Watch the 2018 Royal London One-Day Cup final between Kent and Hampshire from 10.30am, Saturday on Sky Sports Cricket
Friday 29 June 2018 14:20, UK
Ahead of the 2018 Royal London One-Day Cup final, we look at how Nottinghamshire powered their way to the title last year.
The Outlaws powered their way to the 50-over trophy in 2017, culminating in an Alex Hales-inspired, four-wicket win over Surrey at Lord's…
Watch the 2018 Royal London One-Day Cup final between Kent and Hampshire, live on Sky Sports Cricket & Main Event from 10.30am on Saturday.
Nottinghamshire ended the pool phase with four wins, three defeats and a wash-out. Highlights included Samit Patel (103no) and Steven Mullaney (77no) marshalling the side to victory - it wouldn't be for the last time, either - against Lancashire, and Billy Root's maiden List A ton, a sterling effort of 107 not out from 93 balls against Warwickshire at Edgbaston.
Notts were undone by a Root, though, with Billy's brother Joe stroking an unbeaten 75 as Yorkshire eased to a seven-wicket win. A rain-ruined final match versus Northants saw Outlaws earn the point which pipped Yorkshire's Roses rivals Lancashire to third place in the North Group.
Notts edged a thrilling game at Taunton, one in which their total of 429-9 looked at one point like it might not be enough as firstly Dean Elgar (91 off 63) and Peter Trego (66 off 47) and latterly Jamie Overton (40 off 26) gave Somerset a sniff, only for the hosts to fall short on 405 all out.
Brendan Taylor (154 from 97) - who has now left Notts and returned to international cricket with Zimbabwe - top-scored in the 834-run thriller, with Riki Wessels (81) and Patel (66) providing excellent support as Overton was dispatched at nearly 10 runs an over. The seamer exacted some revenge with the bat, nailing three sixes, but ultimately to no avail.
Having posted a mammoth score three days earlier, Notts then chased one down at Chelmsford, toppling Essex's 370-5 with three balls remaining to complete the highest successful run chase in an English 50-over game, beating Hampshire's 359-8 against Surrey in 2005.
Alastair Cook struck 133 for Essex before Ryan ten Doeschate scored a blistering 66-ball 102 not out and the hosts appeared in complete control when Taylor's calamitous run out left Notts on 180-4 a ball shy of halfway. Patel (122no) and Mullaney (111 from 75), launched an exceptional fightback, though, putting on 185 in 23.4 overs, before an exhausted-looking Patel, dropped with 16 runs required, edged the winning boundary.
Nottinghamshire condemned Surrey to a third consecutive One-Day Cup final defeat, following losses to Gloucestershire and Warwickshire in 2015 and 2016 respectively, with Alex Hales the star of the show.
Hales - who is now solely a white-ball player, of course - blazed the highest one-day score ever made at Lord's with an unbeaten 187 from 167 balls, an innings that featured 20 fours and four sixes. Ollie Pope's drop of the opener on nine proving extremely costly...
Hales topped the 166 David Boon scored for Australia against the MCC in 1989 at Lord's as Nottinghamshire topped Surrey's 297-9 - in which Mark Stoneman hit an unbeaten 144 - with 13 balls to spare, Hales sharing a 137-run stand with skipper Chris Read (58) in the latter's final Lord's final.
Surrey had raced to 74-0 from 10 overs batting first, aided by some sloppy Notts fielding, but Patel (3-51) and Mullaney (2-50) accounted for five of the top six as the Londoners wilted and the Outlaws completed part one of the white-ball double - they went on to win the T20 Blast in September.
Watch the Royal London One-Day Cup final between Kent and Hampshire from 10.30am, Saturday on Sky Sports Cricket & Main Event.
