James Taylor hailed Samit Patel after Notts Outlaws secured their first Lord’s final win since 1989.
Patel had claimed that Notts would prove too strong for Glamorgan in the build-up to the Yorkshire Bank 40 final and helped prove his point with a superb spell of bowling that returned three wickets in the space of nine deliveries.
And Taylor, who was still five months away from being born when Notts beat Essex by three wickets in the 1989 B&H Cup final at the home of cricket, was thrilled with his team-mate’s “unbelievable” showing.
“Samit was exceptional,” he told ecb.co.uk.“He riled them up in the press and then nailed them when he had to.
“It’s just typical Samit. It shows the character he’s got. He delivered an unbelievable performance and credit to him.”
Taylor contributed 22 runs to Notts’ imposing total of 244, which Glamorgan’s hopes of chasing all-but evaporated when Patel removed Chris Cooke, Jim Allenby and Murray Goodwin in three successive overs.
For the 23-year-old Taylor, lifting the trophy at Lord’s was a special moment.
“Obviously winning the championship would be nice but (playing in a) Lord’s final is probably up there with the best feelings you can get as a county cricketer. We’ve done it and gone that bit further by lifting the trophy,” he said.
“(It’s) one of the best feelings I’ve had as a cricketer. We put in a good performance in tricky conditions. We did what we needed to do and that’s lift the trophy.
“We put on a challenging total in tough conditions; we did well to build a platform because we could have gone boom early doors and lost plenty of wickets in those conditions so we did well.”
Former Australia batsman David Hussey contributed a vitally-important 99-run fifth-wicket partnership with skipper Chris Read to help the Outlaws to that total.
The partnership was almost ended early when Hussey was dropped at mid-off by Gareth Rees when on three, but he made the most of that gift to score 42.
After the pair fell, Graeme Swann and Steven Mullaney added 29 and 21 respectively, which Hussey felt was decisive.
“I was very confident (at the halfway stage); I thought about 220, 225 was about par,” he said.
“The way Swanny batted and Mullaney batted towards the end really got us towards an unreachable total and with our bowlers it’s pretty hard to get 245.
“It’s an amazing feeling. Nobody remembers teams who finish second.
“Notts back in 1989 hit a four off the last ball; I’m glad it wasn’t as close this time but it’s a very special feeling.”