Notts storm to victory as Paterson, Hutton blow Essex away for 69

Dane Paterson blasted through the Essex batting with four wickets to set up a crushing 168-run victory in Notts Outlaws' opening Metro Bank One-Day Cup match of the season.

The South African finished with figures of 4 for 30 as Essex were dismissed for just 69 in 25.1 overs at Chelmsford. It narrowly beat Essex's lowest List A total of 57 which they managed in the NatWest Cup final at Lord's in 1996 against Lancashire.

Set 238 to win, Essex were five down inside a dozen overs with only 31 on the board and the wickets continued to fall with great regularity. It had been the same earlier on a benign wicket with Aaron Beard tearing a hole in Notts batting line-up with career-best List A figures of 4 for 32 as the Outlaws, put in, lost their last nine wickets for 66 runs.

The Outlaws' rollercoaster innings was indebted to a century first-wicket partnership that was only ended when 20-year-old rookie Ben Martindale - making only his second first-team appearance - attempted to reverse-sweep part-time spinner Tom Westley and was lbw for 55 from 58 balls.

The openers had survived two dropped catches and a couple of potential run-out mix-ups, as well as being becalmed when Jamie Porter and Beard bowled back-to-back maiden overs. But both cut loose from the early shackles, finding gaps and trading boundaries, with Martindale hitting Porter for three of his eight in one over.

Ben Slater was slightly more circumspect requiring 15 more balls in reaching his fifty, though he did pull Aron Nijjar for six as well as adding seven fours in a 101-ball 79.

The second wicket between Slater and Lyndon James added 64 runs, but a three-wicket burst in nine balls by Beard marked the start of a plethora of wickets as Notts collapsed in just 14 overs from a promising 171 for 1 to 237 all out with 25 balls unused.

Slater perished when he miscued and chipped to mid-on. Haseeb Hameed lasted just seven balls before he dragged on and James took a wild swing to end a 40-ball 32 which unusually did not include a boundary. When Ben Allison took over from Beard at the River End, he had Matthew Montgomery caught from his second ball to a running catch by Westley at mid-on.

Essex's Tasmanian allrounder Beau Webster bowled his first two overs as a seamer, but then changed to offspin and had Liam Patterson-White slicing to short third man. Dane Schadendorf and Calvin Harrison exited in quick succession, both playing down the wrong line to deliveries from Nijjar and Westley respectively. Tom Loten patted a full-toss back to Webster and Beard wrapped things up with his fourth wicket by bowling Brett Hutton.

However, the clatter of wickets was not interrupted by the change of innings. Essex lost Josh Rymell lbw to the ninth ball of their reply when he tried to flick Paterson off his legs. Eight balls later Robin Das followed, playing all around one from Hutton to be bowled. It was 11 for 3 in the sixth over when Paterson found some late movement to take the edge of Westley's bat, and 16 for 4 two overs later when Noah Thain took a swipe outside off stump and was snatched above his head at second slip.

Calvin Harrison was the lone slip four overs later when he dived to his left to claim Webster to another outside edge and provide Paterson with a fourth wicket

Charlie Allison dragged Loten through midwicket for only the third boundary of the Essex innings but played on next ball for 13. The elder Allison, Ben, stayed for just four balls before hooking Hutton to deep fine leg and the following ball Beard was leg before to one that stopped.

Nijjar took Essex past 50 with a pulled four that earnt ironic cheers from a sizeable Chelmsford crowd. But once Essex had passed their lowest total in the competition, he was run out at the non-striker's end by a direct throw from Hameed. Harrison took the last wicket with his only ball in the game when had Porter caught at mid-on.