2019 SEASON
- Specsavers County Championship (Division 1) – 8th (relegated)
- Royal London One-Day Cup (50 overs) – Semi-finalists
- Vitality Blast (T20) – Semi-finalists
- Captain (County Championship and 50 overs): Steven Mullaney; (T20): Dan Christian
Despite some success in the white-ball competitions, the 2019 season was ultimately disappointing, ending with relegation to Division Two of the County Championship. The club acknowledged this in the Annual Report to members: “There can be no getting away from the fact that our performances and results in four-day cricket were simply not acceptable”.
Relegation was an outcome which would not have been foreseen after the performance against Yorkshire in the first game of the season, during which Notts had much the better of a draw. A run of defeats – starting against Somerset prior to the 50-over competition and continuing against Essex in early May – could not, however, be turned around and the County’s fate was evident well before the season ended.
Top order batting lacked consistency – despite some important and impressive individual scores – and the middle order was not able to bolster the side as they had done in previous seasons. The bowlers also had some valuable individual contributions but even with the addition of the outstanding Ravichandran Ashwin, could not manage to stop the slide.
Eight players made their debut for Nottinghamshire in these matches in 2019:
Ravi Ashwin; Jack Blatherwick; Zack Chappell; Joe Clarke; Ben Compton; Paul Coughlin; Joey Evison; and Liam Patterson-White.
The signings arrived with great potential and, with last season’s additions Ben Duckett and Ben Slater, will benefit from experience. Clarke’s three centuries were the best return for any Notts batsman and he was one of only three players to average more than 30 in the County Championship. An injury-free Chris Nash was one of the others and he enjoyed a much-improved campaign; Luke Fletcher showed a willingness to do the hard work that was required throughout the season and the emergence of Liam Patterson-White as a left-arm spinning all-rounder was hugely encouraging.
The white-ball season, meanwhile, once again showed Notts as one of the outstanding limited-overs teams in the country. The performances of the likes of Alex Hales, Harry Gurney and Matt Carter were outstanding, and maintained the consistency that is needed in knock-out cricket.
The disappointment of not finishing off the semi-final of the T20 Vitality Blast from a good position should not detract from the good things achieved throughout that tournament – particularly in the quarter-final win against Middlesex. And to have made the T20 quarter-finals in nine of the last ten years, and to have reached three of the past four Finals Days, is something to be celebrated.
Notts also turned in some strong performances to reach the last four in the Royal London One-Day Cup but were comprehensively outplayed by the eventual winners, Somerset.
Jake Libby and Paul Coughlin – who had little chance to impress himself on the Notts cricketing world with a difficult time with injuries – left the club in the close season, with Sol Budinger moving up into the first-team squad from the Second XI.
On the international stage, Trent Bridge’s reputation for hosting memorable matches was enhanced by the six matches that took place in 2019.
England beat Pakistan in the international ODI, which was followed by five games in the ICC World Cup. In a difficult group stage due to the vagaries of British summer weather, only one match was lost - potentially the most attractive on the schedule, India v New Zealand. The other games were played to packed houses and, even though England could not repeat their earlier triumph against Pakistan, the World Cup brought a vibrant summer of cricket to Nottingham.