Nottinghamshire Bow Out
Nottinghamshire’s hope of progressing from the group stage of the Vitality Blast are at an end after defeats to both Durham and Leicestershire in the most recent round of fixtures.
After a disappointing loss to Birmingham Bears, the Vertu Motors-backed side hoped for an upturn in fortunes at the Riverside against a Durham side very much still in contention to make it through the groups.
Durham would bat first in the game and set a respectable score of 160-6, with Ashton Turner not out on 44 and Ben Raine putting on a show with a late cameo of 23 from 13 balls after the home side had looked in trouble on 106-6.
Nottinghamshire suffered at the start of their reply after scoring just eleven from the first three overs, whilst also losing the wicket of Ben Martindale, but Joe Clarke and Ben Slater then hit out to move ahead of the required run rate before both fell in quick succession.
Wickets continued to tumble as Nottinghamshire slipped to 75-6, with Nick Montgomery doing his best to keep his side in the game with a knock of 30 that included four successive boundaries off Raine in the 13th over.
His departure was followed quickly by Liam Patterson-White and Calvin Harrison with Nottinghamshire still well short of their total and although final pair Olly Stone and Fazalhaq Farooqi put on 34 for the final wicket, they fell well short of Durham’s total to lose by 30 runs.
Next up came a trip to Leicestershire, where Nottinghamshire won the toss and elected to bat first, with Martindale and Clarke putting on 68 for the first wicket before Clarke was dismissed for 39.
A mid-inning collapse saw four wickets fall for 28 runs but Liam Patterson-White and Lyndon James helped shared 45 to steer their side to 160-6 by the close.
Leicestershire’s start to their reply was nothing short of a disaster, and Sol Budinger, Rishi Patel and Peter Handscomb were all back in the pavilion within the first three overs and before the score had hit double figures.
Lewis Goldworthy and Rehan Ahmed managed to halt the flow of wickets as they steered their side to 82 before Ahmed was dismissed, but Goldsworthy would go on to hit 67 – supported by 44 not out from Jimmy Neesham – as Leicestershire reached their target with an over to spare.
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