Notts Outlaws Head Coach, Peter Moores was happy with the weekend's points in the Vitality T20 Blast despite the weather affecting both games.
Although rain prevented any play in Sunday’s Vitality Blast against Durham in Chester-le-Street, Notts Outlaws had a positive weekend, gaining three more points in their quest to reach the quarter-finals.
The Outlaws comfortably defeated Birmingham Bears on Friday and added another point from their travels to the north east to move into second place in the North Group table, although Worcestershire Rapids also have 10 points but have a game in hand over Notts.
Historically, matches against Durham have often fallen foul of the weather. Yesterday was the fifth time a T20 match had been called off against them, adding to the disappointment of the home Royal London One-Day Cup match being lost earlier in the season, as Peter Moores reflected.
“We would have liked to have played and taken some momentum into this game,” said the Head Coach. “It’s a strange one because we also got rained off against Durham in the 50-over competition at Grantham.
“So, we’ve pitched up twice, both sides have wanted to play and both ties we’ve not got away, so It’s frustrating, yes, because we played very well at Edgbaston and now we’ve got to wait until Friday for the next one, against Derby.”
Moores agreed that, given the circumstances, the weekend’s haul of points wasn’t a bad return.
“Any point is a positive, right now,” he said. “The division is tight because there has been a bit of rain about throughout the whole group stages. It’s that sort of weather around, at the moment, but there’s nothing we can do about it.”
On Friday evening Notts ruthlessly swept aside the Bears, even though more rain brought an early finish to that contest as well, with the Outlaws well ahead on the DLS calculations.
For the second time in a week Birmingham failed to reach 120 against a disciplined Outlaws attack.
“We’re starting to look like we’re more settled as a team,” agreed Moores. “I think the last two or three games, in most of the games we’ve played some good cricket.
“It was nice at Edgbaston to carry that through and finish off the game well.”
Notts have one more T20 fixture, at home to Derbyshire Falcons on Friday, before their County Championship season resumes on Sunday, with a trip to Scarborough to face Yorkshire.
In readiness for that, Notts and Durham will be playing a two-day friendly at Lady Bay today and tomorrow (Monday and Tuesday).
“This will be good for them and for us,” explained Moores. “We’re in different divisions and it will just give a chance for some of the lads to get a run out and for some of the batters to get a bit of time in the middle and start to get the rhythm and the tempo of red ball cricket again.”
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There are three further opportunities to catch the Outlaws in T20 action at Trent Bridge this summer, with the next home game under the lights against Derbyshire Falcons on Friday 16 August.