NOTTINGHAMSHIRE V SURREY at Lord's (Royal London One-Day Cup Final), 1 JULY 2017

Surrey's record in one-day finals at Lord's reads as follows:

Between 1985 and 1989, Notts reached three Lord's finals, winning two of them. But, since then, the Outlaws have appeared in just one - the Yorkshire Bank 40 final of 2013, in which they overcame Glamorgan by 87 runs. This will be Surrey's third Lord's final in as many years. Having lost the previous two, will this be third time lucky for the Oval outfit? Maybe, but it also happens to be their 13th Lord's showpiece.

Both Surrey and Nottinghamshire qualified for the knockout phase of the Royal London One-Day Cup by scraping third place in their respective groups - the reward for which were play-offs away to the two second placed teams to decide should take on the group winners in the semis. As it turned out, the format favoured the sides in the play-offs - the two group winners having played no one-day cricket for a month prior to the semi-finals.

Standing between Surrey and silverware is an impressive Notts batting line-up. Greg Smith, who hit 124 when Notts last played Surrey (in the 2015 semi-final), no longer gets into the team; and Billy Root - younger brother of the England captain, Joe - is also likely to miss out, despite averaging 64.75 with the bat in List A cricket.

Samit Patel is bang in form. Either side of his unbeaten 122 in Notts' semi-final victory over Essex, he hit back-to-back County Championship double centuries - 257 not out against Gloucestershire and 247 against Leicestershire. Patel's record in this year's Royal London is 532 runs at an average of 76.00. Steven Mullaney is rattling along at an impressive 74.60, Brendan Taylor is averaging 60.83 and of course there are Alex Hales and Michael Lumb, both of whom have hit hundreds in this season's competition.

As for the bowling, the Outlaws' attack boasts three recent Test players - it would have been four but for the injury to Jake Ball - plus Harry Gurney, who has ten one-day international caps to his name. But there is another worry, concerning Stuart Broad, who is nursing a bruised heel that could rule him out of the First Test. Personally, I can't see him being a spectator on what could be a big day for his county.

Surrey v Nottinghamshire - List A Records Sheet

Ben Foakes (481) needs 19 more runs for 500 in this season's Royal London, while Sam Curran is three poles shy of 20 wickets in this year's 50-over competition. But, should Sam reach the 19-mark he could well end up with the most victims of any bowler. Currently heading the list with 18 scalps apiece are Chris Liddle (Glo), Marchant de Lange (Gla), Azeem Rafiq (Yor) and James Weighell (Dur). Ravi Rampaul has 16 and Jade Dernbach 14. Notts' leading wicket-takers are Harry Gurney and James Pattinson, both of whom head to Lord's with 12.

There are no surprises in Surrey's 14-man squad, with everyone they needed to be fit being fit. Scott Borthwick missed the semi-final through injury, but who will he displace, if anyone. The likelihood is that Ollie Pope could miss out, despite having impressed - not just with the bat, but patrolling the boundary - in this year's Royal London.

When these two sides last met in one-day cricket - in the 2015 semi-final - the Oval outfit edged a close game thanks entirely to Kumar Sangakkara's 166 off 138 balls. One suspects that if Surrey are to make up for the disappointment of falling at the final hurdle in the last two years, then the veteran Sri Lankan will need to continue delivering his A-game. His 515 runs at an average of 85.83 in this year's Royal London underlines his value. But - and it's a big but - no player has ever scored a hundred for Surrey in a Lord's final. I suspect that will need to change if Notts are to be overcome. I've just got a feeling in my water it could be a case of more Royal London One-Day final heartache for the South Londoners.

M.Lumb, A.Hales, R.Wessels, S.Patel, B.Taylor, S.Mullaney, C.Read (capt, wk), S.Broad, J.Pattinson, L.Fletcher and H.Gurney.

Tim Robinson and Alex Wharf. (Third umpire - David Millns.).

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