Hales cuts loose in timely show of form

Nottinghamshire 286 for 6 (Hales 77, Wessels 67, Patel 59) beat Derbyshire 303 for 4 (Godleman 90, Slater 72, Madsen 66) by four wickets (DLS method)
Scorecard

Billy Root held his nerve to steer Nottinghamshire to a four-wicket victory over Derbyshire at Derby that keeps their Royal London Cup hopes alive.

Nottinghamshire were starting to unravel chasing a revised target of 286 from 47 overs but Joe Root's younger brother made an unbeaten 23 from 25 balls to see his side home with four balls to spare.

They had been cruising at 242 for 3 through half-centuries from Alex Hales, Riki Wessels and Samit Patel but a rain break allowed Derbyshire to regroup and give themselves hope of an unlikely victory.

Derbyshire recorded their highest one-day score against Notts of 303 for 4 with Billy Godleman top-scoring with 90 and Ben Slater and Wayne Madsen passing 50 but it was not enough.

The game was played on the same wicket that yielded over 600 runs on Sunday and there was little in it for the Nottinghamshire attack as Godleman and Slater played positively from the start.

Slater just cleared mid-on off Harry Gurney but Nottinghamshire rarely looked like taking a wicket until a mix up resulted in Slater being run out for 72 after he and Godleman added 148.

Shiv Thakor was caught at extra cover trying to force James Pattinson but Madsen made the most of a dropped catch by Michael Lumb when he was 12 to score an unbeaten 66.

He twice hit Patel for straight sixes on his way to a 42-ball 50 and although Pattinson induced a leading edge from Daryn Smit, Gary Wilson helped Madsen provide late acceleration by taking three consecutive fours off Jake Ball.

It was the first time Derbyshire had scored 300 in consecutive one-day games and their hopes of defending it were raised when Madsen had Lumb caught at long-off in the second over but Hales and Wessels turned the game with some thrilling strokes.

Hales was severe on Tom Milnes, taking five fours from six balls in a three over spell that cost 34 and after reaching 50 from 35 deliveries, he drove Jeevan Mendis for the first of two sixes.

Nottinghamshire were well ahead of the game when Hales attempted a reverse swipe at Matt Critchley and lost his middle stump, but Wessels maintained the tempo until he tried to drive Mendis for another six and was superbly caught by Alex Hughes diving forward at long-off.

But after struggling with his timing early on, Patel found his fluency and took three fours from a Ben Cotton over and drove Thakor for a big six before rain stopped play for 20 minutes.

A revised target of 49 from 10 overs should have been straightforward but Brendan Taylor miscued a drive before Madsen was brought back and had Patel caught at long-off.

Chris Read played on to Thakor but Root emerged from a nervous start to end a run of two North Group defeats and assistant coach Paul Franks said: "It's by no means the perfect performance and it does need some polish but we're delighted to get the win.

"I'm not sure Duckworth/Lewis is doing us any favours, that's twice in the space of a week where we feel the rain has come at the wrong time. I thought we were owning that run chase comfortably but then we had a 20 minute break and the momentum was back with Derbyshire."