T20 BLAST - THE ROAD TO FINALS DAY: Notts Outlaws were afflicted by rain and up-and-down form but, thanks to the striking of Alex Hales and canny T20 bowling, they reached their fifth Blast Finals Day
With their County Championship season rapidly deteriorating and their 50-over campaign ended at the semi-final stage, the T20 Blast was Notts Outlaws’ last remaining olive branch in July.
It did not get off to the best of starts, however.
Defeat by 28 runs at the hands of Worcestershire Rapids, for whom Ed Barnard spanked a 19-ball 42 and Moeen Ali took 4-18, preceded a washout against Yorkshire Vikings to leave Notts winless from two.
They got off the mark against Northants Steelbacks at Trent Bridge, chasing down a modest target of 153 with seven wickets and 11 balls to spare, and then eased past Derbyshire Falcons - with both Ben Duckett and Alex Hales making half-centuries, but inconsistencies were to blight much of the first half of their short-form season.
A rain-reduced loss to Leicestershire Foxes was disappointing, but it was soon erased by emphatic victory over Birmingham Bears on home turf.
Tom Moores clobbered six sixes in his 38-ball 69 before Matt Carter’s spin ripped through the opposition - 3-14 in his four overs skittling the Bears for 113.
Notts were on the wrong end of a Glenn Maxwell hitting masterclass at Old Trafford in early August, with the Australian allrounder smashing 73 in 46 balls to help Lancashire Lightning to 151-6 - enough for a three-run victory, but they bounced back courtesy of a DLS win over Birmingham at Edgbaston.
The heavy rain of mid-August wiped out two further matches but, after a break for red-ball cricket, the Outlaws beat Leicestershire (thanks to another fifty from Hales) and then Yorkshire Vikings to edge towards a play-off place.
Having booked their place in the last four, they were guaranteed a home final when Worcestershire lost to Northants late in the group stages, and were left to face Middlesex.
A match billed as a meeting of heavyweight batting line-ups turned out to be incredibly one-sided.
Neither Dawid Malan nor AB de Villiers managed to fire, and Eoin Morgan’s 53 only lifted Middlesex to 160 for 8 batting first at Trent Bridge.
In response, Hales and Chris Nash made the total look absurdly small. The Notts pair romped to their target with 22 balls to spare. Hales hit seven sixes in his 47-ball 83.
And so to Edgbaston this weekend.
Notts arrive at Finals Day, their fifth, as favourites, with several clean strikers of the ball among their ranks and a mixed bowling action.
Hales has 366 runs in the tournament so far, at a strike rate of nearly 143, and offers tremendous destructive potential at the top of the order.
Carter and Harry Gurney offer plenty with ball in hand, though the Outlaws may well be without Imad Wasim (10 wickets at 16s), who was prevented from travelling to the CPL after Pakistan declined him a no-objection certificate.
That could mean a spot in the team for Luke Fletcher or Jake Ball, while Paul Coughlin is also under consideration.
“It’s a tough game but you expect tough games. You’re going to have to beat the best teams,” head coach Peter Moores said ahead of Finals Day.
“I wasn’t really bothered who we got. The key is we pitch up in the right frame of mind.
“It gives everyone confidence going into Finals Day that we’ve found a template. We’ve played to it once, we’ve got to try to do it again.”
RESULTS
July 18: Worcestershire Rapids (h) - lost by 28 runs
July 19: Yorkshire Vikings (a) - no result
July 24: Northants Steelbacks (h) - won by 7 wickets
July 26: Derbyshire Falcons (a) - won by 27 runs
July 27: Leicestershire Foxes (h) - lost by 27 runs (DLS)
August 2: Birmingham Bears (h) - won by 71 runs
August 3: Lancashire Lightning (a) - lost by 3 runs
August 9: Birmingham Bears (a) - won by 28 runs (DLS)
August 11: Durham (a) - no result
August 16: Derbyshire Falcons (h) - no result
August 23: Leicestershire Foxes (a) - won by 7 wickets
August 25: Yorkshire Vikings (h) - won by 3 runs
August 28: Worcestershire Rapids (a) - no result
August 30: Durham (h) - lost by 47 runs
September 5, quarter-final: Middlesex (h) - won by 10 wickets
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