With Nottinghamshire in the final of the Royal London Cup against Surrey at Lords, we headed down to the big smoke for a day to see if our boys could return with the trophy.
It was still pretty overcast as the train pulled into St John's Wood so it was a bit of a surprise to hear that Surrey had elected to bat first. It looked even stranger when Luke Fletcher bowled a perfect outswinger to Jason Roy as the first ball of the match, the batter obliged by edging it but it was put down by Riki Wessels at first slip. This was the start of a less than stellar performance in the field by Notts as they put down catches and allowed too many easy singles and twos. Steven Mullaney dropped an absolute sitter from Mark Stoneman in the 8th over and the Surrey opener would go on to make the most of his second chance.
After 10 overs, Surrey were 74/0 and were looking like they were going to post a preposterous total but skipper Chris Read introduced James Pattinson into the attack and it stemmed the flow of runs. Then Samit Patel came on and took a wicket with his first ball as Mullaney made up for his earlier drop by catching Roy for 23. That brought Kumar Sangakkara to the wicket who serenely accumulated 30 risk-free runs before an amazing catch by Chris Read, standing up to Steven Mullaney, sent him on his way.
The middle overs were all about Mullaney and Patel as the former caught out Scott Borthwick at midwicket off the bowling of the latter for 14 following a terrible shot. Ben Foakes then played all around one from Mullaney and was bowled for 1. Then Mullaney took a catch at slip to dismiss Ollie Pope for 4, which was a lovely piece of bowling from Patel. Mark Stoneman continued to score runs at the other end but Surrey had slowed down and by the end of the second powerplay, they found themselves 226/5.
Sam Curran had started to put on a useful partnership with Stoneman but was bowled for 24 by a ball from James Pattinson that was just too quick for him. His brother, Tom Curran, was run-out for 16, looking for a second run that was never there. Gareth Batty tried to accelerate the scoring but when he missed, Luke Fletcher hit and he was out for 11 while Jade Dernbach tried to go big with one that he didn't quite hit and was caught at long off by Riki Wessels off the bowling of Harry Gurney for 5.
All of which left Stuart Broad as the only bowler without a wicket and Surrey closing their innings on 297/9 with Mark Stoneman carrying his bat for 144. It was a great effort by Nottinghamshire to reign in Surrey, who would have been disappointed to not post a score of 350+ but no-one really managed to bat aggressively enough in support of Stoneman, who was also unable to accelerate his own scoring.
Six an over for 50 overs is no mean feat though and Notts were going to need a good start. Fortunately for them, dropitis was catching (if you'll excuse the oxymoron) and Ollie Pope shelled Alex Hales in the second over and it was a drop that would prove vital. Michael Lumb was out LBW to Sam Curran for just 4 while Riki Wessels made 6 before Ravi Rampaul trapped him LBW too. At the other end, Hales powered his way to 53 off just 35 balls as Notts reached the end of powerplay one at 66/2.
In-form Samit Patel departed for 7 after guiding one into the grateful hands of Sam Curran at deep square leg off the bowling of Rampaul. Brendon Taylor nibbled one that he didn't need to play and was caught by Ben Foakes off the bowling of Jade Dernbach for 11. As the wickets fell around him, Hales notched up his century from just 83 balls (the fastest domestic century at Lords). Mullaney was then given out LBW to Sam Curran, even though replays showed that he hit the ball. At that point Notts were 150-5 at the start of the 26th over, up with the required run rate but losing too many wickets.
Cometh the hour, cometh the man - captain Chris Read, retiring at the end of the season. He batted sensibly around Hales, attacking when he could as the opener moved to his 150 from 129 balls, registering the highest individual score in a domestic final at Lords. It looked like it was going to be a fairy tale ending for Read to score the winning runs but he hit one down the throat of Stoneman at deep midwicket with only 11 runs required and departed to a standing ovation from the Notts fans, who appreciated that his 58 runs, in a stand of 137 with Hales, had won the game.
Alex Hales finished on 187 not out from 167 balls as Notts were triumphant by four wickets with 13 balls to spare. Hales total was also his personal one-day best, the highest one-day score ever at Lords and the highest ever List A score from a Nottinghamshire player. It was a great example of a player completely taking control of a match and hopefully young Ollie Pope won't let that early drop affect him too much. Surrey have now lost three one-day finals in a row but this was a day for Nottinghamshire and skipper Chris Read.
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