Vitality Blast 2019, road to quarterfinals: Nottinghamshire Outlaws, Middlesex

Nottinghamshire Outlaws and Middlesex will face each other in the second quarterfinal of Vitality Blast 2019 on September 5 in Trent Bridge, Nottingham.

Nottinghamshire Outlaws

Nottinghamshire had quite a smooth journey to the quarterfinals of vitality Blast 2019 although they began with a defeat against Worcestershire. Six wins and four loses out of 14 matches helped the Notts to qualify to the next stage with 16 points as the second team of North Group after Lancashire. A good run rate and a bit of luck played their roles as well. Four matches of Nottinghamshire were abandoned, which basically added four points. This is why Derbyshire and Worcestershire with more and same number of wins are placed at third and fourth positions respectively.

The Notts played one of the high scoring matches of this season of Vitality against Derbyshire. Alex Hales (63) , Ben Duckett (64) helped their team to pile up a huge score of 198/5. In reply, Derbyshire innings was ended for 171/8 as Harry Gurney ran through the batting lineup. He finished with 4-0-30-5.

Star players- Tom Moores has scored 217 runs in 10 matches with the highest being 69 with a strike rate of 145.63. Daniel Christian has scored 168 runs in 10 matches at an average of 42 and strike rate of 143.58, with the highest score being 41*. Imad Wasim has played six matches and scalped eight wickets at an economy rate of 6.42. In terms of bowling average, Luke Wood is the best so far with 13.30 average from 10 matches.

League record: Won 6, lost 4, no result 4, tied 0, NRR 0.336, rank 2nd

Middlesex

Seven wins, six defeats, and one abandoned match is precisely the journey of Middlesex in one line. The second ranked team, Gloucestershire from the group won the same number of games but got more free points, thanks to their three abandoned matches. But that would not have changed the scenario eventually as they have a difference of three points. Middlesex began the season convincingly, had a mixed outing in the middle, and then they lost three back to back matches at the end before finally winning their last encounter against Somerset which confirmed their entry t quarterfinals.

Middlesex registered a huge win in their last fixture against Somerset. This cemented their quarterfinal spot and marked a strong comeback as well. Eoin Morgan, the star player of England scored an unbeaten 83 off 29 balls to chase down a target of 227. Toby Roland-Jones, on the other hand was the most successful Middlesex bowler who maintained an economy of 8 in front of Somerset rampage. He ended with 4-0-32-2.

Star players- Dawid Malan has scored  488 runs at an average of 44.36 with a strike rate of 151.1 with the highest score being 117. AB de Villiers’ 84.25 is the highest average of the tournament so far. He has also hit 20 sixes I this tournament so far which is one of the best. Toby Roland-Jones has scalped 19 wickets so far which is the third highest of the tournament so far.

League record: Won 7, lost 6, no result 1, tied 0, NRR 0.216, rank 3rd