Nottinghamshire County Cricket June Roundup

Top of the table and facing a visiting team that hasn't won a County Championship game in nearly two years should have been pretty straightforward for Notts but they needed some help from the conditions just to escape with a draw. After being put into bat, a few of the Nottinghamshire players made decent starts - Cheteshwar Pujara made 29, Samit Patel 28 and Rikki Wessels 39. Unlike in previous matches, no-one managed to kick on and Steven Mullaney's 76 was the top score in a below-par 229 all out. With Broad, Ball and Pattinson missing from the attack, it was down to Luke Wood (2 wickets), Harry Gurney (3 wickets) and Brett Hutton (2 wickets) but Derbyshire still posted 363, underpinned by 121 from opener and captain Billy Godleman. Second time around, Notts posted another set of middling scores - Mullaney made 62, Patel 82, Wessels 46 and skipper Chris Read 74 not out in a total of 349, leaving the visitors 216 to win, off 49 overs. Despite losing a couple of early wickets, Derbyshire were cruising to victory until first bad light forced them off and rain ended the game with Derbyshire just 26 runs short of victory still with 5 wickets and nearly 8 overs in hand.

Heading off to Bristol, Notts opted to bowl first on what would prove to be a wicket that didn't give a huge amount of help to the bowlers. The bowlers shared the wickets around again with Harry Gurney's 3-68 being the pick as Gareth Roderick's 96 was the backbone of Gloucestershire's total of 303. Then it was time for the Samit Patel show as he scored 257 not out as Notts scored an imposing 535-8 declared. Cheteshwar Pujara was the only other batter to score over 50 runs, making 67, as the rest of the side sensibly batted around Patel. That left Gloucestershire needed to bat out for more than a day to secure the draw and it didn't look good when Luke Fletcher removed Cameron Bancroft for just 2 before the end of the second day. Two quick wickets for Harry Gurney early the next morning raised Notts hopes of a victory as the hosts were wobbling on 35-3 but a 91 run partnership between Chris Dent and Graeme van Buuren and a 92 run partnership between van Buuren and Phil Mustard saw the game peter out to a draw.

The One Day Cup quarter final saw a run-fest at the supposedly bowler-friendly Trent bridge. Batting first, Notts put on a mammoth 429-9 from their 50 overs with Brendon Taylor hitting 154, Rikki Wessels 81 and Samit Patel 66, meaning that the home fans were feeling pretty confident at the half-way point of the match. Somerset were reduced to 67-3 but Dean Elgar and Peter Trego combined to put on 154 runs for the fourth wicket, which put Somerset in the driving seat. Notts managed to keep taking wickets and even though Somerset were always up with the run-rate, this is what cost them the game with Jamie Overton being run-out as he tried to keep the strike with just two overs remaining. With 834 runs scored for the loss of 19 wickets, fans certainly got their money's worth as Nottinghamshire's victory by just 24 runs saw them into the semi-final.

That semi-final was just three days later and was another high-scoring game. With Jake Ball back from international duty, Notts went into the game with their first choice bowling attack and they would get an early opportunity to make an impact as Essex opted to bat first. Former England test match captain Alistair Cook continued his good run of form in the competition by scoring 133 runs off just 128 runs. Ryan ten Doeschate also scored a century, finishing on 102 not out, as Essex posted a daunting 370-5. Steven Mullaney, not usually known for power hitting, scored 111 from just 75 balls including 8 fours and 6 sixes while Samit Patel hit the winning runs as part of his 122 not out as Notts qualified for the final, winning but five wickets with just three balls remaining.

Nottinghamshire continued their excellent form with the bat as they returned to red ball cricket with Samit Patel continuing where he left off against Essex by scoring 247 out of a total of 248-9 declared. James Pattinson then showed why he'll be such a threat during the Ashes in the winter as he took 5-33 as Leicestershire were skittled out for just 134. Unsurprisingly, Leicestershire were asked to follow-on and Pattinson took another 3 wickets, backed up by Luke Fletcher (3 wickets) and Jake Ball (2 wickets) and Leicestershire were all out for 134 again.

The next match was the first day-night four day game to be held at Trent Bridge as the pink ball was brought out in order to help the international players prepare for the day-night test match against the West Indies later in the summer. There was probably some hope from Notts that starting later would mean that more people might attend after work but that didn't happen, not really helped by the weather. Another great bowling performance from Notts saw Pattinson take 3-30 and Mullaney an unbelievable three wickets for just two runs. Daniel Bell-Drummond carried his bat for 84 out of a total of 180. In reply, Mullaney top scored with 168, while Alex Hales hit 85 runs batting at 5 as Notts built a decent first innings lead of 191 runs. Kent were really worried at 63-4 but Sam Billings and William Gidman put up some resistance at the end of the third day before Billings had to retire out overnight in order to go and play for the England Lions. Kent continued to make it hard for Nottinghamshire on the last day but were eventually bowled out for 265, leaving the hosts needing 75 to win. Mullaney and Hales were sent out to open and they made it as far as the square before the umpires brought everyone back in due to the rain. Despite the best efforts of the ground staff, play wasn't able to begin again and Notts had to make do with a draw.

An undefeated month saw Notts keep the top spot in the County Championship and qualify for the One Day Cup final at Lords. While they were unlucky with the weather against Kent, it balanced out the Derbyshire game where they should really have lost. In his testimonial year, Samit Patel had a quite ridiculous run of scores in June - 28, 82, 257*, 66, 122*, 247, 4. July sees Dan Christianson return as the T20 kicks off and the way that Notts have been scoring in white ball cricket so far this season, you might need to bring a hard hat to Trent Bridge if you're coming to watch.

Nottinghamshire Cricket website