An exceptional all round performance from Matthew Spriegel guided Surrey to a four wicket victory at Trent Bridge. Spriegel took 2-21 to restrict the Nottinghamshire Outlaws to 149 and he then made 47 as Surrey reached their victory target with 23 balls to spare.
Surrey welcomed Rory Hamilton-Brown and Jade Dernbach back to the side and Gareth Batty decided to bowl first when he called correctly at the toss.
Spriegel gave Surrey an excellent start with the ball as he bowled Michael Lumb (7) in the 6th over to leave the Outlaws 16-1. Spriegel then had Rikki Wessels (15) caught by Jason Roy at midwicket as it became very obvious that spin was going to play a huge part in the game.
Dernbach then got in on the action dismissing Samit Patel (1) and the dangerous Alex Hales (25) as Nottinghamshire found themselves 52-4 after 12 overs.
Adam Voges and Chris Read set about repairing the damage but Surrey always had a control on proceedings. Voges had made 36 when he was caught at slip by Gary Wilson off Murali Kartik and in the 31st over Zafar Ansari had Read caught by Spriegel for 35 to leave Nottinghamshire 125-6.
With the pressure building Graeme White was run out for 1`and he was quickly followed by Steven Mullaney who was stumped off Batty for 8. And the Surrey captain bowled Jake Ball (11) in the 37th over to leave the Outlaws 144-7.
And it was left to Dernbach to finish the innings when he bowled Luke Fletcher for 1. The Outlaws all out for 149 after 38 overs it had been a very fine effort from the Surrey bowlers on a surface that was providing assistance.
The Surrey run chase did not start well when Hamilton-Brown (2) was caught behind off Harry Gurney in the second over. And Gurney had two in two balls when Roy got a brute of a delivery and was caught in the gully without scoring.
Surrey in trouble at 7-2 but Steven Davies and Gary Wilson played very sensibly against some excellent Nottinghamshire bowling guiding the innings back on track as they put on 60 for the 3rd wicket.
Davies had moved onto 35 when in the 17th over he looked to go over the legside off Mullaney and was caught by Voges to leave Surrey 63-3. And that became 77-4 in the 22nd over when Wilson was stumped off White for 29.
The game was in the balance but Spriegel then backed up his work with the ball by playing the match winning innings. He kept his cool and played very sensibly even when run scoring became extremely difficult.
Surrey were 105-5 in the 31st over when Zander de Bruyn went for 9 but Spriegel continued to play extremely well under pressure. He found the boundary at the start of consecutive overs and then began the 35th over by putting White down the ground for four and then launching him over long off for six.
Spriegel then looked for another maximum off White and was caught by Wessels but he had already played the exceptional innings of the game as he departed for 47. And it was left to Zafar Ansari and Gareth Batty to guide Surrey to victory with 23 balls to spare as Ansari secured the win in the grandest manner with a six off White.
An excellent end to a good few days for Surrey and it means they are back on top of Group B in the CB40 and very much in contention for a semi final place.
To see highlights of the game against the Outlaws watch the video below
CB40 v Notts Outlaws from Surrey Cricket on Vimeo.
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