[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

T20 Blast, Northern Group

vs Derbyshire

The County Ground, Derby

Derby innings: The Pears won the toss and put Derbyshire in to bat on another scorching Sunday in the great heatwave of 2018. There was a suspicion that the groundstaff at Derby had prepared a two-paced wicket in an attempt to restrict the powerful Worcs batting line-up, but if that was the case then it backfired immensely on the home side, who lost no less than three wickets in the powerplay. After Luke Wood struck early to remove Matt Critchley, Dillon Pennington - making his senior T20 debut for the Pears - followed up with two scalps in a single over, including the prize wicket of Wayne Madsen for a duck. From there, Derbyshire simply failed to put any kind of meaningful partnership together, and wickets continued to fall regularly through the innings - including two at the death for Pat Brown - leaving them to stagger to an under-par 135-9 off the twenty.

Worcs innings: There was a fleeting chance of this evolving into a tight game when the Pears lost two wickets in the powerplay, but Martin Guptill proved the difference between the sides, sticking at the crease for a run-a-ball 65 that carried Worcestershire within spitting distance of the target. The visitors seemed determined to play no-risk cricket to the very end, which took the game deeper than might otherwise have been expected, but nevertheless there were a full eight balls to spare when Ross Whiteley finally performed his party trick of hitting the winning six.

Worcestershire WIN by six wickets

The Verdict: I said a fortnight ago that you can't go far wrong with a D'Oliveira captaining Worcestershire, and sure enough, Dolly's spell as skipper continues to impress as the team extend their unbeaten run in all formats to five matches, with four wins among them. The Pears have already equalled the number of victories they managed in all of last summer's T20 campaign, and sit two points clear at the top of the Northern Group; a position they'll look to consolidate on Friday night when they welcome Northants to New Road.