Brilliant centuries from Alex Hales and James Taylor helped Notts Outlaws to a convincing 77 run victory under the Duckworth Lewis method in their Royal London One Day Cup match against Middlesex Panthers at Lord’s. 

The two England Lions’ batsmen led the way for Notts to reach a colossal 368 for two, a county record in one-day cricket, after the match had been reduced to 45 overs per side after an earlier stoppage. 

Notts’ total is the highest ever posted at Lord’s in List A cricket, beating the 353 for eight that Hampshire scored on the ground in 2005. Middlesex’s chase was temporarily halted due to more bad weather, before being reduced to a target of 158 from 16 overs. 
"I always wanted to score a hundred here so I’m delighted." Alex Hales
Wickets fell steadily from the outset and the home side could only muster 80 before being dismissed in only 13.3 overs, with Harry Gurney taking four for 16. Hales collected the man of the match award and admitted he’d fulfilled a dream. 

“I’ve only played at Lord’s a couple of times,” he said. 

“As a former MCC Young Cricketer I always wanted to score a hundred here so I’m delighted. Every credit must go to Lumby – he batted beautifully and kept rotating the strike nicely. 

“To then go and watch that innings from Titch (James Taylor) was something else, an amazing knock. We knew what we had to do but to go out there and achieve it like that is very special.” 

Notts welcomed Taylor and Hales back in their starting eleven, after both had been away on England Lions duty. They replaced Sam Kelsall and Jake Ball who had played in Tuesday’s defeat at Durham. 

Panthers’ captain Eoin Morgan won the toss and, presumably with a variable weather forecast in mind, elected to field first. Recent successes on the ground in white ball cricket are still fresh for Notts, having beaten Middlesex on their last 3 trips to Lord’s, as well as the YB40 Final last September. 

That match, against Glamorgan, saw Michael Lumb and Hales put on 50 for the first wicket and the pair were able to repeat that feat during the opening ten over powerplay. 

Lumb hit the first ball of the match, from James Harris, though point for four and then pulled another boundary in the same over. 

Neither one-time Notts target Harris, nor Toby Roland-Jones, created any real scares for the batsmen during their initial burst. 

Harry Podmore entered the attack in the 9th over and very nearly brought about the breakthrough. His first ball was pulled away and only just fell short of Ryan Higgins at deep midwicket. 

The over went downhill from there and eventually leaked 14 runs and the powerplay ended with Notts on 54-0. One more ball produced a single, at which point umpires Jeff Evans and Michael Gough took the players off, with heavy rain arriving only seconds later. 

After a stoppage of almost an hour Notts quickly got into their stride, with the first scoring shot being a Hales 6, swept off Patel and he soon followed it with another. A briliant 50 (44 balls 6x4 2x6) seemed to be the catalyst for the right-hander to really kick on.

He put all the Middlesex bowlers to the sword and the fielders under pressure. Several poor bits of work allowed extra runs in the outfield and an optimistic shy from Eoin Morgan gifted Hales four overthrows. 

Lumb had played a fine supporting role to this point, bringing up his own 50 (69 balls 6x4) but it was all eyes on Hales as he neared his ton (73 balls 14x4 3x6). 

Hales hit another maximum, one reverberating around inside a hospitality box in the Grandstand as the 200 came up in 27.5 overs. 

A rank bad ball from Dawid Malan eventually broke the stand, Hales slapping it straight to Neil Dexter at extra cover.Lumb (81) fell inside the powerplay overs, launching Roland-Jones into the leg side and picking out Chris Rogers. 

James Taylor had arrived in the middle in the 31st over and immediately went on the attack. He blazed his way to his own 50 in just 38 balls (4x4 3x6) but then put his foot on the accelerator. Taylor and Samit Patel (37 not out) punished some indifferent bowling and lacklustre fielding in a punishing stand of 124 in only 8.3 overs. 

Taylor, in particular, was brutal. Six mighty maximums had already been heaved high over the boundary ropes, taking him to 94 ahead of the final delivery of the innings. 

Roland-Jones, a Lions’ team-mate of Taylor’s 24 hours earlier, had no answer as the Nottinghamshire captain launched him spectacularly away over the midwicket rope to reach his 100 from just 55 balls, with 8 fours in addition to those 7 sixes. 

Paul Stirling had taken a single from the bowling of Harry Gurney at the start of the reply but the torrential downpour that followed brought a premature halt to proceedings. 

Paul Stirling had taken a single from the bowling of Harry Gurney at the start of the reply but the torrential downpour that followed brought a premature halt to proceedings. 

When play resumed Stirling (1) fell immediately to Luke Fletcher and Harry Gurney then removed Malan (4) and Ryan Higgins (0) with successive deliveries.

Eoin Morgan muscled a quickfire 19 before lifting James Franklin into the hands of Lumb at long on. Patel removed both Dexter (7) and Rogers (4) to leave the innings in tatters at 45-6.

A catch at long leg sent back Roland-Jones (9) off Franklin, Gurney again grabbed wickets in consecutive deliveries and it was left to Ajmal Shahzad to finish it off with the wicket of Patel (0). 

Notts have 8 points and will play Warwickshire at home in their final contest, with Middlesex moving on to 6 points and facing a trip to Canterbury to play Kent.