da brwin： Michael Lumb struck a composed fifty as Nottinghamshire began their Friends Life t20 campaign with a comfortable win at Trent Bridge. Chasing 178, the home team eased to victory with 14 balls to spare
28-Jun-2013
ScorecardMichael Lumb’s fifty came in just 29 balls•Getty Images
Michael Lumb struck a composed fifty as Nottinghamshire began their FriendsLife t20 campaign with a comfortable win at Trent Bridge. Chasing 178, the home team eased to victory with 14 balls to spare, aided by potent early cameos from Alex Hales and Riki Wessels.David Hussey and James Taylor saw the home side over the line with an 84-runpartnership to the delight of a healthy crowd of 7,390. Hussey played fluentlythroughout for an unbeaten 49 with Taylor (37 not out) content with a supportingrole.Leicestershire had started strongly with openers Niall O’Brien and visitingcaptain Josh Cobb sharing a 40-run partnership. Cobb struck Nottinghamshire’s new New Zealander Ian Butler out of the park witha lofty off-drive but Butler made an instant reply with a lengthball that evaded Cobb’s swipe and removing middle stump to end theopening stand.A delayed toss under grey skies influenced Hussey’s decision to insertLeicestershire but the visitors found some favour from the damp ball early on. Hussey’s wild throw at the stumps with O’Brien short of his ground evaded theback up for four overthrows as the Outlaws were briefly troubled.Samit Patel drew Joe Burns to charge down and mistime an intended drive overextra cover to allow Chris Read a routine stumping before Leicestershire reached82 for 2 after 10 overs.In a frenetic 11th over, Shakib Al-Hasan hit Jake Ball for consecutiveboundaries before offering a chance to Hussey which evaded his grasp after afingertip deflection.Al-Hasan (31) continued to attack but Patel stayed cool under the high ball toaccept a return catch before Hussey bowled O’Brien (47) and had Matt Boycestumped in consecutive balls as momentum shifted in the 14th over.Butler had a short-pitched delivery gloved by Shiv Thakor (8) on his return andMichael Thornley (8) quickly followed. Ned Eckersley’s last ball six gave Leicestershire 177 runs to defend butexpensive spells from Nathan Buck, Rob Taylor and Thornley dashed their hopes.