After losing against Glamorgan at the weekend following an abandoned match against Yorkshire after bad weather on Friday, Nottinghamshire are back in the mix to qualify for the next stage of the Royal London One Day Cup after beating Northants in Grantham in their final Group B match of the campaign yesterday.

The side, very much a ‘B team’ of players following the majority of the Notts squad being hit by the Hundred competition and their more lucrative opportunity to play for the likes of Trent Rockets and other fancy names, is faring well in a competition that has been decimated and degraded, but that’s not to say the competitiveness hasn’t been there, local fans, real cricket fans you might say, enjoying the opportunity to get out their deck chairs and witness some quality fifty over stuff played by some of the countries finest young players.

Northants won the toss and elected to bat, the early wicket of Vasconcelos to Trego before Curran went to Paterson, giving Notts an early edge with the scores on 45/2.

As Procter and Gay held firm for a fifty partnership, it was the latter who let his wicket slip when Tom Barber did the damage and the Cobblers couldn’t thereafter enjoy much rhythm, a super spell by Liam Patterson-White seeing off Keogh, Zaib, Procter, Taylor, Kerrigan, the young Sunderland born spinner finishing with five for 19 from his ten overs. Five wickets tumbling for just 44 runs.

It was left to Brett Hutton to finish things off, Sanderson bowled before White went caught Dane Paterson and with one ball remaining, Northants had totalled 210 from their allotted 50 overs.

A simple target to catch? The wicket was certainly bowler friendly and when Budinger went for one, Notts got given an early scare, but the two Ben’s, Slater and Compton racked up a partnership of match winning qualities, Notts reaching 90 in 21 overs before Slater went for 53, Trego with a duck went to give the home side further worries but Matthew Montgomery put things back on track, the young South African is edging his way to becoming a very good batsman indeed, the loss of Compton for 71 before Montgomery went for 31 however brought Northants back in to play. With less than ten overs left Notts needed over fifty with five wickets in hand, when Schadendorf went without score that then became four, Patterson-White (19) and Hutton (14) edged Notts further towards target before both giving up their wickets. Pressure point starting to set in.

With eight down it was left for Fateh Singh and Dane Paterson to see the job through, just eight balls and one wicket to spare, but Notts winning a hugely important last match, the Outlaws now sit on eight points from eight games played in Group B and must await the outcome of others today to see if they make it through.

*Main image @TrentBridge Liam Patterson-White was sensational with the ball.