Ahead of the Outlaws' Vitality Blast season-opener against Worcestershire Rapids on Friday 27 May (6.30pm), we look back at a standout performance at New Road in 2017.
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“I have always felt that the art of winning is harder than the art of losing.”
So said former Australian captain George Bailey, and it may transpire that almost all professional sportspeople would be inclined to agree. The sweetness of each victory is only compounded by the blood, sweat and tears that have had to be shed in order to earn it.
The more effort, the taller the odds, the more memorable the victory. For two-time Vitality Blast champions Notts Outlaws, there is one particular win that sticks in the memory for just how difficult it was.
Having won their last four completed games, the Outlaws made the 83-mile trip south-west to New Road on a sunny Sunday afternoon in August 2017 to face Worcestershire Rapids.
“I remember how tough the pitch was in that game,” recalled visiting head coach Peter Moores. “We really battled to get a score, and it was Billy Root, at number seven or eight, who came in towards the back end for us.
“You don’t get to bat very often [in those positions], but the key is, when you do get the chance, can you make a difference?
“But the main reason I remember that game so much was because of how Harry Gurney and Jake Ball proved themselves to be a real force as a bowling unit.
“They’d struggled at the start of that T20 season, playing on the really flat pitches at Trent Bridge, but they’d then worked really hard to become more skilful – better slower balls and refining their yorkers more."
Several notable names played in the clash on the banks of the River Severn, with current Outlaws batter Joe Clarke and New Zealand international Mitchell Santner among the Rapids starting lineup, while Notts mainstays Gurney, Ball, Samit Patel and Alex Hales all featured.
Despite being put into bat, there was initially little sign that the Outlaws would require the services of Root with the bat, as a 14-ball 32 from opener Riki Wessels hoisted them to 57/1 before the end of the fifth over.
However, just one of the reasons that T20 cricket creates such huge entertainment is that the situation can change in a flash, and the loss of Wessels precipitated something of a wobble on that New Road surface, as the Outlaws slipped to 80/6 shortly after the innings’ halfway point.
Enter Root, who Moores remembers stood tall for the visitors when it mattered: “Billy got 30 or 40 in this game, and it was a pitch and an outfield that you couldn’t whack the ball on – it would just stop.
“Instead, he started to place the ball, and ran well, which allowed us to get ourselves what was just about a defendable score.”
Moores’ memory serves him well; Root top-scored with 37 from 27 deliveries, adding 50 for the seventh wicket with captain Dan Christian, who also grafted for a 21-ball 22.
His innings was not a typical one for the shortest format, with just 16 of those runs coming in boundaries, yet it proved to be utterly integral.
Root himself was caught by Ben Cox off Rapids captain Joe Leach with the score 141/8 and seven deliveries of the innings left, before two final-over wickets saw Notts post 145 all out.
Would it be enough? “There was a short edge on one side and Worcestershire are a very good T20 team,” said a philosophical Moores when recollecting his musings at the game’s halfway stage.
The chase began very promisingly from an Outlaws perspective, as Samit Patel snapped up Leach, operating as a pinch hitter at the top of the order, in his opening over.
Following that, two wickets for Christian, one of which was his future teammate Clarke for nine, and one for Jake Ball forced the Rapids into retreat, reaching 38/4 at the end of the powerplay.
“Dan has this knack of getting wickets, and he often comes out with the best when the pressure is on,” said Moores. “I remember a different game – the game at Warwickshire, actually, when Luke Fletcher got hit – and Dan had to bowl the last over.
“He suddenly came up with five or six yorkers when we needed them, and he’s got this ability to raise his game when it’s really needed by the team. This day was no different – he got wickets, and he bowled beautifully.”
Christian’s fellow Antipodean international in the side that day was spinner Ish Sodhi, and with the fact the pitch was offering more than a helping hand to the twirlers now common knowledge, the skipper opted for the New Zealander to bowl in tandem with Samit Patel.
That continued to increase the pressure, as only two boundaries were hit in the ensuing four overs, and the hosts reached 63/4 after ten overs, requiring another 83 to win.
But once again, things can change in the blink of an eye in T20 cricket, and Worcestershire were able to unleash their own lower-order hitter in the form of Ross Whiteley. Entering the fray with his side 73/5 in the 12th over, he immediately gave a reminder of his abilities by crunching his second ball for four.
Whiteley found aid from Daryl Mitchell and Ed Barnard to steer the Rapids to 108/6, hauling them back into the game as they required 38 from the final four overs.
Yet the Outlaws had their own secret formula up their sleeves, as Gurney’s left arm and Ball’s right produced magic in the closing stages.
That 38 from four overs became 26 from two as Whiteley remained at the crease, with Ball seeing Barnard caught by Christian for 15.
The task was becoming ever trickier for the visitors, and a final-over climax dawned as Gurney was thrown the ball with the Rapids requiring just 15.
“Harry bowled at the end,” said Moores. “He just went six yorkers, and got each one in! He and Jake managed to close out that game. This was their game!”
Gurney would produce an over for the ages as he conceded only a bye off the first two deliveries, before picking up the prize wicket of Whiteley to swing the pendulum back the Outlaws’ way.
Just two further runs from the final two balls then confirmed a victory that only ten minutes prior had looked improbable.
“Billy set it up with contributions from others, and we got ourselves in a position we had no right to be in, before Harry and Jake closed it out,” said Moores.
“We had no right to win the game, and after we’d won, I remember sitting in the dressing room thinking ‘If we can win this game, we can win any game.’
“Often, we’d won before with our powerhouse batting like you see with Alex Hales, but this was all about good bowling as a unit, and probably Harry and Jake’s skill at the end to take us home.”
The Outlaws will lock horns with the Rapids once more under the Trent Bridge lights as they open their 2022 Vitality Blast campaign tomorrow night.
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Be More Outlaw: The 2022 Vitality Blast at Trent Bridge
Notts Outlaws, the 2017 and 2020 Vitality Blast winners, return to T20 action at Trent Bridge this summer from Friday 27 May to Friday 1 July. Pin your green and gold colours to the mast by securing your seats now.
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