Foxes and Ducks

Leicestershire were Twenty20 champions in 2004, and had beaten Notts five times out of five in this competition before tonight. Perhaps that was why Leicestershire's mascot (Charlie the Fox) was happy to take Notts' new mascot (Nuts the Squirrel) for a twirl before the start of play...

A few minutes later Nuts had every reason to dance when AJ Harris got Notts off to a flying start with a wicket from the second ball of the match...

Darren Robinson out for a duck - caught by Fleming at first slip...

Then in his next over, AJ got rid of the other opener -

Darren Maddy caught in the deep by David Hussey...

It took a partnership of 66 for the 6th wicket by Jeremy Snape and John Sadler to get Leicestershire up to a half-decent total (136-8 off their 20 overs). The ball disappearing out of the ground after one particularly good hit...

Let's pause to admire the view for a moment...

Skipper Snape made 38 before he was bowled by Mark Ealham in the last over...

The Notts target was one run less than they had required against the same opponents last week, when they ended up losing by 14 runs. On that occasion Stuart Broad - son of former Notts and England batsman Chris Broad - took 2-19 from his four overs. Tonight he was even more economical - conceding just ten runs, and taking the wicket of Notts skipper Stephen Fleming in the first over...

and when Graeme Swann was out second ball for the third match running...

...Notts were in trouble at 2-2

It was the extras that got the scoreboard moving - Will Smith picked up about a dozen leg byes early in his innings, while the umpires were being very stringent on 'wide' bowling - signalling wide eleven times...

so Notts were soon in familiar territory, at 41-3...

...again.

Happily for Notts, Hussey is on great form at the moment, and he kept them in the hunt. It came down to Notts needing 31 to win off the last three overs so it looked like a nail-biting finish. But Mark Ealham had other ideas - smashing James Masters for 30 in one spectacular over (2,6,4,6,6,6) to take Notts to the top of the table.

As Ealham told the Nottingham Evening Post: "It may have been brief, but it was a lot of fun. My six into the top deck of the Radcliffe Road stand was my favourite - because it went furthest!" It certainly did - it landed a couple of yards to my right in the middle terrace (the upper terrace was shut as always).

Nottinghamshire 137-5 (18.1 overs: Smith 24, Hussey 44no, Ealham 31no) beat Leicestershire 136-8 (20 overs: Snape 38, Sadler 33) by 5 wickets