Worcestershire travelled to Trent Bridge for the last group match in the Friends Life t20 competition this season. A win against top of the table Nottinghamshire was essential if Worcestershire were going to progress to the quarter final stages.
With Aneesh Kapil on England U19 duty, Shaaiq Choudhry was named in the team. Nottinghamshire won the toss and elected to bat first. Jack Shantry maintained his good form in this competition with a opening spell of 3-14 from his first three overs which left the home side on 40-3 by the end of the 5th over.
Adam Voges top scored for Nottinghamshire with 55 from just 40 deliveries, which in a 4th wicket stand of 63 with Rikki Wessels (33) helped the home side to recover. Daryl Mitchell got the breakthrough for the visitors tempting Voges to chipping a catch to Gareth Andrew at cover point. In the next over Shakib Al-Hasan dismissed Wessels with a catch in the deep by Vikram Solanki.
From being 109-5 by the end of the 14th over the experience of the Nottinghamshire lower order paid off with Chris Read and Steven Mullaney putting on 54 runs in the remaining 6 overs. Mullaney was unbeaten on 35* from just 21 deliveries as the home side closed on a respectable 167-6 at the end of their 20 over allocation.
Jack Shantry finished with figures of 3-31 and Gareth Andrew with a very economical 1-25 in his four over allocation. Shakib Al-Hasan was a bit expensive on 1-40, but still finished as joint leading wicket taker for Worcestershire in this year's competition with Gareth Andrew with 19 wickets each.
In reply under the floodlights Worcestershire were soon on the back foot after an onslaught from the opening pair of Darren Pattinson and Luke Fletcher ripped out the top order to leave the visitors on 36-4 by the end of the 5th over.
Moeen Ali was the only top order batsman to hold out and looked set to make a good score but was dismissed for 41 from 30 deliveries as Pattinson returned to bowl his final over of his 4 over allocation to finish with figures of 3-20. Gareth Andrew and Daryl Mitchell completed a 6th wicket stand of 42 which kept the visitors just about in the match. However Andrew (20) and Mitchell were both dismissed within four balls of each other which effectively sealed the match with the rest of the wickets falling quickly with Worcestershire all out for 142 in the last over of the match.
Mitchell played a gusty innings containing 5 boundaries in his 36 deliveries, top scoring for the visitors with 45 but it was always going to be a hard task to recover from the poor start, especially against a good all round side like Nottinghamshire. The result meant that Worcestershire just missed out on a quarter final place with Nottinghamshire finishing top of the division.
Result: Worcestershire (142) lost to Nottinghamshire (167-6) by 25 runs.
