Nottinghamshire 171 for 5 (Hales 71*, Moores 32, Raine 2-15) Durham 168 for 6 (Robinson 50, Mullaney 3-28) with five wickets
The England opener was in dominant form for the Outlaws bouncing off a duck against the Lancashire Lightning on its final appearance. Hales was aggressive at the start of his knock to get his team ahead before playing the anchor role, allowing teammates Tom Moores and Shaheen Afridi Notts to blast over the line with four balls to spare.
After losing the toss, Durham’s Graham Clark looked to build on his century in their opening game and found his range in the third over, clattering Afridi for a six and bordering in the leg-side of successive pitches before simply getting an off- drive over. the head Matthew Carter half way to give the home side a boost.
Conor McKerr stopped Clark’s offense for 29 as the opener singled out Mullaney. But Michael Jones kept Durham’s strong start alive after surviving a lead past Tom Moores from his first ball. The Scotland international scored five boundaries in a swift 26 off 12 balls, but Mullaney produced a gem to bowl Jones and then win over Alex Lees for 13.
Durham needed a response to turn the tide. Turner and Robinson produced a vital pressured stand worth 57 for the fourth wicket. The two players complemented each other well with Robinson’s cunning and Turner’s strength forming the basis of the Durham innings.
Turner tried to push up the run rate but presented Mullaney with his third wicket when Hales took a good low catch at long range. Robinson pressed on and continued to brave the Nottinghamshire onslaught, sending Afridi to two boundaries to record his second Blast 50 after his best effort against Yorkshire.
Afridi retaliated by bowling Robinson before he and McKerr bottled up the home side in the last two overs, costing just nine runs, to limit Durham to a total of 168 from their 20 overs.
Joe Clarke kicked off the Outlaws’ reply with a blistering start, scoring three boundaries and a six. But Liam Trevaskis showed great reactions to a powerful drive to remove the caught and bowled opener. Hales answered back for the visitors, hitting 25 off an over from De Leede, including two towering sixes in the leg-side.
Ben Raine and Nathan Sowter penetrated Nottinghamshire’s line-up, but Lyndon James offered a useful cameo to take the pressure off Hales to keep the pace required for the visitors before falling to Turner for 20.
Amid the fall of wickets, Hales changed his approach from aggressor to game manager, reaching his 33-ball half-century for the 72nd time in T20 cricket. His innings allowed Moores to find his range against Trevaskis and skipped 16 of the 14th to move Notts closer to their victory target.
Moores became Raine’s second victim of the match for 32 but there would be no late drama as Afridi hit two sixes off De Leede and then Trevaskis in the final to secure victory for the visitors.