[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

T20 Blast, North Group

vs Nottinghamshire

Trent Bridge, Nottingham

Worcs innings: The Outlaws won the toss and put the Pears in to bat on a sublime first Friday in June, as the day's heat subsided into a warm and fragrant evening. Even by Trent Bridge standards it was a flat track, and while Notts clearly backed themselves to chase any target, that hubris could barely survive an all-out powerplay assault from Brett D'Oliveira and Michael Bracewell, the former driving, clipping and sweeping his way out of the blocks as the fifty partnership came up within 4.3 overs, and the latter easing into his work by threading a straight drive through long-on for four, before clubbing the sixth over for fours and sixes galore as the powerplay concluded on 87-0. Dolly perished for 44 four balls later, while Bracewell managed his maiden Pears half-century off 22 balls before being bowled by Matthew Carter for 55; nevertheless, the charge continued courtesy of Jack Haynes after Mitchell Santner departed caught and bowled for 4. Haynes made a confident 42 off 25 balls as he targeted the short boundary with some big hitting, followed by Kashif Ali with one maximum, but just as it looked like Notts might keep the massive total on a leash at the death - Steven Mullaney in particular managing an admirable over of just 2 runs at the business end - Adam Hose stepped into the finisher's role with aplomb, producing a memorable scoop for six off Shaheen Afridi on his way to an unbeaten 51 from 27 balls. 226-5 was the total off twenty; one run short of the Worcestershire record of 227-6 against Northants at Kidderminster in June 2007, but comfortably surpassing the previous away record of 213-7 versus Somerset at Edgbaston in September 2020, and a record chase for the Outlaws at Trent Bridge if they could pull it off.

Notts innings: A tight first couple of overs, conceding 4 and then 5, gave way to something of a deluge in the powerplay; but happily, in the fifth over Dillon Pennington became this summer's recipient of the Schadenfreude Shield for the first Pears bowler to take the wicket of Joe Clarke, as everyone's favourite turncoat guided a pull as limp as wet celery straight to short fine leg. Still, thanks in large part to Alex Hales, Notts stayed in touch with the run-rate until Pat Brown changed ends and got Colin Munro to mistime a shot down the ground, caught safely at long-on. As usual, the spinners turned the screw in the middle overs, and two wickets in an over for Dolly followed by one by Bracewell reduced the hosts to 115-5. The innings was already crumbling, but two more scalps for Dolly (including the wicket of Hales) gave him career-best T20 figures of 4-11, and Browny polished the Outlaws off with 4-25 as they staggered to 170 all out off 18.2 overs; a total which would have been far more embarrassing but for some late clubbing from Afridi.

Worcestershire WIN by fifty-six runs

The Verdict: An absolute shellacking by T20 standards, and dare I say it, at this point it's almost becoming unremarkable. A winning streak of four - our best in this format since 2018 - leaves Worcs the only unbeaten team in the North, and deservedly top of the group. Sooner or later all good things must end, but after several head-scratching campaigns and decisions in recent seasons, at last the formula seems to be working again.