Nottinghamshire Story

[DaveK93]

Hi all,
I decided that this year, to start the game, I would use Nottinghamshire, as it was the nearest county team to me.

There were only a couple of transfers in, with Jamie Dalrymple arriving, as did John Casey, a 20 year old youth player, who hopefully I should be able to utilize lower down the order.

Nottinghamshire VS Loughborough UCCE (University Match)

Teams:

Nottinghamshire:
M Lumb (C)
A Hales
J Taylor
A Voges
S Patel
J Casey
C Read (W/K)
S Broad
G Swann
A Adams
L Fletcher

Loughborough UCCE:
J Jones
C Burley
L Gibson
S Hunniford
A Perry
T Dennis
J Mudie
J Sutherland
A Irwin
C Armstrong
J Harris

Casey is given his first class debut in this match, so I could have a proper look at him, and decide what his role for this season would be.
Having lost the toss on a batsman friendly pitch, Notts were made to bowl first.
Loughborough performed well with the bat, reaching a respectable 312 all out by midway through the first session on day 2. The only real highlight from the bowling perspective was that Andre Adams got 5-64 on a lifeless pitch.

The Nottinghamshire reply started well, with Lumb and Hales reaching a century partnership in testing weather conditions. However, the rest of the batting wasn't as good, and Notts could have struggled had it not been for some good batting by Swann and Patel.

The declaration came through early on the third morning, with Patel narrowly missing a century, leaving Notts 116 ahead, in poor weather conditions, and a quickly deteriorating pitch. This time, the pace bowlers quality shone through, with Loughborough reduced to 21-6 after 16, Broad and Adams getting 3 wickets each. The collapse was complete midway through the afternoon session, Loughborough bowled out for 55, a win of an innings and 61 for Nottinghamshire.



Next up, at home to Worcestershire in the County Championship opener.

[DaveK93]

Nottinghamshire Story

CC Div 1 vs Worcestershire (H)

There was only one change from the team that played Loughborough, with Alex Hales out for 4 weeks, so Neil Edwards comes in as a straight swap at the top of the order

Notts lost the toss again and were put into bat. Some solid batting put Notts on 357, before Broad removed Hughes for a duck in the last over of the day.
This wasn't a sign of things to come however, as once again, the bowling attack looked toothless. Worcestershire reached 392 before being bowled out, D Mitchell the main contributor with an innings of 122
.
Nottinghamshire rallied from that however, and depsite the rain, managed to post a second innings total of 403-8 dec, an imposing lead of 365 to chase on the final day. James Taylor was the architect of that innings, scoring 171 off just 174 balls.

This total was to be too much for Worcestershire, who until midway through the penultimate session, looked set to win. Broad returned to bowl, and a devastating spell resulted in three vital wickets, a collapse from which Worcs couldn't recover. Shortly after the tea interval, Richardson was stumped off Swann's bowling to result in a 142 run victory for Notts.

James Taylor 171:


Match Report:


Next match of the season: Durham CC D1 (A)

[DaveK93]

The next game of the season was the CCD1 game against Durham away. Injury news to mention is that Karl Turner is out for 3 weeks after suffering a broken finger.

The starting line ups are:
Notts:
M Lumb
N Edwards
J Taylor
A Voges
S Patel
R Wessels
C Read (w/k)
S Broad
G Swann
A Adams
L Fletcher

Wessels comes in for Casey who had returned some low scores, and Wessels provides some more experience in the middle order.

Durham:
W Smith
M Di Venuto
D Benkenstein
B Stokes
I Blackwell
C de Grandhomme
P Mustard (w/k)
G Muchall
L Plunkett
C Thorp
G Onions

Durham won the toss and elected to bat first. The first day ended evenly matched, Durham reaching 331-7, with some good batting early on in the day before some quick wickets before the close of play brought Notts back into the game. A particular highlight was a knock of 130 from Ben Stokes. Durham eventually finished on 387, with the tail getting some valuable runs.

