[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

vs Northamptonshire

T20 Blast, Northern Group

New Road, Worcester

Northants innings: Pears won the toss and put Northants in to bat.  From the word go there was a whiff of "after the Lord Mayor's Show" about Worcestershire's bowling and fielding.  Where everything was on the mark at Edgbaston last night, this afternoon was right back to the bang-average standards of the early campaign, and though Northants didn't punish it for half of the innings, when Ben Duckett clicked into gear everything went disastrously wrong.  Debutant George Scrimshaw was thrown headlong into the mix only to go for 19 off his solitary over; worse still was the over which saw the infinitely more experienced (and last night downright heroic) John Hastings go for 25.  To allow the opposition, even the defending champions, to go from 89-4 after twelve and a half overs to 195-4 off the twenty is shocking, and the reason why Worcestershire won't be progressing in this competition for the second year running.

Worcs innings: Was little more than a formality.  Northants put on an exemplary display of disciplined T20 bowling, giving little to nothing away and making the Pears work for boundaries.  Scoreboard pressure forced risks from the players, and one by one their wickets tumbled.  171-6 might be a decent score on many days, but not when you've let the visitors rack up almost two ton.

With 15 points the maximum the team can now reach, and the fourth-placed team on 13, that's as good as the nail in the coffin.  Let the post-mortem commence.

Worcestershire LOSE by twenty-four runs

Star Performer: With a bowling economy of seven and a half plus a wicket, and the team's top score of 38 at the crease, a belated nod is due to Mitchell Santner, who on balance deserved it much more last night.  Worcestershire brought him in to be the missing piece of the jigsaw in this format, but sadly it's the rest of the jigsaw which is missing.

Next Match: With a sigh of relief the Pears can turn their backs on this tomorrow as they welcome Sussex to New Road for the last Championship match of high summer.