Alex Hales struck a composed unbeaten 150 only to watch on in vein as Worcestershire denied Notts a maiden NatWest Pro40 victory.

Hales’ knock eclipsed the previous best Pro40 score for a Notts batsmen, set by David Hussey against Somerset, and stands as the highest score in either division of the competition this season.

Punctuated with a final ball six over the bowlers head, Hales struck 13 fours and 8 sixes in all as Notts won the toss and batted, setting Worcestershire a victory target of 283 which they reached with 13 balls to spare.

“It’s a bit of anti-climax to a good day for me and I’d happily have swapped the runs for a win but it wasn’t to be,” said Hales.

“Personally, I’ve had an up and down season. I started well then my form dropped off but hopefully I can keep this going until the end of the season.

“It was a really good surface today and any score was going to be difficult to defend and unfortunately it didn’t quite work out. Steven Davies played brilliantly and that swung it for them.”

Vikram Solanki faced every ball in the first four overs of Worcestershire’s reply but was caught at point by Patel off Charlie Shreck for 27. Solanki’s dismissal brought Steven Davies and Stephen Moore together and the pair accelerated ahead of the required rate. They’re partnership reached 150 runs after 117 balls and Davies made 100 off 73 to put the visitors in charge.

Davies fell on 105, mistiming a shorter ball from Paul Franks to go caught and bowled. Bilal Shafayat ran out Moeen with an under arm direct hit from close range but the Royals maintained their momentum to earn victory in the 37th over.

Notts openers Ali Brown (14) and Matt Wood (22) gave Notts a reasonable start but had both departed by the eighth over with Notts on 50-2. Imran Arif took a routine catch at mid-on to see off Brown and held a forceful return catch off Wood.

Arif then had Samit Patel caught on the boundary by Gareth Batty and Hales accelerated alongside Chris Read (11), Bilal Shafayat (22) and Kevin O’Brien (42). O’Brien and Hales added 87 for the sixth wicket.

Hales made steady progress but played with less aggression in the nineties to close out his second century of the season. The young batsman survived a stumping shout which was declined by the third umpire but looked assured throughout his 102-ball stand.