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Bears Rubber-stamp Blast Credentials As Outlaws Ransacked For 57
Birmingham Bears 61 for 1 (Yates 35*, Farooqi 1-31) beat Nottinghamshire 57 (James 15, Moeen 2-2, Garton 2-6) by nine wickets
North Group leaders Birmingham Bears stamped themselves as the side to beat for any rival with aspirations to win this season's Vitality Blast as they thrashed Notts Outlaws at Trent Bridge, winning by nine wickets after bowling the home side out for just 57.
The home side's total is comfortably their lowest in the competition's history - the next lowest being 91 - and the fourth lowest among all the counties since Twenty20 cricket entered the domestic calendar in 2003.
The Bears' batters needed only 32 balls to finish the job, Rob Yates top-scoring with four fours and two sixes in a 20-ball unbeaten 35, cracking the winning boundary through the off side as the contest ended in just 100 minutes.
It gave the Bears a sixth consecutive win and an eighth overall as they seek to win the competition for the first time since 2014.
With only two wins from their 10 matches so far, the only target for the Outlaws, who were champions for the second time only four years ago, is to avoid finishing bottom of the group. All their four remaining matches are away from home.
Seamers George Garton and Zak Foulkes shared three wickets in the opening powerplay but it was the Bears quintet of spinners who were largely responsible for the demolition as Jake Lintott (2 for 17 from four overs), Moeen Ali (2 for 2 from eight) balls, Dan Mousley, Danny Briggs and Jacob Bethell shared seven wickets between them.
A first wicket in Nottinghamshire colours - an unfamiliar red on this occasion in recognition of 10 years of support from the club's principal sponsors - for the Afghan left-arm seamer Fazalhaq Farooqi was the only positive from the home side's point of view.
The writing had been on the wall as a catastrophic powerplay ended with the Outlaws 16 for 4 after Birmingham opted to take their chance with the ball after winning the toss.
The damage was inflicted in the space of 15 balls as the left-arm quick Garton yorked Ben Martindale and then saw that Ben Slater's first appearance in this format in three years ended in one delivery as the left-hander, tempted by some width, slashed straight to deep backward point.
Clarke, who had looked in outstanding form when hitting 79 off 41 balls on the same pitch on Friday evening, was dismissed by off-spinner Mousley's second ball, caught behind off an inside edge, before Foulkes, the New Zealand seam-bowling all-rounder, had Matt Montgomery leg before.
Seemingly powerless to free themselves from the grip the Bears' spinners had on proceedings, Outlaws lost Tom Moores and Jack Haynes to top-edges to short third man off left-arm orthodox spinner Briggs and left-arm wrist spinner Jake Lintott.
Liam Patterson-White at least put bat through ball against Moeen - making his first Bears appearance of the season - but found the fielder at long-on, after which Calvin Harrison was caught behind reaching for one from Lintott. Lyndon James raised ironic cheers by hitting the second of only two boundaries in the innings but promptly holed out to deep midwicket before Olly Stone skewed Moeen to short third.
Farooqi had Ed Barnard caught at mid-off in the third over as the sole Bears casualty.
