Nottinghamshire’s pre-season tour of Barbados ended with another impressive display under the hot Caribbean sun.
Steven Mullaney took the batting honours with a classy 64, made against Northants at Windward CC.
Opening the county’s second innings, he batted for 156 minutes and hit nine fours as Notts ran up a score of 229 for nine from their 60 over allocation. Tom Sole took figures of four for 64.
On a good day for off spinners Matthew Carter then bagged two for 20 as Northants reached 89 for three second time around.
Mullaney admitted that he felt he was overdue some runs. “I felt in decent nick throughout the white ball tournament,” he said. “And then coming into these red ball games I’ve spent some time in the middle but not got the numbers I would like, so today it was nice to bat for 40 overs and get a score.”
The all-rounder stated that he’s ready for the new campaign and feels he’s close to the top of his game. “I feel like I’m bowling as well as I have, I’ve worked hard with Picky (Andy Pick, bowling coach) in the winter and batting wise I’ve kicked on.
“I thought I had a solid last two months of last season, so hopefully I can kick on from there and hit the ground running this time around.”
The morning session began and ended with Luke Wood on the field and involved in the action. Nottinghamshire’s left-arm quick bowler was loaned to Northants for the start of the day, to bolster their resources and he gave them an early boost by bowling Greg Smith.
Smith’s nine was his first dismissal of the tour, giving him a grand tally – and average – of 178 from five innings.
Wood’s contribution as a Steelback was 6-1-17-1 and he then left the field to good-natured ribbing from his own team-mates and to applause from the opposition.
Steven Mullaney and Riki Wessels (33) put on 64 for the second wicket but saw their stand broken by Tom Sole. The young off spinner got a delivery to pop viciously, clip the shoulder of the bat and balloon easily into the hands of point.
Before his dismissal Wessels had been stroking the ball magnificently, including a sublime slog sweep off Steven Crook that sailed out of the ground and into the nearby tennis courts.
On 34 Mullaney was spared by Rob Keogh at slip, off the unlucky Crook but it was a rare blip in another innings of great authority.
He reached his fifty from 73 balls, seven of them having been stroked to the boundary rope. All appeared well in the Notts’ camp until the penultimate over of the morning session, which brought about the downfall of two batsmen.
Graeme White, a former Outlaw, bowled Chris Read for four and then trapped Brett Hutton lbw for a three-ball duck.
The session ended as it began, with the focus on Wood and he crisply drove Sole to the boundary to open his account.
Resuming from 106 for four, Notts used the remainder of the innings to get as many people involved as possible.
Mullaney’s innings ended when he feathered Azharullah behind and Matt Carter made 27 before hitting straight back to Sole.
Wood’s knock came to an end on 37, when he was taken by Rob Keogh at slip and bowler Sole then grabbed his fourth wicket by bowling Jack Blatherwick (0).
Anuj Dal was busy in making 14 but fell to an athletic catch by Azharullah off White.
Ben Kitt (23 not out) and Harry Gurney (6 not out) batted through until the end of the innings.
Keogh (37) and Crook (0) both fell to Carter after tea, the former spoiling a good innings by edging to Wessels, who was keeping wicket.
Crook’s stay was memorably brief. Having been dropped he attempted a big hit off the spinner and lobbed the ball up to Smith at square leg.
Anu Dal took the final wicket of the tour, having Saif Zaib (2) caught behind, leaving Ben Duckett unbeaten on 43.
Nottinghamshire leave Barbados in good spirits having retained their T20 title and turned in some very creditable performances with bat and ball in the longer format.
The 2015 season saw dramatic last-gasp four day victories, thrilling limited-overs contests and an historic Investec Ashes Test, all in the unique surroundings of Trent Bridge.
Next season, we’d wager, will be no less enthralling and frankly we’d hate for you to miss out.