Notts Outlaws took at least temporary possession of top spot in a tightly bunched North Group as they deposed Durham with a 26-run win in the Vitality Blast at Trent Bridge.Despite Netherlands all-rounder Bas de Leede hitting 58 from 41 balls to be top scorer on the night, from the halfway stage of their innings Durham never looked likely to get close to a target of 188, with Samit Patel (3-30), Jake Ball (3-38) and Matt Carter (2-25) leading an impressive performance in the field by the home side.Leg-spinner Nathan Sowter raised his tally to 17 wickets as the North Group’s leading wicket-taker, finishing with four for 29, as the Outlaws built on an 82-run second wicket stand between Colin Munro (49 from 28 balls) and Alex Hales (39 from 22), with middle-order runs from Patel (28) and Steven Mullaney (21) pushing them up to 187 for seven.Durham opted to field first and picked up an immediate dividend when left-arm spinner Liam Trevaskis bowled Joe Clarke with the second ball of the match but that was the limit of their success in the powerplay as Notts powered to 65 for one with Hales 33 from 19 balls and Munro on 29 from 17, Hales having hit Brandon Glover over long-off for the first six of the night, Munro dishing out similar treatment to Wayne Parnell.The introduction of Sowter’s leg spin ended the Hales assault, his compatriot Ashton Turner taking a good diving catch on the long-on boundary. The Australian-born bowler struck again in his second over as Matt Montgomery was leg before reverse sweeping, he and Ben Raine dragging back the scoring rate as the Outlaws’ innings reached halfway at 98 for three.Sowter, continuing in the fine form he has shown throughout this season, dealt the home side a third major blow as Munro, having just driven him to the rope to move within one run of a half-century, did not quite get enough on his next attempt to find the boundary, Turner taking a second catch, at long-off. Notts were grateful that Trevaskis couldn’t hold on to a stinging return catch offered by Tom Moores on one as they moved to 139 for four from 15.The Outlaws needed a strong finish and Moores signalled his intention to provide it by hammering Sowter over long-on for six, only to become a third victim to the Sowter-Turner combination as the leg-spinner picked up a fourth scalp for the second match running. De Leede bowled Patel for 28 from 26 three balls later but skipper Mullaney’s 21 from 13 balls ensured Durham would need to score at more than nine an over.It was closer to 10s at the end of Durham’s batting powerplay, from which they emerged with 52 runs but three wickets lost after Alex Lees, who had cleared the rope off Shaheen Shah Afridi in a 13-run opening over, reverse swept Patel’s left-arm spin to short fine leg, Graham Clark holed out to deep mid-wicket off Carter’s off spin and Michael Jones was well held by a back-peddling mid-off from Ball’s first delivery.Durham looked on course to be up with the pace at the halfway stage but suffered a double setback in the 10th over that handed the initiative to Notts as Patel struck twice in three balls, bowling Robinson for 27 from 16 and having Turner caught second ball as he tried and failed to clear the boundary at wide long-on. Carter then turned 80 for five to 91 for six in the next over as Parnell, who had finished the 10th over with a straight six, chipped him straight to extra cover, putting the visitors firmly on the back foot.De Leede landed a couple of meaty strikes to move into the 40s but as the last five overs arrived, Durham needed a few more, with 68 required from 30 balls, but continued to lose wickets, Trevaskis out trying to paddle-scoop Ball before De Leede – missed earlier when Afridi seemed to lose the ball in the floodlights – hit the Pakistan international to Mullaney at extra cover. Ben Raine then found Alex Hales on the long-on boundary as Ball claimed his third wicket, leaving an unlikely 31 required from the last over, with nine down, as Durham slid to an eighth consecutive Blast defeat against the Outlaws.
