Lacklustre County well beaten at Trent Bridge

Date: Thursday 25 June 2009

Nottinghamshire Outlaws (2 pts) 124-1 (Brown 72, Wood 43*) beat Leicestershire Foxes (0 pts) 123-7 (Boyce 32, Taylor 28*, Allenby 27, Sidebottom 3-16, Patel 2-20) by nine wickets.

Leicestershire Foxes had an evening to forget as Nottinghamshire Outlaws gained a comfortable nine-wicket win at Trent Bridge.

The team were restricted to 123-7 from their twenty overs and Notts cantered home with 5.3 overs to spare thanks in large to a quickfire 72 from Ali Brown and an unbeaten 43 from his opening partner Matthew Wood.

After winning the toss and electing to bat, Boeta Dippenaar would have been delighted to see Matthew Boyce (32 from 23 balls) and Jim Allenby (27 from 25 balls) share their fourth 50-run stand on the trot in the competition.

Ryan Sidebottom sent down a superb first over that cost a solitary leg-bye, but Boyce and Allenby struck nine fours between them in the other five overs where restrictions apply to get the team off to an excellent start.

Boyce hit the ball all around the park, and hit the last three balls of Darren Pattinson’s opening over to the boundary.

He stroked boundaries over long-on, through the covers and down to third man, and then found the cover boundary again off the first ball of Pattinson's second over.

Allenby initially found the going tough, but soon got into his stride. The all-rounder found the mid-wicket boundary on two occasions, and also struck a square drive to perfection through backward point.

Boyce added his fifth and sixth fours over mid-on and straight mid-wicket, and the scoreboard read a healthy 56-0 after seven.

However, that was as good as it got for the Foxes. Wickets are always the best method to slow down the run rate, and when Boyce and Allenby fell in consecutive overs, Notts slammed down the brakes.

The left-hander got under a reverse-sweep rather than over it, and picked out Sidebottom at third man as Samit Patel took the first wicket. Boyce's score was to remain the highest of the innings.

Paul Franks then bowled Allenby with a ball that gripped in the pitch, and, as so often happens in Twenty20, the momentum was disrupted – and never regained.

In total, the final 13 overs of the innings produced just 67 runs, and with seven wickets also falling, what had been an awesome start turned into a well below-par score.

James Taylor scored 28 of those, but he wasn’t allowed to break the shackles and had to marshal the innings through rather than dominate the attack as he would have wished to do.

To give credit where it is due, Notts bowled extremely well, with Patel (2-20 off four) and Sidebottom (3-16 off four) standing out.

However, it was an all-round disciplined display from the hosts, who largely bowled full and straight and limited scoring opportunities to ones and twos in the main.

That point was illustrated by the fact the Foxes scored only three boundaries after the powerplay overs.

Paul Nixon scored one of those, and his ninth run became his 1,000th run for Leicestershire in Twenty20 history.

Unfortunately, he was next to fall when his former Kent teammate Mark Ealham removed his middle stump with an inswinger.

Dippenaar made eight before being bowled by Patel going for a leg-side boundary, and when Jacques du Toit and Wayne White were both removed by Sidebottom in the 18th, the Foxes were 107-6.

Claude Henderson became Sidebottom’s third victim courtesy of a stunning diving catch behind the stumps by Chris Read, and although Taylor struck the last ball of the innings for six over long-on, the team closed with a score that looked around 30 runs light.

The innings followed the worrying trend of the last two games, where County's innings tailed off considerably after a superb start.

On both of those occasions, the team pulled out a magic performance with the ball to make amends and triumph against Derbyshire and Lancashire.

It was not to happen for a third time. The side needed both an economical and wicket-taking start, but neither materialised as the opening pair of Wood and Brown teed off.

The pair looked in excellent touch from word go, with Brown peppering his favourite areas of extra-cover and mid-wicket.

Wood also played some attractive shots, and 61 runs were scored from the opening six overs to virtually settle the issue.

The duo extended their partnership to 100 after ten overs, but County at least dragged the game out with some tight bowling from Henderson and White.

The slow left-armer had Brown brilliantly caught by a sprawling du Toit at long on for 72 off just 48 balls, but Will Jefferson scored the matchwinning single shortly after in the next over to seal the match.

Leicestershire have no time to dwell on the performance as they face crucial home games with Yorkshire and Durham on Friday and Sunday respectively.

Despite the setback, with the Dynamos triumphing over Carnegie tonight, the Northern section is wide open and County’s quarter-final qualification hopes are still very much alive.

The situation is in the team’s hands, as two victories will definitely seal County’s place in the quarter-finals.

Leics and their next two opponents all have eight points, with Lancs still leading the way with twelve. However, Notts now have six points following back-to-back wins and are also in the mix-up.

Derbyshire must beat Lancashire tomorrow night to keep alive their extremely thin chances of qualification, as they only have four points with three matches to play.

The fact that anyone can still qualify means it will be a fascinating end to the group stages, with the excitement and drama unfolding once again on Friday evening against Yorkshire at Grace Road.