Blast quarter-final heartbreak for Nottinghamshire Outlaws

The attendance at Trent Bridge was a record for a quarter-final on a ground that has witnessed 13 in 16 seasons.

The Hawks had won quarter-finals at Trent Bridge in 2012 and 2014, but the chances of a repeat looked remote after they could post only a meagre 125 for nine on a used pitch after being asked to bat first.

The Outlaws looked to be cruising towards a fifth Finals Day appearance in six years at 66 for one in the eighth over, but collapsed in the most dramatic fashion to 123 all out, left-arm spinner Liam Dawson taking three for 24 and two wickets each for seamers Scott Currie and Brad Wheal, who delivered the coup de grace by having last man Dane Paterson caught behind with two balls of the 20 overs remaining.

Outlaws skipper Steven Mullaney said: “We’re a bit stunned. It is a score we should have definitely chased down.

“We were outstanding with the ball and in the field, and credit to Hampshire, they stuck at it. But we are better than that and we should be going to Finals Day.

“Carts gave us a great chance with those sixes at the end and for Dane it was the right ball to attack and he nicked it, but it should not have been down to those two at the death, we should have taken more responsibility in the top six or seven and got over the line.

“I’m proud of the way we have performed in the competition, especially after losing Dan Christian only six days before the start, but at the same time we pride ourselves on being able to adapt in different situations and we didn’t do that tonight.”

Only 18-year-old Tom Prest (44) and James Fuller (30) made any impression with the bat for the Hawks, whose total was their smallest of the campaign. Paterson took three for 22 and there were two each for the Outlaws’ leading wicket-taker Calvin Harrison and off-spinner Matt Carter, who did not concede a boundary in a miserly two for 18.

Yet it proved enough as the Outlaws, for whom Joe Clarke top-scored with 42, fell apart, losing seven wickets for 30 runs to plunge from 66 for one to 96 for eight in eight calamitous overs. Carter’s 23 off 13 balls at the death proved in vain.

The Hawks will go to Edgbaston on 18th September looking to win their third Twenty20 title, having scraped into the last eight only on net run rate, finishing fourth in the South Group.

It looked a remote prospect as they lost D’Arcy Short and James Vince in struggling to 26 for two in the Powerplay, which became 34 for three as Joe Weatherley departed.

Quickly frustrated by tight bowling on a grippy surface, Short pulled straight to midwicket, Vince top-edged to third man and Weatherley miscued to fine leg.

Two in two balls from Harrison against his former county turned the screw further as the leg-spinner pushed one through to bowl Lewis McManus and induced a return catch from Liam Dawson. At 40 for five, Hampshire were on the ropes.

Prest survived the hat-trick ball and he and Fuller added 49 in 39 balls but, after picking up sixes off Harrison and Steven Mullaney, Fuller attempted to do the same to Carter and was caught on the midwicket boundary.

rest smashed Paterson for six over long-off.

But he was dropped at long-on in the same over before finding the fielder at deep backward square. Paterson then had Scott Currie leg before to a full-length ball and Chris Wood skied to extra cover.

Alex Hales lofted Liam Dawson disdainfully for six over extra cover as the Outlaws began their chase but though the left-arm spinner gained revenge as the home side’s most prolific run-getter holed out to long-off for 19, it was the Hawks’ sole success in a Powerplay that cost 53 runs.

Yet the Outlaws from that point suffered one calamity after another as Ben Duckett was run-out by Fuller’s direct hit, Tom Moores fell lbw to leg-spinner Mason Crane, Clarke lofted straight to extra cover, Samit Patel, dropped on four, fell victim to a sharp stumping off a leg-side wide and Ben Slater slashed to backward point.

Harrison and Mullaney holed out to deep square leg in consecutive balls off Currie and though Carter raised home hopes again by clubbing two sixes in three balls off Chris Wood after Luke Fletcher had been ninth man out to leave the Outlaws needing three of the last six balls, Paterson could not give him the striker and after three dots his desperate flail gave Lewis McManus the catch.

Hawks captain James Vince said: “Obviously at halfway we thought we were behind the game but the effort from the lads was incredible.

“We said at halfway that whatever happened we would keep going right to the end and we did exactly that.

“That has been the story for us throughout the competition really, from the position we were in in the group, to win the last five shows the character in the group is amazing.

“It did not go our way with the bat tonight but with the ball we were excellent.

“The wicket was not flat and helped our bowlers.

“We tried to make them hit in areas where we thought we could get wickets, but it is one thing to have a plan, another to execute it and our lads were outstanding.

“With every wicket the belief grew and it makes you so proud of the boys.”