Notts Outlaws completely collapsed in reply to a strong Lancashire Lightning total on a night to forget for the home side at Trent Bridge. Captain Dan Christian put Lancashire Lightning in to bat in the Vitality Blast clash on Tuesday evening, who scored 178/7 off their 20 overs, as Keaton Jennings top scored with 55 and Dane Paterson, Jake Ball and Luke Fletcher each picked up two wickets.
A top order collapse, Outlaws were 11/4 off two overs, cost the home side any shot at victory before the innings had really started. The Outlaws then limped to 91 all out off 14.4 overs, being thumped by 87 runs, with Luke Fletcher top scorer with 22.
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Christian won the toss and opted to bowl first. A number of Nottingham Forest heroes arrived just before the game started, with Joe Worrall and Brennan Johnson among them, and Luke Fletcher walked onto the field clapping them and had his fists clenched in the air.
Phil Salt and Keaton Jennings made a decent start for the visitors, until Salt (11) edged behind to Tom Moores off Jake Ball's first ball of the match in the fourth over. Rain started falling after 5.2 overs with Lightning on 46/1, with the umpires taking the players off, but only for about 10 minutes or so.
Jennings picked up from where he left off, hitting Ball for back-to-back boundaries in an action-packed sixth over, as Moores dropped him too. Lightning were 56/1 at the end of the powerplay.
Jennings and Liam Livingstone brought up the 50 partnership for the second wicket in the 10th over off 37 balls. Livingstone (30) then sent one hanging into the air off Dane Paterson, before captain Christian calmly took the catch inside the ring in the eleventh.
The umpires then immediately took the players off again because of more rain for around 20 minutes. Tim David (15) started brightly after the interruption before picking out Joe Clarke in the deep off Samit Patel in the 13th.
Jennings reached his 50 off 32 balls at the end of the same over, but fell for 55 in the 15th, top edging to Fletcher, who took the catch rather dramatically by diving, off Paterson. Fletcher was in on the action again, this time picking up the wicket of captain Vilas (24), who tried to hit a six but Joe Clarke ran well on the boundary to take the catch in the 18th.
Danny Lamb (3) fell in a similar fashion an over later, picking out Alex Hales at long-on off Ball. Fletcher picked up another in the final over, as Steven Croft (22) hit straight to Steven Mullaney at mid-on, with Lightning posting 178/7 off their 20 overs.
After a quick turnaround, Tom Hartley struck in the opening over for Lancashire, as Joe Clarke (4) top edged to Steven Croft at mid-on, who took a superb diving catch. In the next over, Ben Duckett (5) edged behind to Salt off Richard Gleeson; Duckett doesn't walk at first, but the umpire raised his finer.
Wickets continued to tumble, as Samit Patel (0, caught) and Mullaney (0, run out) were both dismissed in the same Gleeson over. Notts Outlaws ended the second 11/4.
Moores (2) looked to hit up and over Salt in the fifth, but the wicketkeeper took a superb one-handed catch off the bowling of Luke Wood. Hales (15) top edged to Croft off Livingstone in the seventh to leave Notts 34/6 off 6.2.
Matt Carter (14) and Christian (12) provided some resistance. Fletcher top scored and hit three sixes in an innings of 22 to give the home crowd something to cheer about.
Notts Outlaws were bowled out for 91 in 14.4 overs. The Outlaws are next in Vitality Blast action away at Derbyshire Falcons on Friday (June 3).
Notts Outlaws: Joe Clarke, Alex Hales, Ben Duckett, Samit Patel, Steven Mullaney, Tom Moores (wk), Dan Christian (c), Matt Carter, Luke Fletcher, Jake Ball, Dane Paterson
Lancashire Lightning: Phil Salt, Keaton Jennings, Liam Livingstone, Tim David, Dane Vilas (c), Steven Croft, Danny Lamb, Luke Wood, Tom Hartley, Richard Gleeson, Matt Parkinson
