Pietersen Takes a Bow for Notts

Nobody is yet sure of the par score for a 20-over innings, but this game proved that 120, the lowest target posted so far, is certainly not enough.

Nottinghamshire could afford to dawdle to 47 for one in the first 10 overs of their reply and still cruise to victory with five balls to spare, keeping alive the chance of a home presence in the finals day here next month.

Jason Gallian, who cannot be too upset to have been relieved of the captaincy for this frantic form of the game, was even able to play something approaching an anchor role against his old county, with Kevin Pietersen in blistering form at the other end.

Gallian took eight balls to get off the mark and had reached only 19 after 12 overs, but Pietersen eased the frustration of a near-6,000 crowd by savaging Lancashire's young seamers Sajid Mahmood and Kyle Hogg.

Twenty20 might have been designed for the tall South African, who hit nine fours and also launched Chris Schofield for a huge six into the Radcliffe Road stand on his way to 58 from 37 balls.

These are early days to be drawing conclusions, but it would appear that the most effective 20-over bowlers are left-arm seamers called Smith. Gloucestershire's Mike bowled his four overs straight through for 15 at Bristol on Saturday and Nottinghamshire's Greg, another South African who like Pietersen holds a European passport, conceded only 18 in addition to picking up the key wicket of Carl Hooper.

However it was Richard Logan who took the bowling honors with five for 26, exactly matching the competition best analysis set by Surrey's Jimmy Ormond at the Oval on the opening night.

The two days Lancashire had set aside to practice their 20-over approach a couple of weeks ago were badly affected by rain, and it showed as they slipped to 42 for six with some kamikaze batting.

They were six for two after Logan's first over, with Stuart Law losing his off stump and Mal Loye edging to Gallian at slip. Hooper drove a clever slower ball from Smith to Bilal Shafayat at cover; Iain Sutcliffe was lbw for a duck heaving across the line at Logan, and Chris Schofield was smartly stumped Wayne Noon.

Glen Chapple was run out by Shafayat's excellent throw after a mix-up with Mark Chilton, who did his best to make amends in a seventh-wicket stand of 49 with his captain Warren Hegg. The partnership was broken by Stuart MacGill with an orthodox leg break that allowed Noon to claim Chilton as his second stumping.

Later in the same over Hegg, who went on to hit 45 and give his team at least something to defend, was bamboozled by a googly.