Notts collapsed in the first innings, reaching a paltry 139, and being asked to follow on. The second innings was much better, reaching 389 early on day 4, leaving Durham to chase 133 in favourable conditions. This total was reached before the end of the first session, without the loss of a wicket, thus closing on what was an appalling performance by Nottinghamshire.



The next match to try and get over this dreadful performance, is a return to Trent Bridge to play Somerset.

[DaveK93]

Notts Vs Somerset (H) CCD1

The next match of our season is at home to Somerset. Only one change from the crushing defeat at Durham, with Jamie Dalrymple coming in for the out of form Luke Fletcher on what was a spinners pitch.

Nottinghamshire won the toss and batted first, hoping to capitalize before the pitch began to turn too much. Notts reached a respectable 292, with some good performances from Patel and Voges. Encouragingly Dockrell took the most wickets for Somerset, suggesting that the pitch would take some more turn.

Unfortunately for Notts, they suffered a significant blow when Broad had to leave the field injured. Somerset reached 400, with a disappointing lack of turn and injuries hampering the bowling attack, and left Notts with some ground to make up.

Notts did manage to reach a respectable 309, however, this was mainly through the lower order, with a disappointing effort from the top order, which showed signs of missing Alex Hales. Hopefully England won't call him up, or I could have some problems this season.

Somerset were left with 202 to chase with 2 sessions to chase it. With Stuart Broad injured, the new ball was thrown to Graeme Swann to try and pull off an unlikely victory. It started well, with some quick wickets at the start before some solid lower order batting finished the innings off comfortably, winning by 6 wickets.



Next up is the return match against Worcestershire, and hopefully the road to recovery for our County Championship season.

[DaveK93]

Worcs vs Notts CCD1

Notts played their repeat fixture against Worcestershire hoping that a win could restart their County Championship campaign. Broad is out for 7 days so misses out, as does Dalrymple and Wessels, so Franks, Pattinson and debutant Scott Elstone step into the first 11.

Worcestershire won the toss (again...) and elected to bat. Franks and Pattinson put in acceptable performances, but the star of the show was Graeme Swann, getting figures of 7-92, however, Worcs did reach a total of 322, which could prove testing for Notts, bearing in mind the batting order's tendency to collapse.

The reply started well, Notts reaching 119 before losing their first wicket. A couple of quick wickets followed before another outstanding batting performance from James Taylor. Notts reached 594, with Taylor left stranded at the end on 182*. This left Notts ahead by 272 runs, with 5 sessions of the game left, and Notts pushing for a potential innings victory.

Worcs' tried to remove the deficit, and did so for the loss of 6 wickets, and a session and a half remaining. They even managed to continue through to the beginning of the last session before collapsing to the new ball, leaving Notts chasing 84 to win, with 1hr 21 left to do it.

In the end, Notts won comfortably, with the runs being knocked off in 9.1 overs, for the loss of two wickets. Maximum points were gained from this match, with most credit being given to James Taylor, who once again anchored a very collapsible batting line up.



The next match is against Lancashire in the CCD1 (A)

[DaveK93]

Lancs Vs Notts CCD1

The continuation of the County Championship season saw Nottinghamshire travel to Old Trafford, fresh from a maximum point’s victory against Nottinghamshire. Stuart Broad had returned to fitness, so he came straight back into the squad over Paul Franks. Whilst Franks is reliable enough, Broad has got some good stats so far this season, and he is the main strike bowler, something the team has lacked recently.

The toss was in favour of Lancashire, so Notts found themselves bowling first. Broad took 3 wickets on his return to first team action, but was overshadowed by Pattinson who took 5-74 as Lancashire found themselves bowled out for 335, a total which seemed under par in these conditions.

