Notts to bounce back strongly, says Voges

By Dave Bracegirdle

Adam Voges expects Nottinghamshire to bounce back strongly after their defeat to Hampshire in the Friends Life t20 quarter-finals.

The Australian admits it was a bitter pill for his side to miss out on the trip to Cardiff for Finals Day and was a huge disappointment for the majority of the 11,127 Trent Bridge crowd.

“I hope they got their money’s worth,” said the 32-year old. “It was a terrific game of cricket. Unfortunately there had to be a loser and unfortunately it’s us that has come out on the wrong side of it.”

Voges, the Notts skipper in the shortest format of the game, made 33 out of his side’s 178 for 7. “I thought we ended up posting a pretty decent total,” he said. “On a good wicket, on a fast outfield, it was round about par and we knew that they would need someone to play a big innings to win the game for them and credit to Neil McKenzie, he played beautifully and got them home in the end.”

Nottinghamshire’s plans for the match were thrown into a little bit of disruption with Darren Pattinson ruled out by a groin strain and 21-year-old Jake Ball drafted in as his replacement.

“It’s a huge ask for a young kid playing in his first game in this year’s tournament, “said Voges. “Obviously Darren’s led our attack for the last two or three seasons and done a hell of a good job doing it too, so of course we’re going to miss him, but we always had our faith in Jake and I thought he stood up OK.”

The defeat was also tough to take for Samit Patel, as the England all-rounder shone with bat and ball. He followed a typically-punchy innings of 60 with figures of 3 for 26 and was on course for the man of the match award before McKenzie’s late salvo won it for Hampshire.

“He had nearly the perfect game,” said Voges. “It’s a shame he was on the losing side and it’s just a horribly disappointing feeling for us all at the moment.”

Second in both the first division of the County Championship and their CB40 group, Notts still have plenty to play for this season and Voges feels his side can still enjoy some success.

“One competition is now closed for us but fortunately we’ve played well enough to put ourselves in a position where we’re still involved in the other two so that will be our focus. We’ve got to get up for our next Championship match, beginning at Trent Bridge on Friday (27 July). That’s going to be huge in the context of our season.

“I’m sure we’ll be disappointed for the next 24 hours or so but once that’s gone we’ve got to focus back on red ball cricket.”


Date: 26/07/2012 10:51:55 by Dave Bracegirdle
In: Today | Nottinghamshire |