COVERED WINTER 2020

7 @TRENTBRIDGE 2020 VITALITY BLAST Notts v Durham, 20 September 2020. Notts won by 18 runs. From the moment he first donned the green and gold, ImadWasim has proven a wily practitioner with the ball – but it was with the bat that he first made an impact on this game. Clarke, Duckett and Moores had all made starts, but it was left to the Pakistan international to show his all-round class, in tricky batting conditions, with a pivotal unbeaten 26. Defending 150,Wasim was in the game once more with two wickets and two run- outs as Durham pressed self-destruct. Jake Ball, with 2-7, and Samit Patel, with a wicket and a gravity-defying catch off Dan Christian, joinedWasim in tuning up for the quarter-finals, the visitors skittled 18 short of their target. Notts v Leicestershire, 1 October 2020.Vitality Blast Quarter-Final. Notts won on countback. Leicestershire were the only side to inflict defeat upon Notts in the 2020 edition of the Blast – and a reprise was very nearly on the cards in the knockout stages. Chasing 140 for a fourth Finals Day in five, the Outlaws were reeling at 99-6 when Samit Patel strode to the crease. And if the last decade has proven anything, it’s that there is no better man to turn to when chasing a seemingly lost cause. Patel found the boundary from the last ball of the penultimate over, the greasy outfield seeing the ball slip through Arron Lilley. That left Notts needing 13 from the final over – a task made infinitely easier by a towering third-ball six from the Outlaws’ natural-born thriller. Three were required from the final ball to win outright.Two were needed for a place at Finals Day. ImadWasim found Dieter Klein at mid- wicket. Klein’s eyes lit up as he looked to restrict Notts to just a single. But the ball slid through his grasp. Wasim and Patel scampered two, the Outlaws progressed on countback courtesy of scoring more in the power- play, and the title tilt remained on course. Lancashire v Notts, 4 October 2020. Vitality Blast Semi-Final. Notts won by five wickets. Big-hitting can often hog the headlines in white-ball cricket. And, with some justification, it was Dan Christian’s exploits with the bat that took the plaudits in this semi-final. A chase which was threatening to slide away from the Outlaws was tilted firmly in their favour when the skipper took a liking to Liam Livingstone’s leg-spin. If there were spectators in the Hollies Stand, they would have been the busiest fielders of the evening, as four successive blows rained down on the untouched white seats. Christian, however, was indebted to his bowling attack for suffocating Lancashire’s innings. Not a single boundary came in the last 2.5 overs of Lightning’s 11-over knock, as the Red Rose side set an inadequate target of 94. Notts v Surrey, 4 October 2020. Vitality Blast Final. Notts won by six wickets. If ever a game showed the Outlaws’ tough- ness in the face of adversity, it was this one. Two-thirds of the way through the Surrey innings, with Jason Roy punishing Notts for missed chances early in his innings, a tough chase was on the cards. Step forward Ball with the crucial wicket of Roy, before another four boundaryless overs closed proceedings as Surrey ran out of steam. But when Hales, then Clarke, then Patel, fell cheaply in the reply, the pause button was firmly pressed on the celebrations. Ben Duckett, however, had one more defining contribution in him. Duckett was as deliberate as debutant PeterTrego was destructive, the duo dovetailing to wrest back control of the game. Duckett, with his captain watching on from the non-striker’s end, finished the job with almost three overs to go, to inscribe his and his teammates’ names into the history books.