Notts Outlaws face a 190-mile trip for their next assignment in the Royal London One-Day Cup, and Luke Fletcher admits clocking up the miles is tough on the body of a fast bowler.

But the 26-year old will be buoyed on the long journey to Sussex, during which he’ll probably share a car with Jake Ball and Sam Wood, by the recent victory over Warwickshire.

“It’s something you get used to in county cricket, we’re always on the road,” said Fletcher.

“It’s tough on the body when you bowl ten overs then jump in the car and travel to somewhere else in the country, but it’s part and parcel of being a cricketer.

“It will be a long trip. We’ll chat a bit about cricket in the car, but mostly switching off a little bit and talking about other things.

“It’s all part and parcel of being a cricketer. It will be a tough place to go and play one-day cricket.

“It’s important that we go there with the same attitude as we had for the Welbeck Weekender.

“They’ve got destructive batsmen and skilful bowlers so, if we can get a win against them, we’ll have made a really, really good start."

The Outlaws could not have been more convincing in the way they got the 50-over competition underway against last year’s beaten finalists Warwickshire.

Dan Christian took 5-40 as the visitors were all out for 220; a total of which Alex Hales and Riki Wessels made light work to secure a resounding nine wicket win.

The following day’s fixture against Glamorgan lasted only 23 overs due to rain, but Fletcher refused to let Sunday’s weather put a dampener on a successful weekend.

“It was a brilliant performance against a good one-day side,” he said. “Warwickshire are always there or thereabouts and, especially against them, you can’t ask for a better performance than that.

“It was disappointing against Glamorgan with the weather, but all in all three points is a great weekend’s work and a brilliant start.”

“After bombing out on the semi-final last year, and with the disappointment of going out of the T20, the incentive is definitely there. It’s also the only competition left that we can realistically win.

“Hopefully we can get back somewhere near this year and this time go all the way.”

Fletcher’s contribution to the Welbeck win was 1-36 off ten overs having bowled at both the beginning and death of the innings; an impressive return to action for the Nottinghamshire born paceman having hobbled out of last month’s LV= County Championship fixture against Worcestershire with a hamstring injury.

Fletcher, who excelled in last year’s 50 over competition with 14 wickets at an average of 22.42, says the key to success is adopting completely different methods depending on the situation of the game.

“I was happy with the way I was hitting my length with the new ball,” he said. “And I was happy with the variations at the end as well.

“It was a good performance from all the bowlers and Dan Christian was top draw for his five-fer.

“In 50 overs there is more time for a batsman to get himself in than in T20 and that means bowlers can tie them down, get dot balls in and build pressure.

“You get two new white balls that you can really attack with early on, then at the end you use your variations - yorkers, slower balls things like that - as you would do in a T20.”

Notts Outlaws squad to face Sussex (from): Jake Ball, Dan Christian, Luke Fletcher, Harry Gurney, Alex Hales, Brett Hutton, Michael Lumb, Steven Mullaney, Samit Patel, Chris Read, Brendan Taylor, James Taylor, Riki Wessels and Sam Wood. 

 

Royal London One-Day Cup at Trent Bridge: Fixtures & Ticket Information

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