Northamptonshire named just one change to their side from the opening match of the competition against Durham last week, Nathan Buck replacing Tom Sole in the starting eleven. Josh Cobb won the toss and elected to bat on a fresh pitch at Trent Bridge.
The Steelbacks struggled to find momentum throughout their innings, regular wickets continually pegging back the visitors. Adam Rossington went in the first over of the innings, looking to take on the spin of Carter over but not connecting. Thurston then couldn’t time his attempted pull which ballooned to midwicket, the Steelbacks 39/2 at the end of the powerplay.
Wakely and Cobb began to build a partnership before Wakely’s pull picked out the man on the deep midwicket boundary. Cobb looked threatening in his innings of 36, clearing the boundary twice with two huge strikes to the long boundary. He was undone by a Gurney slowerball however, looking to drive, his topedge lobbed comfortably to the man at cover. Dan Christian found some extra assistance in the pitch to dismiss both Keogh and Coles in his first over. Keogh bowled when Christian jagged the ball back before extra bounce off a length found the edge from Coles.
At 82/6 it was down to overseas signings Faheem Ashraf and Dwaine Pretorius to rescue the innings. The pair both found the boundary on multiple occasions, Faheem punishing a waist high full toss into the stands and taking full advantage to send the free hit to the rope as well. Faheem’s quickfire 24 came to an end when his outside edge flew to short third man. Pretorius departed for 34 in the next over looking to up the ante, leaving Buck and White to push the Steelbacks to a defendable total. White showed his full bag of tricks as he ramped, glided and hammered his way to 27 not out in just 15 balls, lofting Christian over cover for six twice in the one over. His partnership with Buck crucial, pushing the Steelbacks to 152/8 from their 20 overs.
The Outlaw’s openers made an enterprising start to their chase, despite a rare T20 maiden over from Faheem Ashraf. Clarke and Hales both batting with clear intent to see Notts 60 without loss at the end of the powerplay. The pair continued to a partnership of 79 before the Steelbacks had their first breakthrough, Buck producing the false shot from Clarke. Graeme White continued his good game with an excellent spell of bowling. He was tight throughout, not giving Notts the luxury of boundaries. White had his reward with the wicket of Hales as he found some turn away from the lefthander to found the looping outside edge.
Ben Duckett threatened to take the game away from his old teammates but a superb leaping catch at cover from Thurston ended his innings on 26. There’d be no further strike for the Steelbacks though as Moores and Christian took the Outlaws home in the 18th over.
Northamptonshire 152/8 in 20 overs (Cobb 36, Pretorius 34)
Nottinghamshire 155/3 in 18.1 overs (White 1/19, Buck 1/26)
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