Riki Wessels is fuelled by the belief that Notts Outlaws can climb the NatWest T20 Blast Northern Group table ahead of the visit of Northamptonshire Steelbacks on Saturday.

The 29-year-old’s rapid half-century couldn’t prevent a 34 run defeat against the Derbyshire Falcons on Friday night, and Wessels insits he’d happily swap any personal accolade for a much needed victory against the Steelbacks. 

“Hopefully, moving forward we’ve got to try and win five out of the last six,” he said.

“I’ll quite happily take a 20 and win the game. That’s what we need at the moment; a nice win to put us back on track.

“As it is, the group is quite congested at the moment, we haven’t fallen off the pack which is nice, so one or two wins and you’re straight back in the top four.

“It doesn’t mean anything at the end of the day, whether I got 20 or got 60, the result is still the same and we still lost the game.

“It’s when you get the scores and go on to win the game that they really count and you feel something about them.”

The Outlaws have now won three and lost five of their eight NatWest T20 Bast fixtures this summer, and Wessels - who briefly captained his county in the absence of Chris Read and James Taylor recently - has asked supporters to continue rallying behind the team.

“It was a great honour and a great privilege to captain such a wonderful county with so much history," he said. "To even be considered was an honour.

“Unfortunately that’s sport, you’re not going to go along winning everything,” he said. “Manchester United did it for a few years and as soon as they started losing, people started throwing words around.

“That is the game, we always appreciate the fans coming out, we do always try our absolute best out on the field and every bit of support is needed.

“There’s a bit more pressure having been on the wrong end of some results, but it’s such a quick turnaround going into Northants and things can start to be forgotten.” 

Wessels says it was Notts’ fielding and the inability to to stem the flow of runs in the middle overs that cost them the match against Derbyshire, the first time the Outlaws have been beaten in a T20 at Derby since 2005.

“They started well with the bat with Rutherford at the top, who is a clean striker of the ball and Chesney Hughes who has done it before as well,” Wessels said.

“Those first six overs are crucial; they got quite a few runs and we matched them in that department, but they squeezed us a bit more tightly in the middle than we squeezed them.

“We came in and thought that’s a good wicket and there was a point when we dragged them back a little bit. At one stage I thought they might have got a few more than 200.”

“They fielded better than us tonight as well, we had a few fumbles and things like that, a few simple mistakes we keep making."

 

Notts Outlaws squad to face Northamptonshire Steelbacks (from): Jake Ball, Andrew Carter, Dan Christian, Luke Fletcher, Harry Gurney, Alex Hales, Ben Hilfenhaus, Michael Lumb, Steven Mullaney, Samit Patel, Chris Read, Greg Smith, James Taylor, Riki Wessels and Sam Wood.

Northants Steelbacks squad to face Notts Outlaws (from): Mohammad Azharullah, Josh Cobb, Kyle Coetzer, Steven Crook, Ben Duckett, Rob Keogh, Rory Kleinveldt, Richard Levi, Adam Rossington, Olly Stone, Alex Wakely, Graeme White.

 

Notts Outlaws NatWest T20 Blast Fixtures & Ticket Information

v Northants Steelbacks – Saturday 27 June 2.30pm BUY TICKETS
v Worcestershire Rapids – Friday 3 July 6.30pm BUY TICKETS
v Derbyshire Falcons – Friday 10 July 6.30pm BUY TICKETS

Need more information? Call our ticket office on 0844 8118711.