[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

One-Day Cup, Northern Group

vs Nottinghamshire

Trent Bridge, Nottingham

Notts innings: The Pears won the toss and put Notts in to bat on a grey morning. After navigating safely through the powerplay without the loss of a wicket, the first breakthrough came with the dangerous Alex Hales chopping a straight ball from Ed Barnard onto the stumps, and the home side never really settled after that. Moeen Ali took his best List A bowling figures ever with 4-33 off his ten overs as Notts collapsed to 202 all out. You'd think, from there, that it'd be a walk in the park for the group leaders. But you'd be wrong...

Worcs innings: Only Worcestershire could set a new record run-chase and then arse up the simple job of knocking off 203 runs all in the same week. Of the entire Pears top order, only the out-of-form Moeen could claim he was genuinely beaten by a great delivery; every other man got himself out to one unnecessary shot or another as the team folded. Notts bowled well, offering no loose balls and building up the dots, but common sense should have suggested to the Worcs batsmen that simply batting out the fifty would guarantee victory. Daryl Mitchell tried his best to salvage the game as he did last Sunday against Lancs, but it was always an uphill struggle, and lightning just wouldn't strike twice. Awful, awful, awful, awful.

Worcestershire LOSE by thirty-eight runs

The Verdict: What a way to come crashing down to earth after Tuesday's heroics. The biggest concern is that this is now the third time in four games that Worcs have collapsed while chasing a low score; it's clearly not an accident or an isolated instance. With regard to the bigger picture, it's put a dent in hopes of finishing top and places an extraordinary weight on Sunday's match against Northants to make qualification. The last thing we want is to go to Edgbaston next week needing a win at all costs.