The Tortoise and the Dynamos

Notts had already lost one match before the Twenty-20 competition arrived at Trent Bridge this afternoon, having failed to beat Leicestershire yesterday despite restricting them to 137. Fortunately Durham Dynamos made the mistake of putting Notts in to bat first after winning the toss, thus saving us from seeing Notts make a pig's ear of another run chase. As it was they collapsed to 41-3 (when don't Notts collapse to 41-3?) before Will Smith, David Hussey and Mark Ealham chipped in with thirty each to get the Outlaws up to a very respectable total of 175 from their twenty overs, in front of an enthusiastic crowd.

Durham's reply got off to a controversial start when Gordon Muchall was caught at slip by Mark Ealham off the bowling of Charlie Shreck, only to stand his ground - seemingly on the advice of his Aussie opening partner Jimmy Maher...

...and the umpires had to give him the benefit of the doubt. The Notts bowlers rose above any ill-feeling and stuck to their task well: there wasn't a single six hit in the Durham reply, although the bat did fly at least once...

And there was some more juggling needed before Notts finally made a breakthrough, when Samit Patel caught Jimmy Maher...

...at the second attempt. Three more quick wickets wrecked the Durham innings, and when Muchall was finally out (again) for 38, it was all over bar the Mexican waving.

Twenty20 cricket is certainly non-stop action - but, even so, some people found time to watch a tortoise as it plodded around the boundary...

The Dynamos' innings finally fizzled out when Mik Lewis only half blocked a delivery from Mark Ealham which bobbled back onto his stumps...

Nottinghamshire 175-7 (20 overs: W.Smith 31, Hussey 39, Ealham 39no, Lewis 3-33, Breese 3-35) beat Durham 123 all out (19.1 overs: Muchall 38, Shreck 3-36) by 52 runs