Following Notts Outlaws’ five-wicket victory over East Midlands neighbours Leicestershire Foxes, Head Coach Peter Moores paid homage to the dominant way his side went about securing two points.

“It’s a really good win,” began Moores. “It was clinical from us in quite a few ways. I thought we bowled really well; it was, actually, one of our best bowling performances so far.

“Credit especially to the bowlers in the powerplay, because they did the damage there, and then backed it up with a really good performance with the bat.”

Despite losing the toss, Moores’ side displayed great bowling aptitude to dismiss the hosts for just 123 as Luke Fletcher and Dane Paterson each picked up two wickets.

Alex Hales and Ben Duckett then each hit 44, with the latter unbeaten in doing so, to carry the Outlaws to a swift victory inside 14 overs.

Both of Fletcher’s scalps came in his opening over, with the visitors having restricted the Foxes to 31/3 at the end of the six-over powerplay, and a beaming Moores complimented the right-armer’s skill.

“I thought Luke set the tone really nicely,” he said. “It was a strong wind to bowl into, but he really hit his length and got a bit out of the pitch.

“Dane Paterson did the same thing from the other end, and they were both backed up by the other bowlers. I thought we fielded well too, so it was nice to see us put in a performance and give us plenty to take forward.”

In similar fashion to how Fletcher wasted no time in hitting his straps to commence in earnest a miserly showing with the ball from the Outlaws, openers Hales and Joe Clarke also kick-started the chase in rapid fashion.

The duo wielded the willow with aplomb to post an opening stand of 66 from just 32 deliveries at the Uptonsteel County Ground, prompting Moores to praise the speedy way they broke the back of the chase.

“The start of everything is important, of how you bowl and how you bat,” explained the 59-year-old. “The way Alex Hales struck the ball tonight, it was similar to what he did at Derby, actually.

“He’s a beautiful striker of a cricket ball and is very, very difficult to bowl at, so you’ve got some sympathy with the Leicester bowlers, it’s not easy at all when someone scores 40-odd off 15 or 16 balls, which is what Alex did.

“From then on, I thought Ben Duckett played really well, back to his best in some ways. The way he manoeuvred the ball around the field, it was excellent.”

Duckett’s unbeaten knock came in 23 balls and contained eight boundaries, the last of which was a swept one-bounce four off Callum Parkinson that secured a dominant victory for Notts.

The result moves the Outlaws to within two points of the quarter-final places with a game in hand on every other North Group side.

It is a position which Moores is pleased with as his side’s Vitality Blast campaign, just shy of its halfway point, temporarily pauses to allow a brief return to County Championship action.

“We know it’s a tough division, and Leicester are a good team. They play some really good cricket, so it’s a really good place to come and win,” he smiled.

“Sometimes in Twenty20, you get games where you can dominate, and we’ve dominated tonight, so we’ll take some confidence from that.

“We’ll come back here on Sunday for the Championship game for a slight change of pace, before we get back into some more T20 in a week’s time.”

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