seamer out for the rest of the season.
Patel felt the Outlaws players showed their character in that match despite the last-ball defeat and is backing his teammates to show the same determination against Derbyshire.
“What happened to Fletch probably did affect our performance a little bit at Birmingham, but once we knew he was OK, the boys wanted to go out and play a game of cricket and we weren’t making any excuses about the result,” he said.
“I thought we got on with the job really well and to take it as close as we did was testament to the strength of our bowling attack.
“The boys definitely needed a break so we could get our energy back and get our head around two important games at the weekend, but now we’re ready to go.”
Notts have made two changes to the squad that travelled to play Birmingham Bears on July 8, with Jake Ball returning from a knee strain and Brendan Taylor recalled.
They replace Luke Fletcher, who has been ruled out for the rest of the season with the head injury he sustained at Edgbaston, and Michael Lumb, who has retired.
Notts Outlaws squad to face Derbyshire Falcons (from): Brendan Taylor, Steven Mullaney, Riki Wessels, Alex Hales, Harry Gurney, Luke Wood, Samit Patel, Tom Moores, Brett Hutton, Jake Ball, Dan Christian, Ish Sodhi, Billy Root.
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