Leicestershire openers Will Jefferson and Jacques du Toit were the dominant forces in a shattering defeat for Notts Outlaws in the opening fixture of their Clydesdale Bank 40 campaign.

Set a victory target of 283 boosted by Jefferson’s 55 and a stunning 141 from du Toit, Notts made an excellent start with a 96 run opening stand from Alex Hales and Hashim Amla but failures from Wagh, Brown and Read derailed the run chase.

Samit Patel’s 59 and an explosive 41 from Steven Mullaney gave hope to Notts but once their partnership was broken, those hopes quickly faded.

Leicestershire's stubborn opening stand was ended by Graeme White who had an immediate impact bowling in tandem with Samit Patel. The spin duo struck in quick succession with White bowling Jefferson before Patel had James Taylor lbw for a first ball duck.

Darren Pattinson and Steven Mullaney were expensive but Paul Franks (2-48) and Andre Adams (2-50) bowled decent spells after Chris Read won the toss and elected to field first.

“A lot of things didn’t go to plan and in particular I felt that we bowled poorly for the first 15 overs,” said Nottinghamshire Director of Cricket Mick Newell.

“I’m not too downhearted because this is one defeat in a 12-match group stage but there are a lot of things that we need to improve."
- Mick Newell

“I’m not too downhearted because this is one defeat in a 12-match group stage but there are a lot of things that we need to improve.

“The four players that got runs played nicely but those that didn’t may come under pressure if the likes of Matt Wood, Neil Edwards and Bilal Shafayat perform well for the second eleven this week.”

Newell was generall pleased with the performances of new signings White and Mullaney who he recruited to improve the county’s standing in limited overs cricket.

“Whitey bowled well to remove Will Jefferson but we took him off because we wanted him to put Nixon under pressure later on,” said Newell.

“Mullaney’s aggression gave us a chance to get back into the game but things crept away from us from that point on.”

Notts face Hampshire at the Rose Bowl next Sunday.