14 named for Trent Bridge visit on Thursday night

I thought that we had the upper hand  against Northamptonshire. Whoever has batted second here has gone on to win the game. So we were quite confident chasing 160 as other teams have done it here recently. It was good to get over the line. I’m not happy at seeing the back of them after taking nine wickets in two games against them this year. I’ve had two good days out against them, sometimes it just works out that way against one team. I thought they might come harder at me tonight, but I knew if I held my line and backed myself I would get the rewards.

“It did turn into a tight game at the end, but we showed our dominance over their bowling to get there with one over to spare. We know that with Ashton Turner coming in late he has a calm head and that’s what we’ve been talking about in the dressing room. Ashton is one of the best finishers in world cricket so I was confident that we were going to get the win. The games are coming thick and fast, but the win tonight gives us that little bit of a boost going into our games on the road, starting against Nottinghamshire Outlaws.”

Squad v Notts Outlaws [8th June]

Jonathan Bushnell, Graham Clark, Bas de Leede, Luke Doneathy, Brandon Glover, Michael Jones, Alex Lees, Wayne Parnell, Ben Raine, Luke Robinson, Ollie Robinson +, Nathan Sowter, Liam Trevaskis, Ashton Turner

Opposition Corner

Captain: Steven Mullaney

Overseas players: Dane Paterson (South Africa), Colin Munro (New Zealand), Shaheen Afridi (Pakistan)

Finals Day appearances: 6 (2006, 2010, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020)

Titles: 2 (2017, 2020)

2022 finish: Fifth (North Group)

2022 leading runscorer: Ben Duckett (396)

2022 leading wicket taker: Jake Ball (18)

Key winter moves: Overseas signings Colin Munro, the New Zealander who was part of the Trent Rockets side that won The Hundred last season, and Pakistan’s Shaheen Afridi are two of the world’s best players in the format, while domestic signing Olly Stone adds the missing ingredient of express pace to the Outlaws armoury, provided he is fit.

The big question: Will two big-name overseas signings be enough to compensate for the retirement of double Blast-winning skipper Dan Christian and the likely loss of last season’s top run-getter Ben Duckett on Ashes duty with England as the Outlaws seek to bounce back from last season’s rare failure to qualify from the group stages?

Wildcard watch: Tom Moores – Despite keeping wicket for the winning team as Trent Rockets beat Manchester Originals in the final to be crowned The Hundred champions for 2022, he has surprisingly been overlooked for this year’s competition. But he has a solid record in T20 and another good showing this year – fitness permitting – could see him find a role, elsewhere if not with the Rockets.

Final thought: After missing out on a quarter-final place last year for only the second time in 13 seasons, the Outlaws are keen to show they are still the team to beat in the 20-over format and their recruitment of Munro and Afridi is a statement of intent. Much depends, though, on hitting the ground running after a slow start cost them in 2022.

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