County lose first FPT game

Date: Sunday 19 April 2009

Notts Outlaws 159-2 (Wagh 68*, Hales 52) beat Leics Foxes 155 (Taylor 44*) by eight wickets.

Leicestershire Foxes lost their FPT opener to an impressive Nottinghamshire Outlaws outfit at a sun-drenched Trent Bridge.

The home side restricted the Foxes to 155 all out, which never looked like being enough on a decent track against a powerful Notts batting line-up.

And, unfortunately, so it proved, as Mark Wagh and Alex Hales both made half-centuries as the Outlaws cruised past their target with plenty of time to spare.

It was shaping up to be a good game at one point though. County, who were invited to bat first by Notts’ skipper Chris Read, were in a good position at 108-3 at one point of the innings.

With Boeta Dippenaar and James Taylor building nicely, it looked as though the Foxes could post a competitive total.

However, Dippenaar was unfortunately run out at the non-striker’s end after Graeme Swann skilfully managed to deflect a Taylor drive, and that signalled a collapse which saw the team lose their final seven wickets for just 47 runs.

Taylor watched the drama unfold at the other end as he battled his way to an impressive unbeaten 44, which was the highlight of the afternoon.

Earlier in the innings, Matthew Boyce and HD Ackerman began nicely, finding the boundary on numerous occasions as the Foxes got off to a decent start.

Ackerman had posted 21 of the 36 runs on the board when he was first to depart, playing a tad early to an Andre Adams delivery which resulted in a simple catch for Samit Patel at cover.

Boyce fell to a mistimed pull off the same bowler for 22, and when Jim Allenby lost his middle pole to the evergreen Mark Ealham, County were not in great shape at 63-3 after the promising start.

However, Dippenaar and Taylor were willing to graft on a pitch that offered something if the bowlers hit the right areas.

Their 45-run stand was just what the doctor ordered, but the manner of Dippenaar’s cruel dismissal for a patiently-accumulated 34 took the wind out of the team’s sails.

Swann then rubbed salt into the wounds with a couple of wickets of his own. He bowled skipper Paul Nixon round his legs and enticed Jacques du Toit into a mistimed sweep to leave the team with work to do.

Wayne White and Claude Henderson then became County’s second and third run-outs of the innings, although, unlike Dippenaar’s, both were highly preventable.

Taylor, meanwhile, appeared oblivious to the upheaval. He drove with style and also reverse-swept to good effect, and had a couple of more substantial partnerships developed, County would have been looking at a score in excess of 220.

Another blow that came with the flurry of wickets was that County could not take advantage of the third powerplay.

Sam Cliff and AJ Harris at least helped Taylor to take the score past 150, but were dismissed by Luke Fletcher and Swann respectively to leave a target of 156.

Harris, who received rapturous applause on his return to his old club, claimed a crucial early blow by having Ali Brown caught by du Toit on the short leg-side boundary after he mistimed a pull.

That was as good as it got though, as Wagh and Hales settled things with a 100-run partnership.

Both made half-centuries, with Wagh bringing his up from 64 balls and Hales 56. The youngster found the boundary on eight occasions, with the more experienced Wagh scoring four fours and a six.

Henderson ended the stand by clean-bowling Hales, but at that stage, the Outlaws only required another 24 runs, which Patel helped to knock off with Wagh.

Overall, a disappointing start but there were plenty of lessons to be learnt and Taylor’s mature knock was a major plus to come out of the defeat.

Points: Notts 2, Leics 0