Notts started brightly, with M Lumb proving why he was selected to open the order, getting a fluent 86, before Stuart Broad clubbed some valuable late order runs alongside Chris Read, to give Notts a total of 424, and a lead of 89, a lead which could be useful on a rapidly deteriorating pitch.

Lancashire replied strongly, knocking the deficit off untroubled and continued strongly, as Notts were set back by the loss of Stuart Broad again to another injury. The bowling attack battled on though, and Lancashire eventually declared on 371-9, leaving Nottinghamshire to chase an improbable 283 from a session and a half.

With one session remaining, 222 were required. Nottinghamshire made a valiant effort to get to the total, but fell short at the last, finishing on 252-8, the last wicket partnership of Graeme Swann and Andre Adams holding on to secure the draw. Had Stuart Broad not been injured, it is plausible a result could have been achieved, but for the spectator, the last innings was an entertaining one, with Lumb reaching 56 and J Taylor reaching 73.

Nottinghamshire gained a valuable 10 points from this match, against the defending champions, so could be rightly pleased by their performance.



Next up is a mini break from the County Championship, as Notts face an away game against Scotland in the Challenge Trophy.

[DaveK93]

Scotland Vs Notts CTGrp B

For the start of the one day season, Nottinghamshire could welcome back Karl Turner, however, were missing Stuart Broad who was out for 3 weeks. Two changes were made to the Nottinghamshire line up, with Neil Edwards being dropped, along with the injured Broad, and Wessels, and Andy Carter came in to fill the spaces.

Notts won the toss (finally!) and elected to bat first, in the hope that they could set an imposing total. Cameos from Lumb, Wessels and Patel helped along some hard hitting knocks throughout the order, as a total of 253-8 was reached. This should be an adequate enough total, and one that should hopefully give the bowlers a little leeway, and allow Carter especially, to bowl sensibly, and without pressure.

Scotland were left with 40 overs to chase 254 at 6.3 rpo. Some expensive early bowling by Carter and Adams was soon settled by the second powerplay and a wicket a piece, before both were removed and Pattinson and Swann came on. From there, wickets fell at regular intervals, Pattinson being the main instigator in the Scottish collapse, picking up figures of 4-0-29-6.

It was a successful start to the Outlaws’ campaign, and one that looked promising, with a lot of one day cricket on the horizon, pleasing performances by Lumb and Pattinson suggested that Notts could go far in this year’s competition.



The next match on the agenda was a home match to Middlesex in the CCD1, where second meets first.

[DaveK93]

Notts Vs Middlesex CCD1

There was good news before this match for Notts as Alex Hales was declared fit and ready to return to the top of the order, where he would replace Wessels from the last match against Scotland. This was the only change, as it was decided that Andy Carter needed more game time, and had proved an adequate replacement for Broad in the previous match.

Notts lost the toss, and were put into bat in cloudy conditions. Hales went 4 balls into his return, but some quick hitting by Elstone leveled things out, and by lunch, Notts were 125-3.From here, the Notts line up collapsed, and fell to a measly 197, losing any batting points. A quick recovery was needed.

Middlesex, despite the consistent loss of wickets managed to get to 326, despite Carter proving himself capable in the first innings with bowling figures of 7-84. However, he lacked assistance, and Notts, once again, found themselves behind after the first innings.

Nottinghamshire rallied, this time through Alex Hales, who made 72 before departing, as they reached 317. Once again, the injury curse struck, this time Chris Read, the keeper, the one to suffer. This left Notts defending a lead of 189, and relying on all the bowlers to pull through, in a bid to win the game.

Middlesex however, were not to be denied, and reached the total for the loss of only 5 wickets. Carter managed to take 2 wickets, as Notts made a valiant effort to try and restrain the Middlesex batsmen, but their quality shone through, and highlighted once again, that Nottinghamshire lack a quality middle order batsman to shore up the innings.



Next up was a match against Sussex, once again in the CCD1.

