George Hankins stole the bragging rights over close friend Tom Moores as Gloucestershire beat Nottinghamshire in the two sides’ first outing in the Quarantine Cup videogame contest organised by The Cricketer magazine.

A sun-drenched digital Oval was the setting for the clash on Thursday evening, as two former schoolmates did battle for pandemic bragging rights.

And it was Hankins who came out on top.

Gloucestershire won the toss, and after David Payne missed the strip entirely with his first ball, the seamer should have had a wicket with his second legal delivery.

Matt Taylor, though, would drop Ben Slater at mid-on.

Taylor did not seem to care a jot about his mistake, but he made up for his mistake soon after.

Joe Clarke hit his first ball to midwicket, gifting Taylor a simple catch.

Moores sent himself in at No.3 and promptly attempted an audacious helicopter shot to the first delivery he faced from Jerome Taylor.

A gigantic six, slapped straight down the ground, soon followed but when he subsequently tried to pull a leg stump yorker off the back foot, his leg stump was sent cartwheeling backwards.

With Slater and Duckett also gone, Notts found themselves 13 for 4.

Alex Hales responded by pumping four through wide mid-off, while Samit Patel found the fence at midwicket, as Nottinghamshire stumbled to 28 before Benny Howell removed Patel - caught at mid-on from the final ball.

Miles Hammond hooked Luke Fletcher for six as Gloucestershire’ chase got off to an emphatic start, but the opener was soon dismissed, caught by a backtracking Hales at mid-off.

The curious decision to send Cheteshwar Pujara and his ODI strike rate of 39.23 into bat at No.3 in a five overs per side contest backfired heavily when the Indian - presumably turning out for the county for free after his contract was nulled recently - missed a cover drive by a handful of feet and was adjudged lbw to Harry Gurney.

For a moment, perhaps, Notts sensed an opportunity. The window was not open for long, however.

Hammond rolled his wrists over a legside half-volley to find the square leg boundary and Gurney could not make further inroads into the Gloucestershire line-up.

Patel was brought into the attack and was summarily smashed down the ground for six by Ryan Higgins, and when four balls later he was given similar treatment by Hammond it was very much game over, Notts tasting victory with more than two overs to spare.

Moores accepted that he was well below the standard he had set for himself.

“I’m disappointed,” he said. “Things didn’t go to plan from the word go. The wrong team ran out onto the pitch, it was all a shambles from the start. I’ll have to go back to the drawing board.”

On the absence of Stuart Broad from his starting XI, Moores said: “Blame the manager. Broady… I tried to get him in but I think he was late, he didn’t turn up so someone else ran out instead of him.

“I had to make do. He’ll definitely be in the next game. He was my star bowler as well. It’s a poor decision. On the whole, the tactics I went for just weren’t right.

“I’ll come back stronger.”

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Find more information on the Quarantine Cup here.