Ben Slater’s second Trent Bridge century saw Nottinghamshire ease to a four-wicket victory over Northamptonshire in their final friendly before the start of the season.

Slater hit 146 off 134 balls as the Outlaws reached their target of 311 with 14 balls to spare.

“It’s nice to get the win going into the season and personally nice to score a few runs", said Slater.

“It’s a great ground to play at and the one-day wickets are good, so once I got in I tried to go big and luckily I did that and we got over the line with a good win.

“With the 50-over competition coming so soon in the season, it was our last chance to get a crack at that format and to put an all-round performance like that in, we can take confidence from that into that competition.”

Northants’ target was largely built around a 71-run partnership between Alex Wakeley (32) and Richard Vasconcelos (76), after Luke Fletcher removed Josh Cobb and Paul Coughlin bowled Richard Levi.

A miserly spell from Steven Mullaney then saw off both Wakeley and Vasconcelos, along with Adam Rossington.

A late flurry of boundaries from Rob Keogh (46) and Luke Procter (50*) saw Northants pass 300, but the hosts always seemed in control of the run chase.

Notts built a strong platform initially, before their opening stand of 89 was broken when Alex Hales found Graeme White at point on 39.

From then on Slater took charge, monopolising the bowling and scoring freely around the wicket.

His 17 boundaries included a trio of sixes lofted into the Smith Cooper stand.

After he was caught at long-off while attempting to reach his 150, Samit Patel and Paul Coughlin guided the Outlaws home.

View the scorecard here.

******

Nottinghamshire begin their Specsavers County Championship campaign at Trent Bridge on Friday 5 April against Yorkshire. You can watch every ball of their campaign, as well as all seven T20 Vitality Blast games and all four Royal London One-Day Cup matches from £29 as a Member. Find out more here....