A composed century from opening batsman Sam Kelsall and a hat-trick from Luke Fletcher sent Nottinghamshire's Second XI to the Second Eleven Trophy Final at the expense of Middlesex, the winning margin 24 runs.

Middlesex won the toss and asked Nottinghamshire to bat first, and they opened with captain Sam Kelsall and keeper Matt Cross.

The pair made a solid start, reaching fifty in the ninth over but in the 12th Cross (27) was adjudged lbw to Ravi Patel with the score on 66.

Luke Fletcher went next ball, caught by keeper/captain Adam Rossington (66-2) and Sam Wood joined Kelsall.

The pair settled proceedings before pushing on, Kelsall reaching his fifty in the 21st over (99-2) and Wood his in the 29th with Kelsall now 81 not out (165-2).

Notts’ 200 came up in the 34th over and in the next Kelsall reached his century but Wood (66) also got out, caught by Paul Stirling off Josh Davey's bowling (206-3).

Paul Franks joined Kelsall but the latter was bowled by Sandhu in the final over for an excellent 113 (127 balls, 11 fours), the score 241-4. Franks (32*) and Adam Tillcock (1*) got the final score up to 252-4 off the remaining five balls of the innings. 

The home side replied with openers Paul Stirling and Adam Rossington and they made a good start before over Jake Ball had Rossington (34) caught by keeper Matt Cross in the 8th, the score 58-1.

Nick Gubbins joined Stirling, who reached 34 in the 11th over before being bowled by Graeme White (78-2) to bring Adam London to the crease. 

The home side reached 100 in the 16th over and were looking in control. Nottinghamshire needed a breakthrough and it came in the 22nd over when Gubbins (31) was caught by Brett Hutton off Sam Wood's bowling (124-3).

Wood struck again in the 26th over when he had London (37) caught by George Bacon (141-4). Andrew Balbirnie and Josh Davey steered the home side to 205 by the 36th over but Jake Ball bowled the dangerous looking Balbirnie for 43.

This set the stage for the Luke Fletcher show, and the pace-man weighed in with four quick wickets, bowling Ollie Wilkin (1) in the 37th (208-6) and a hat trick in the 39th, bowling Brian Higgins (5), Thomas Helm (0) and Ravi Patel (0) with a trio of stunning deliveries to leave the score on 219-9.

Jake Ball finished it off on the fifth ball of the final over, bowling Gurjit Sandhu (2), the final score 228 all out, a win for Nottinghamshire by 24 runs and a place in the Second XI trophy final. Luke Fletcher finished with 4-52 off 8 overs and Jake Ball 3-61 off 7.5 overs. 

The Second XI Trophy final takes place on 11 September, with a 12.00 start. At the time of publishing, no venue has been confirmed.