Notts Outlaws 139/7-139/7 Leicestershire Foxes (T20 Blast Quarter Final) 01.10.20
Nottinghamshire have made it to this Saturday’s Vitality Blast finals day at Edbgaston after a thrilling victory was decided by a countback as Notts relied on a last ball mis-field needing two runs to tie the score and win the match due to having a better score than Leicestershire after six overs of the match.
Notts will play Lancashire in the semi-finals with the winners facing either Gloucestershire or Surrey and having bowled well to restrict their visitors to a low score at Trent Bridge they might feel mightily relieved after the experienced Samit Patel helped see the green and golds stumble over the line with a magnificent 28 from 16 balls partnered late on by Imad Wasim who scored the last two runs from the last ball after a mis-field by Klein.
Patel took the first wicket of the match when he bowled Delaney for a duck and when Lilley followed caught Hales bowled Ball the Foxes were 7/2 in under 3 overs.
Welch was next to go caught by Duckett off Mullaney’s bowling before a resurgence by Colin Ackerman (43) and Harry Swindells (58) brought Leicestershire close to the hundred.
Ackermann went to the bowling of Carter with Leicestershire on 88 before Hill fell to Christian for a quick 17 with the score on 124 with 9 balls remaining. Mike followed again to Christian two balls later and Swindells went with two balls to go caught Hales bowled Ball, the target a reachable 139.
Chris Nash and Alex Hales soon got to work but again Hales disappointed with the bat out for 9 on the last ball of the second over. Clarke hit 35 in 22 balls before falling to Ackermann before Duckett lasted just 4 balls scoring 3 with Notts going from 58/1 to 62/3.
Nash soon followed having made 17 and although Tom Moores helped steady the ship Dan Christian went for 5 bowled Ackermann caught Davis with Notts 99/5 halfway through the fifteenth over.
Moores then went next ball as Ackermann claimed his third wicket of the match but Steven Mullaney and Samit Patel scored vital runs in edging Notts closer their target as the match ran out of overs and balls.
With 7 balls left Mullaney was caught by Lilley from Griffiths and Notts still needed 16 to tie the scores which would be enough to win.
Step up Samit who has proved to be one of the best in the business over the years, his 28 from 16 balls with three fours and a six left Wasim needing two runs off the last ball which he delivered, just, to send Notts through.
A fantastic game, such a shame nobody was in attendance to see it but T20 cricket at it’s best most tense finish which is why the Sky cameras no doubt picked Trent Bridge as the venue to screen the match live.
Roll on Saturday and pray for a dry day in Birmingham as Notts will be hoping to win a trophy that they won last back in 2017, and to do marginally better at least than they did last year when they lost agonisingly on the last ball to Worcestershire in the semi-final.
*Main image @TrentBridge Samit Patel influential in seeing Notts to finals day.
