Spitfires defeated by Outlaws
Wednesday 8th May 2013
Nottinghamshire Outlaws beat the Kent Spitfires by seven wickets with 16 balls remaining in the Yorkshire Bank 40 under the floodlights of Trent Bridge in a rain-interrupted match.
Set to score 140 in 19 overs the home side secured the win, with 15 balls remaining, thanks to an unbeaten 50 from James Taylor.
Earlier Kent made 220 for six, after being put in, with Rob Key top-scoring with 62 and Brendan Nash adding 42. Bad weather then delayed the reply for around two hours.
Set their revised target, under the Duckworth-Lewis method, Notts lost Michael Lumb in just the second over, shortly after he had completed his 5,000th run in one-day cricket.
Both Alex Hales and Samit Patel fell to boundary catches as the chase gathered momentum but Taylor and Riki Wessels sped their side over the line with an unbroken stand of 67 in just 6.2 overs.
Eighteen came from the 16th over, bowled by Charlie Shreck, playing his first one-day match in three years, before Taylor hit Matt Coles for three consecutive boundaries to seal the victory and take the hosts to the top of Group A.
In Kent's innings Rob Key made 62 and Brendan Nash added 42, before both were dismissed by man-of-the-match Steven Mullaney, who claimed four wickets for 29 runs for the home side.
Kent's innings was disrupted by the accurate medium-pace of Steven Mullaney, whose career-best figures put the skids under the visitors after a second-wicket stand of 97 between Key and Nash.
Both succumbed to Mullaney, as did Darren Stevens and Sam Northeast as four wickets fell for just 34 in 10 overs.
Operating in tandem with the off-spin of Graeme Swann, Mullaney's nagging line and length induced some reckless dismissals, although Chris Read's stumping to remove Stevens was top class.
Patel held two fine catches, after earlier firing in the throw from deep mid-wicket which ran out Sam Billings in just the second over.
Geraint Jones and Ben Harmison provided some late fireworks as the final 10 overs realised 88 runs.
Jones lofted Patel over the leg-side for the only maximum of the innings, then he despatched the left-arm pace of Harry Gurney for three boundaries in a row before he mistimed Carter to mid off.
Heavy showers arrived during the interval between innings and again early in the Outlaws reply, causing several readjustments to the eventual required target.