Royal London One-Day Cup, 1st Semi-Final

Essex 370/5
Notts 371/5
Notts win by 5 wickets

Nottinghamshire pulled off a remarkable record run chase in England to beat Essex by five wickets at Chelmsford and reach the One-Day Cup final.

Essex made 370-5 thanks to centuries from Ryan ten Doeschate and Alastair Cook, but superb hundreds from Samit Patel (122 not out) and Steven Mullaney (111) guided the visitors to 373-5.

The pair put on 185 in 23.4 overs in a devastating display of power hitting.

Notts will play Worcestershire or Surrey in the Lord's final on 1 July.

Nottinghamshire cruised past the previous-highest successful run chase - Hampshire's 359-8 against Surrey in 2005 - smashing 40 fours and seven sixes in their innings.

While experienced all-rounder Patel crafted his 123-ball knock, Mullaney attacked from the outset, bringing up his maiden List A hundred off 71 deliveries with the fifth of his six maximums.

The 30-year-old arrived at the crease at 180-4 following a calamitous run out of Brendan Taylor for 62, which saw the Zimbabwean and Patel stranded at the same end following a mix-up.

It was all Nottinghamshire from then on as Essex fell apart in the field, summed up by Paul Walter dropping a simple catch to dismiss Patel with 16 needed off 14 balls.

Mullaney edged Neil Wagner behind in the penultimate over, but the damage had already been done and Notts got over the line with three balls to spare.

Earlier, the hosts had piled up their fourth-highest List A score - anchored by Cook's 12th one-day century and a 64-ball hundred from captain Ten Doeschate.

But, in a day which saw 743 runs scored and four batsmen hitting centuries, Nottinghamshire produced one of the finest run chases in limited-overs history to reach the final.