[DaveK93]

Notts Vs Sussex CCD1

Notts came into this game missing two more key players, as Graeme Swann was on England duty against the West Indies, and Chris read had been ruled out for 2 weeks. Therefore there were two enforced changes, with both Jamie Dalrymple and Riki Wessels returning. However, one more change was made, with Andre Adams taking a break to try and recover some form, with Harry Gurney coming into the squad to make his Nottinghamshire debut, after moving from Leicestershire in the summer. Also, with him being a left arm bowler, it should hopefully add a different dimension to the bowling attack.

Once again, Notts lost the toss, and were made to bowl by Sussex. A respectable performance by the bowlers saw Sussex bowled out for 294, Gurney picking 2 wickets up. A constant flow of wickets hampered Sussex’s progress throughout, with only Ed Joyce and Luke Wright providing any real resistance.

Notts retaliated by matching the Sussex innings, reaching 305, and the all-important extra batting point. Riki Wessels was the key man for Notts, reaching a century, and finally showing signs that he could be on the return to form. Notts led by 11 in what could be a close match.

By the end of the Sussex innings it became apparent that there was a good game on show, with Sussex 303, leaving Nottinghamshire to chase 293 on the final day. The Sussex batsmen experienced a bit of a let off as they were struggling early on, however, Nottinghamshire couldn’t quite break through. Despite this, it is worth noting that both Carter and Gurney are good prospects and will only improve with the right training.

Notts were left chasing their total all on the final day. Despite the loss of Lumb early on, a half century for Hales, and then, when on the brink of collapse, some sensible batting from Taylor and Dalrymple, allowed Nottinghamshire to claim victory with 53 minutes of the final session left. In the end, it was a comfortable batting performance by Nottinghamshire, and certainly a good match for all concerned. In Nottinghamshire’s case, it certainly showed signs that the team was starting to gel and progress.



Next up, a Challenge Trophy Match against Hampshire.

[DaveK93]

Notts Vs Hants CTGrp B

In the rest period between the Sussex victory and this match, there were a couple of injuries, with S Kelsall out for 2 weeks and Wood out for 3 weeks. However, both Broad and Read had returned from their injuries, and Graeme Swann was available after England duty, so the team looked strong for this match.

Notts:
M Lumb
A Hales
R Wessels
A Voges
J Taylor
S Patel
S Elstone
G Swann
S Broad
D Pattinson
A Carter

Notts found themselves batting after losing the toss. Some wickets lost fairly early on were compensated for by a run-a-ball 68 by Alex Hales, before Taylor and Patel broke the Notts 5th wicket batting partnership. Some big hitting later on meant that Nottinghamshire reached a commendable 269-8, a testing target for Hampshire.

The Hampshire innings started brightly, with Hampshire getting to 206-4 before a collapse left them desperately short on 247. In what was a high scoring match, the best Nottinghamshire bowling performance was A Carter, who managed 2-40 from his 8, but at 5 an over, was easily the most economical of the bowlers, which was impressive given that he bowled his last overs during the batting powerplay.



Next up for Notts is a match against Durham, once again, in the 40 over format.

[DaveK93]

Notts vs Durham CTGrp B

With both Broad and Swann called up for England, it means that Dalrymple returns, alongside Franks, who will hopefully account for Broad, by adding some batting talent to the line-up.

Nottinghamshire won the toss, and decided to bat. Some good batting by Lumb and Voges meant that Nottinghamshire reached 244 all out, a last over hattrick by Blackwell limiting the scoring at the end. Still, once again, Notts had posted a formidable total, and Durham had to go over 6 an over to win this match.

Some devastating opening bowling by Carter nullified any attempt by Durham to win this match, taking 5 wickets in a devastating opening spell. Durham attempted a recovery, through Muchall and Stokes, however, 3 wickets for Patel, and another for Andy Carter, meant that Durham were never really in with a shout, and finished 51 runs short.

