Munsey steers Notts to first T20 win of the campaign
Scotland international George Munsey powered an unbeaten 88 as Notts Outlaws registered a first win of their Vitality Blast campaign at the fourth attempt, comfortably beating Durham by six wickets with 16 balls to spare at Trent Bridge.
Well beaten in each of their first three North Group matches, Notts were miserly with the ball in restricting Durham to 156 for eight and opener Munsey’s first big contribution in the competition meant they were always comfortably ahead in the chase. The 33-year-old left-hander, capped 165 times for his country, hit three sixes and nine fours in a 52-ball knock, backed up by Freddie McCann’s 32 from 33 balls. Olly Stone, Mohammad Ali and George Linde took two wickets each in a Durham innings that never found any sustained momentum.
“It was massive for us to bounce back after the start we’ve had,” said Munsey. “We knew we had to do it, it was a must-win game. Hopefully, we can take this moving forwards and get this momentum shift back into some more wins. “I thought the bowlers bowled really well up top, which made them have to fight for it a little bit harder. It was a good pitch, so we always felt it was a below par score. There was a bit of bounce that gave plenty of options for the batters to go about scoring runs.
“I’m very happy. I love winning, so to contribute to a win is massive for me. It's a great group here, great staff, great players, and I’ve been looked after extremely well. So I'm really chuffed to help the boys to get over the line.” Dillon Pennington set the tone with a wicket from his first delivery as Durham were left reeling at 41 for four at the end of their batting powerplay. After Graham Clark was caught behind, Mohammad Ali struck with his first ball as Alex Lees miscued to mid-on. Left-arm spinner George Linde took two in two to dismiss David Bedingham and Ben Raine. Durham were 70 for four from 10, which quickly became 71 for five as Robinson missed a ball from Benny Howell that struck him low on the back pad.
Colin Ackermann eked out 25 from 20 balls before being cleaned up by an Olly Stone leg-stump yorker. Rhodes and Kasey Aldridge (20 off 13) found some belated momentum as the last five overs added 54, although 156 looked well under par.
Needing to score at just less than eight an over, the Outlaws breezed through their batting powerplay at above ten,
Munsey completed his first Outlaws half-century from 30 deliveries as Notts reached halfway in their innings at 93 for two, needing another 64.
The Scot had an escape on 58 before back-to-back maximums off Nathan Sowter brought the requirement down to 25 from the last five overs.
Notts suffered a monetary wobble as McCann skyed one into the off side and Tom Moores edged behind without scoring, but new man Linde quickly found the winning boundary.