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One-Day Cup, Northern Group

vs Northamptonshire

New Road, Worcester

Worcs innings: Northants won the toss and put the Pears in to bat on a beautiful June morning at New Road. Granted, it didn't look so beautiful when the increasingly luckless Moeen Ali went for a second-ball duck in the first over, leaving the home side 0-1 on the back of Friday's capitulation at Trent Bridge, but any fear of another collapse was assuaged by Joe Clarke and Callum Ferguson proceeding to put together a record second-wicket partnership for Worcestershire in List A cricket, with their stand of 239 eclipsing the 208 made by Vikram Solanki and the late Phil Hughes against Lancashire in 2012. Still, all good things must come to an end, and Clarke was eventually dismissed by Graeme White in the thirty-eighth over after making his century and getting a little impatient at the crease. Fergie remained to steer the Pears through the fifty with help from Ben Cox and Brett D'Oliveira, but there was a little concern at the interval that on a flat track which saw no less than 756 runs scored on Tuesday, Worcestershire's total of 348-5 might just be twenty or thirty runs too short.

Northants innings: The visitors certainly gave Worcestershire plenty to think about in the early stages of the chase, keeping effortlessly in touch with the run-rate as the leaky Pears bowling attack offered up at least one loose ball each over to be despatched to the boundary. Despite pegging Northants back with two or three wickets, it remained a tight game until Ed Barnard began to get his line and length consistently right and put pressure on the set batsmen. Some timely economical overs from Dolly and Daryl Mitchell forced mistakes at the crease as Northants tried to find the boundary again, and by the time Adam Rossington departed for 63, the chase was effectively done. In the end the visitors came up well short, losing their final wicket with two balls to spare.

Worcestershire WIN by thirty-four runs

The Verdict: We needed to win, and we did; ultimately, that's all that matters. The Pears return to pole position in the Northern Group, level on points with Warwickshire, setting up a straight shootout between the two rivals at Edgbaston on Thursday. If Lancashire win Tuesday's Roses match then both teams will at least have the comfort of knowing that qualification is assured; however, should Yorkshire take the two points at Old Trafford then the loser at Edgbaston two days later will be depending on other results that night to see them through to the knockout stage. We're set for a very, very tense evening's cricket.