So another win for Notts meant that they are sitting comfortably in their group, ahead of Somerset on net run rate, but a good platform to build their campaign for this season on.



Next is a match against the group leaders Somerset, and a chance to pull away in the group.

[DaveK93]

If you want any stats or tables etc putting up,feel free to post your requests. Also feel free to put any suggestions or improvements on here as well.

[DaveK93]

Notts Vs Somerset CTGrp B

There were no changes to the team in this match, in the hope that the run of good form could be continued.

Notts won the toss, and elected to bowl, in cloudy conditions, hoping to exploit some swing. Disappointedly, this tactic failed, Somerset reached 254-7, with some good late order hitting, and some expensive bowling from the pace bowlers, Dalrymple and Patel being the most effective economically.
Nottinghamshire, facing a daunting task, rose to the challenge.

Some quick hitting by Hales, Taylor and Wessels put Nottinghamshire above the run rate, before Elstone and Dalrymple guided the team home, and leaving Nottinghamshire with maximum points in their first 4 games.

Nottinghamshire remain at the top of the group, level now with Hampshire, but Hants have played 2 more games, and have a lower run rate, leaving Notts in a superior position.



Next, is a game against Lancashire in the County Championship.

[DaveK93]

Notts vs Lancashire CCD1

A return to the County championship beckoned, and a hope that the good form experienced in the shorter format could be transferred across to the 4 day game.

An unchanged team played, and Notts lost the toss and were asked to bowl. Lancashire lost wickets steadily throughout the innings, and finished on 325, with S Moore getting 111 for the visitors. From a Notts perspective, Franks was the key man, ably supported by Dalrymple, who had figures of 3-47, and 3-81 respectively.

The Nottinghamshire reply needed to be good, as had been seen in the previous meeting between the teams, where Notts took a lead and maximum batting points into the second innings. This time was much the same, with Notts getting to 415, with contributions from Voges (129), Taylor (83) and Scott Elstone (74). Despite not getting maximum batting points, a lead of 90 was obtained, and this could prove vital, especially if the bowlers can knock a couple of wickets down before they get there.

The Lancashire chase began by reducing the deficit, a task they managed for the loss of only 1 wicket. From there, the batting was stable and sensible throughout, getting to 372-8 dec, and a lead of 282, which Nottinghamshire would have to chase in 2 sessions on the last day. Carter was the pick of the bowlers for Notts, getting 4-91.

The 4th innings saw Notts trying to chase a large total in 2 sessions. Given their recent good one day form, this was possible, but these were different circumstances entirely. In what was a close finish, Nottinghamshire managed to sneak a win from the last over, finishing on 285-7, with Franks and Dalrymple surviving until the end. With three overs left, 21 runs were required, but an over of 13, meant that with 8 needed from 2, the game looked safe.

Earlier, the innings looked shaky, as batsmen struggled to play themselves in, with only Alex Hales really settling to get 88, supported by Voges and Elstone, who both got 39. But Franks finished on 57*, and Dalrymple on 44*, to see the game home, with some more valuable points.



Next up, a game against Leicestershire in the T20 Cup.

[DaveK93]

Notts Vs Leics T20

Two changes had to be made for this match, with James Taylor and Alex Hales joining Broad and Swann in the England camp, so Steven Mullaney and John Casey step in.

Notts lost the toss, and had to bowl first. Leicestershire got to 38 during the powerplay, for the loss of two wickets. Leicestershire suffered a consistent loss of wickets, and finished on 144-9, only Cobb and Razzaq providing any major resistance. Both Carter and Pattinson took 3 wickets each, as the bowling attack impressed.

The Notts reply was slow and steady, getting to the point where 6 runs were required from the last 6 balls. Only 5 wickets had been lost, and Dalrymple, who is getting good at seeing the innings through, and Elstone, hit the required runs with a ball to spare, giving Notts their first victory of the campaign.



The next match of the group for Nottinghamshire is the game against Derbyshire.