Matt Carter: The Nottinghamshire giant slipping under the radar

NICK FRIEND AT EDGBASTON: Of the spinners to have taken more than 10 wickets in the tournament, only Colin Ackermann’s 12 scalps have come at a more miserly economy rate

There is a character in the Glory Gardens books – a wonderful childhood memory of a series. It was the work of Bob Cattell, the tales of a young team of amateur cricketers. It should never have worked, but complete with page-loads of scorecards from each make-believe game played by this make-believe team, it did.

In amongst it all, there was a tall, broad off-spinner by the name of Cal Sebastien. He should never have been an off-spinner – just look at his frame. He was wasting his physique. That, at least, was the view of Hooker Knight, Sebastien’s captain and the narrator of all this.

And then you look down from the press box, high up in the Edgbaston skies, upon Matt Carter. He is all you imagine Cattell was staring at in his mind when he sat down to design Sebastien. Carter doesn’t open the batting, as Sebastien did, but he bowls intelligently with a physique that, to the untrained eye, warrants more.

A hulking figure of a finger-spinner – all 6ft 6in of him. If you knew no better, you would be peering up into the eyes of a fast bowler.

Yet, in this much-feted Nottinghamshire side riddled with star names and huge reputations, here is a less heralded youngster. A man on the way up, slipping under a radar that champions Alex Hales, Dan Christian and Harry Gurney – three T20 guns for hire.

The brother of Andy Carter, the seamer once of Nottinghamshire himself, has played as crucial a role as any in making the best of a disappointing season, taking Peter Moores’ outfit to Finals Day.

While Hales and Chris Nash stole the plaudits for the quite astonishing violence imparted on Middlesex’s own dreams of a first semi-final since 2008, Carter had set up much of it.

His four overs cost just 16 runs, taking with him the dangerous pair of Dawid Malan and Paul Stirling. Stirling top-edged a sweep to deep midwicket, while Malan was beaten in the flight.

^{Matt Carter took three wickets in Nottinghamshire's semi-final}

The pattern was similar at Edgbaston. Hamish Rutherford chipped to cover; Moeen Ali missed with a sweep; Brett D’Oliveira played around a full one.

Three fairly regulation deliveries, but all released from a height of 7ft 7in. No spinner in the Blast releases the ball from a higher point, according to CricViz.

Of the 32 runs he conceded, 18 of them came in three swings of Worcestershire bats. It takes Carter’s record this season to 14 wickets at an average of 19.78.

Only Gurney has taken more in his side. Of the spinners to have taken more than 10 wickets in the tournament, only Colin Ackermann’s 12 scalps have come at a more miserly economy rate.

Carter’s have come at 6.59 runs per over, a fine effort for a young finger-spinner, an even finer one in the crux of the powerplay overs, and a finer one still given the dangers that come with playing at Trent Bridge on a regular basis, even if scores have, in general, been lower there this year than previously.

All this, by the way, in the Lincoln-born youngster’s first full year of T20 cricket. On debut in 2018 against Yorkshire, he opened the bowling against the brutal pair of Tom Kohler-Cadmore and Adam Lyth, taking his first wicket in the format with just his second ball.

His is an unglamorous role in a side of dashers, but a vitally important one all the same. As Notts edged past Yorkshire by three runs in their penultimate group game, his four overs cost just 12 runs.

Here, even after being taken for consecutive maximums over long-on by Moeen – the first of which a far more convincing stroke than the second, Carter continued to dart the ball towards the stumps.

A tough bowler to sweep, you might suggest, given his awkward trajectory. The same fate would befall D’Oliveira, undone by another fired down from his height.

On a stodgy, tough surface on which to strike through the line, this was a fine display. Selfless, unflinching, self-aware. A man who knows his job, even if others might look on puzzled.