An unbroken opening stand of 222 set Nottinghamshire’s Second XI on their way to a nailbiting two-run victory over Derbyshire in their friendly at the Pattonair County Ground.
After day one of the two-day clash was washed out, the sides agreed to a 55-over-per-side encounter, with the hosts winning the toss and opting to bowl.
But Notts would make light work of the Derbyshire attack, with Chris Gibson and Kashif Ali in control throughout the innings.
Gibson enjoyed the majority of the strike, and was able to bring up his half-century inside the opening session from 87 balls.
Ali was unbeaten on 48 at lunch, and would reach his own milestone in the fourth over of the afternoon session as the pair continued to pile on the runs.
The duo accelerated through the afternoon session; after taking 175 balls to bring up the hundred, they needed 136 more to complete a 200-run partnership.
Gibson (102*) would chalk up his century in the 54th over, with Ali (100*) getting to the same landmark from the penultimate ball of the innings.
Chasing 223 to win, Derbyshire were undone by Jack Blatherwick’s opening burst, the seamer accounting for Jack Redman (8) and Mitchell Wagstaff (13) inside the opening 11 overs.
Zak Chappell took the next wicket to fall, removing Mattie McKiernan, but Tom Wood and Josh Lacey kept the hosts in the hunt with a useful 76-run stand.
Lacey (38) fell to Nick Kimber, before Wood (74) became Blatherwick’s third and final victim of the day.
At 197-5, Derbyshire needed 25 runs from five overs, and Nils Priestley was able to keep up the momentum.
Priestley was ultimately drawn into one big shot too many, Kashif Ali luring the left-hander out of his crease as Adeel Shafique completed the stumping.
Five runs were now required from eight balls, but exemplary death bowling from Blatherwick secured victory for the visitors.
Five successive dot balls left Derbyshire in need of a miracle, and Nafis Shaikh was only able to scramble a single from the final delivery of the contest.
Blatherwick finished with 3-25 as Notts squeezed over the line by two runs.
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