Gallery

The Outlaws advanced to the semi finals of The Banks Barbados T20 Cup with a thoroughly professional 4-wicket win over the island side at Kensington Oval.

Batting first after winning the toss, Barbados made 130-4, with Ben Phillips taking 3-25. Always ahead of the rate, the Outlaws reached their victory target for the loss of 6 wickets, with eleven balls to spare.

Mick Newell was delighted with his side’s application at such a prestigious venue.

“It’s been a good occasion for them all to play on such a world famous ground and hopefully we’ll have the chance to come back and do it again tomorrow.”

As well as taking his three wickets, Phillips bludgeoned a rapid 23 from just 17 balls after being promoted to the pinch-hitting role. The director of cricket praised the contribution of the former Somerset man, who has shone with bat and ball already on this tour.

“Ben’s had another excellent day – we probably didn’t use him enough last year, after he got injured at the start of the season. We tried him at number three today and it paid off quite nicely.”

The only downside to the evening was another injury scare – this time to Andy Carter, who left the field after bowling just two overs. “When you start playing matches the competitive element kicks in and is likely to bring injuries,” said Newell. “Carts has a tight quad but stopped bowling at the right time. It could have got a lot worse had he carried on.”

Barbados were missing most of their senior stars but did include Dwayne Smith, a Test player who took a Pro40 hat-trick for Sussex against Notts in 2009.

Smith could have fallen to the very first ball of the match, just managing to clear Harry Gurney at third man from a thick outside edge off Phillips’ bowling.  

In front of a small but enthusiastic crowd, which included former West Indian Test players Gordon Grreenidge, Desmond Haynes and Cammie Smith, Dwayne Smith was beginning to find his touch with four early boundaries but then lofted Gurney into the safe hands of Michael Lumb.

The other three wickets to fall all went to Phillips, as most of the Barbados batsmen struggled to find any acceleration throughout the innings. Kyle Mayers did give the total a late boost with three sixes in his 37 but then drilled the ball straight back to bowler Phillips in the final over as the innings ended on 130-4.

Lumb scored a single from the first ball he faced for his new county but soon lost his partner, with Neil Edwards (1) miscuing a pull off Smith’s first delivery.

That was the high-spot of the over as Phillips, promoted to 3 on the back of an excellent 77 earlier in the week, smashed three boundaries in quick succession.

He was bowled by Ashley Nurse for 23 but solid contributions from Lumb (44) and Wessels (31) saw Notts to the brink of victory. Scott Elstone and Steven Mullaney both made nought and had to endure the spectacle of a comical duck figure fooling around on the jumbo-sized screen.

If the home side sensed a sniff of an unlikely victory it was soon extinguished with Chris Read (20 not out) crunching the winning boundary with 1.5 overs remaining.

The game finished just before 11pm – with the Outlaws going through to face Yorkshire in a semi final at Windward just twelve hours later.