[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

One-Day Cup, Group B

vs Derbyshire

Racecourse Ground, Derby

Worcs innings: Derbyshire won the toss and put the Pears in to bat on a wet Friday with the first intimations of autumn in the air. A delay until mid-afternoon reduced the match to 30 overs per side, and the new ball then reduced Worcestershire to 11-2 within four overs as Ed Pollock was bowled by Sam Conners for 1 and Gareth Roderick caught at slip off Suranga Lakmal for 5. But the same partnership which wrecked Northants on Wednesday came good again in the East Midlands, carrying the Pears safely beyond the halfway mark with a half-century for Rob Jones - who was caught at long-off for 53 - and an equally assured fifty for Jake Libby, leaving Worcestershire at a crossroads on 106-3 with seventy-six deliveries remaining. And at that moment, Hurricane Kashif hit Derby; in an innings that seems almost certain to attract the attention of white-ball franchises, the dot and three singles the young SACA alumnus took off the first four deliveries of his knock were the merest spots of rain presaging the deluge, the breath of wind through the leaves which tells the weathered old Midwestern cowpoke that it's coming on to blow like a sonofabitch. And in that vein, the first six slog-swept over midwicket off Mark Watt (though Midwest is where Kash might well have been aiming) was the instant when the weathered old cowpoke glances skyward and wonders why his tractor is scudding through the heavens like a hot-air balloon. There were four more deliveries bided with judicious dots and singles before the onslaught resumed with Luis Reece hoisted over cow corner for six and then pulled for a square, meaty four; 16-year-old debutant Harry Moore was the next to get the treatment as a steepling leg-side flick cleared the rope by a couple of feet, then a sadly predictable shorter ball got pulled for a flatter maximum over midwicket. Dropped off a full toss on 32 and facing Luis Reece's attempts to hide the ball outside off, Kash kept the field spread by fetching the ball to leg once or twice, then reached his half-century off 21 balls with three consecutive and utterly dismissive fours on the off-side; a flat-batted baseball heave, a lofted cover-drive, then an elegant late cut to put the icing on the cake. A couple of effortless sixes down the ground off Watt, a leg-glance for four and a yorker creamed through mid-wicket off Lakmal, a further straight drive for six and pull for four off Moore, and Kash was a couple of big blows away from bulldozing Moeen Ali's record List A ton for Worcestershire off 46 balls in 2007; alas, reaching for the ball outside off, he was caught on the boundary for a 36-ball 88. One brought two as Libby departed in the next over, caught and bowled by Moore for 73, but a 10-ball 22 from Ben Cox pushed Worcs over the psychological finishing line to 254-6.

Derby innings: All credit to them, the openers set about the chase with bloody-minded purpose, and were nearly a third of the way to the target without loss before Harry Came holed out on 34 to Pat Brown. New man Tom Wood also perished to a catch in the deep for just 8 off Dillon Pennington, but 118-2 at the halfway mark was a better position than Worcestershire had been in, and the match was on a knife-edge. By the nineteenth over it was 145-2, but then a crucial two in two from Matthew Waite - Wayne Madsen caught at point for 10 and Haider Ali LBW for a golden duck - swung the pendulum tantalisingly towards the Pears. And it continued to swing as a single over saw Josh Baker drop a top-spinner short to beat the sweep of Brooke Guest and uproot leg stump for 12, before Alex Thomson played all round a fuller ball on leg stump that bowled him for 1. With the required run-rate up to 12, Luis Reece carried on hitting for dear life as he had since the innings began, but on 96 he became the first victim of another double-wicket over as he perished on the pull to deep square leg off Browny, who then had Moore caught for 2 at short midwicket and Watt pouched in the deep. It was all done bar the shouting, and that shouting was duly delivered by Baker when he bowled Conners for a duck. Derbyshire 192 all out, Worcestershire with one foot in the quarter-final.

Worcestershire WIN by sixty-two runs

The Verdict: Another stern test passed with flying colours, and it's fantastic to see Kashif Ali continue his evolution into the new Moeen even if every soaring six hastens the day when he scoots off to some more glamorous shore. Northants are now the only side who could deny Worcs a place in the knockouts, and our fate will be in our own hands on Sunday as a single point against Sussex would be enough to see us safe.