WRW vs NOT 93rd Match -North Group Prediction

WRW vs NOT Team Previews

Birmingham Bears

The return of Chris Woakes to the Bears' lineup immediately returned fruitful rewards as he scored a match-winning fifty, 57 from 23 deliveries, to take them to a convincing total against Northamptonshire. However, he will be absent for their following T20, against Nottinghamshire, due to his call-up to the England squad for the upcoming test against India.

The Bears decided to bat first after winning the toss, but the decision to bat first appeared wrong as they lost Ed Pollock and Adam Hose in the powerplay overs without much on the board. Ian Bell continued his solid form with the bat as he added 64 runs for the third wicket with Sam Hain. Both of them departed in the space of three balls thereafter. The possibility of getting to even 170 appeared bleak with them struggling at 128 for 5 before Chris Woakes late order blitz took them to 187.

Bowling came good for the Bears as they continued to chip away at the wickets and restricted Northamptonshire to 170 despite Joshua Cobb's brilliant on. Olly Stone was superb upfront as he dismissed Ben Duckett for just two. Grant Elliot picked up the wicket of Ricardo Vasconcelos and then rest of the order perished like a pack of cards. Stone gave away only seven runs off his last over out of 27 required taking Bears to a much-needed win.

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Nottinghamshire

The Outlaws were punished mercilessly by Callum Ferguson in their last game as they lost it by a big margin of 72 runs. Nottinghamshire's batting was bolstered by the return of Alex Hales, who played a vital role in their last year's title win. Hales was sent back quickly by Wayne Parnell and the rest of their batsmen failed to score quickly as the required run rate soon went out of reach.

Although Steven Mullaney played a valiant knock of 55 runs, his schoolboy error cost him is wickets and Nottinghamshire's performance with the bat nosedived. Their last five batsmen were dismissed in the space of just 18 deliveries.

Bowling-wise, there wasn't much their bowlers could have done with Ferguson on a song. Moeen Ali, too, was brutal in his 36-ball 65-run knock. He smashed Samit Patel for 19 in one of the overs to kick-start Worcestershire's onslaught. Nottinghamshire gave away too many runs with the ball and their batsmen just lacked the responsibility and threw away their wickets as Notts succumbed to a 72-run defeat.