Nottinghamshire Director of Cricket Mick Newell has praised the impact of Luke Wood after the Academy bowler backed up his quarter-final final haul with 2-14 in the final as the Outlaws retained the Barbados T20 Cup.
Wood has already represented England Under 19s after a string of impressive displays for the Nottinghamshire Academy.
“Luke’s got good pace and he roughed Northamptonshire up a little bit with some aggressive bowling that they wouldn’t have expected,” said Newell.
“He swings the white ball which and having left-arm variation is always a good thing.”
Notts successfully defended a Duckworth-Lewis target after they were given a bye to the final along with Northants by virtue of their margin of victory in the quarter-finals. Heavy rain had led to the abandonment of the semi-finals.
Chris Read hopes to recover from a groin strain that saw him retire hurt having scored 40 from 36 balls at the top of the order. Matt Cross (15), James Taylor (16) and Riki Wessels (18*) also contributed to the Outlaws’ total of 107/3 when rain brought the innings to a close after 18 overs.
Northamptonshire’s top order were disrupted by regular breakthroughs as Ajmal Shahzad (1/24), Jake Ball (2/18) and Andy Carter (2/16) took wickets.
“The weather was a major disruption as we had hoped to play two fixtures but it’s pleasing to have won the tournament prize money which will help to fund our defence of the title next season,” said Newell.
“Chris Read’s form has been pleasing and he’s keen to spend time in the middle having been displeased with some of his innings last season.”
Nottinghamshire will spend all of Tuesday in the field having agreed to give game time to 13 players in a two-day friendly against Hampshire. Read and James Taylor will sit it out.
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