A century from Outlaws captain Haseeb Hameed couldn’t stop Gloucestershire claiming a seven-wicket victory over Notts in their Metro Bank One Day Cup encounter at Trent Bridge.
Hameed’s brilliant knock of 105 from 92 balls and a Lyndon James half century helped the home side post 332 at the halfway stage in their pursuit of a top-three finish in Group B.
But Miles Hammond’s innings of 157 from 113 deliveries proved decisive in the away side’s run-chase as they reached their target with 20 balls to spare.
The result doesn’t end Notts’ hopes of progressing to the knockout stages of the competition, however, with games against Essex and Warwickshire to come and third place in the group remaining at stake.
With the Outlaws being put into bat first, Ben Slater started his innings in a positive fashion as he found the boundary rope with relative ease early on, a well-timed extra-cover drive off Arjeet Singh Dale the pick of his opening array of boundaries.
The opener, fresh from scoring a career-best 164 against Surrey on last Sunday, brought up the fifty partnership between himself and Freddie McCann in fine style as he pulled Singh Dale for the game’s first maximum.
The opening stand was soon broken however, as Singh Dale had Slater caught behind by James Bracey for 38 to leave the Outlaws 56/1 inside nine overs.
The visitors picked up their second and third wickets in quick succession as McCann’s mistimed sweep found Graeme van Buuren at short fine-leg for 20 and Jack Haynes edged through to Bracey to leave Notts 73/3.
That meant James joined Hameed and the pair expertly lifted the Outlaws into a position of strength through sensible and aggressive batting in equal measure.
James began his stint with a couple of well-placed cut shots through backward point before twice pulling Singh Dale for six in the 29th over.
Meanwhile, the pick of Hameed’s early boundaries was a glorious, lofted drive over extra cover off the bowling of Ollie Price.
The duo both reached their fifties in the 30th over, shortly after they brought up their 100-run partnership; James the first to reach the milestone before Hameed got there a ball later.
The two batters looked relatively untroubled out in the middle until James departed for 61, cutting to Singh Dale at backward point off the bowling of Gloucestershire captain Jack Taylor to end his and Hameed’s 129-run fourth-wicket stand with the score on 202.
Wicketkeeper Tom Moores provided support to his captain, and it took just 34 deliveries for the third 50-run partnership of the innings to be reached.
Hameed’s pursuit of a second List A century of the season was helped with a domineering pull shot for four and a whipped six over mid-wicket, both of which came at the expense of Zaman Akhter.
Soon after, he went through to three figures from 92 balls with a driven single into the offside having already hit nine fours and one six in the process.
His innings finally came to an end on 105 when he was stumped by Bracey having come down the pitch to Tom Smith, but he departed with his side in a solid position at 282/5 with 6.1 overs remaining.
Tom Moores reached 40 before holing out to Cameron Bancroft in the deep and Liam Patterson’s White’s display of power-hitting (29 from 10 balls) added important lower-order runs to the Outlaws total.
Rob Lord finished 12 not out after Luke Fletcher was the last man out for one as Notts finished with 332 on the board.
The Outlaws looked for early wickets during Gloucestershire’s reply, but the opening pairing of Miles Hammond and Bancroft saw off the early pressure as they put on 151 for the opening wicket with both batters reaching fifty.
McCann trapped Bancroft in front to claim his maiden List A wicket, but Hammond continued his charge and by the time Calvin Harrison had him given out LBW, he had amassed a score of 157 to leave Gloucestershire 245/2 after 33 overs.
Patterson-White followed up his cameo with the bat as he bowled Bracey for 16, but Price (61 not out) and Ben Charlesworth (24 not out) saw their team over the line.
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