[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

T20 Blast, North Group

vs Lancashire

New Road, Worcester

Lancs innings: The Pears won the toss and put Lancashire in to bat on a somewhat cloudy Friday teatime in Whit Week. After a catastrophic start to the campaign up at Headingley, a strong showing on home soil was what the doctor ordered and Nathan Smith set about delivering with a double-wicket maiden first up. Tom Taylor struck with his maiden Worcs wicket to leave the Red Rose 13-3 halfway through the powerplay, and Brett D'Oliveira opened his white-ball account for the summer to reduce the visitors to 70-4 by the midway mark. But there was only one more casualty in the innings, Taylor claiming his second victim as Lancashire recovered to post 169-5.

Worcs innings: Having collapsed so pathetically the previous night, it was a more judicious powerplay that saw the Pears put on a half-century before Matthew Waite was bowled for 29 off the last ball of the powerplay. The visitors then applied the brakes somewhat, and dismissed Josh Cobb for 13 in the middle overs, but Adam Hose kept the scoreboard ticking with an explosive 23 off 9 balls. Dolly seized the momentum from there, making a vital 61 under a sky of deepening blue before he was caught in the deep, and though some tight Lancashire bowling took things deep, a horrendous misfield off the final delivery of the penultimate over granted Worcs the boundary that reduced the equation to a run a ball, and to a chorus of heartening cheers, Taylor supplied the straight six that notched up the county's first victory of the 2024 Blast.

Worcestershire WIN by five wickets

The Verdict: After the spring washouts, the name of the game in this year's Blast was always going to be delivering home wins in front of the packed houses Worcestershire need just to stay financially afloat (and, in the process, honouring the memory of Josh Baker; something Pat Brown touchingly did the following evening after taking his first wicket for Derbyshire). Mission accomplished on that front, though it's a fortnight's wait now until our next block of home fixtures; in the meantime, the conversation about New Road's future rolls on and on, raising the poignant thought that these happy midsummer nights should be made the most of while they last.