Lumb and Wessels sparkle in another Outlaws romp

THE RUNS keep flowing at Trent Bridge and Nottinghamshire Outlaws’ Australian skipper Dan Christian admits that he has never seen anything quite like the last week from his top order.

For the second time in three days Notts topped 400 in a one-day game – this time after being put in by Ian Bell’s Warwickshire Bears.

And like their run-fest against Northants on Monday, Michael Lumb and Riki Wessels made hay right from the off at Trent Bridge.

Lumb hit 133 – to go with his 184 on Monday – while Wessels smashed a run-a-ball 76.

But it was not just those two who did the majority of the damage this time however as Greg Smith’s 75 and then Christian’s magnificent 94 from only 47 balls piled on the misery for the Bears bowlers. The hosts finished on 415-5 and while Jonathan Trott (100) led a valiant attempt at a Warwickshire chase, it fell 36 runs short.

And Christian was almost lost for words to describe the form of his top order.

“It’s just been extraordinary batting over the last few days – particularly from our guys up top,” he said.

“Michael Lumb has been outstanding and so has Riki Wessels, it has given us guys down the order the chance to go out and play some shots.

“We were not expecting that many runs again – playing on the same pitch we thought it would have slowed up a bit and be a bit more difficult to score.

“But the boys got us off to a great start again – it probably was a little bit slower – but the boys set a great platform and we were able to score plenty of runs.

“I have never seen a 300-run partnership in a one-day fixture, that is just unbelievable stuff and to put on another big one in this game is outstanding.

“I just hope they can just carry that on.”

In addition to Trott’s century there were also handy contributions from

Sam Hain (69) and Bell (60) and when Tim Ambrose came out and clubbed 73 from 40 balls it looked as if the unthinkable might occur.

But the Outlaws’ left-arm seamer Harry Gurney came back to finish the game off on a difficult night for the bowlers.

The Bears were eventually dismissed for 379 in the final over – but it was their highest ever one-day score against a first-class county.

Notts have now won both of their opening fixtures and are already handily situated to qualify out of the North Group.

Warwickshire’s defeat, however, leaves them with just two points from three matches played.

Christian added: “The game was starting to get close so Harry bowling those three overs at the end there and getting rid of Tim that really closed the game out for us.

“Particularly in the short form I think momentum is huge, in T20 and one-day cricket they are quite similar these days with the boundaries and the way guys tend to bat.

“It’s nice to have three wins this week and it will be huge against Derby on Friday – I am sure it will be another good pitch here with a good crowd –with Andre Russell on board as well hopefully we can get another win.”