[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

T20 Blast, North Group

vs Birmingham

New Road, Worcester

Worcs innings: The Pears won the toss and elected to bat on a cloudy Friday night at Edgbaston. With no win against the Bears in any competition in over two years - since the Queen's Jubilee in early June 2022, in fact - there was an air of death-and-taxes inevitability about the second-ball duck of Ed Pollock, whose feast-or-famine Worcestershire career continues its distinctly Ethiopian tilt. But the second-wicket partnership went at ten an over through the powerplay until Josh Cobb holed out for 24, and with some magnificent leg-side hitting, Kashif Ali looked nailed-on for a half-century till he bottom-edged namesake Moeen into the keeper's gloves for 46. 94-3 at the halfway mark, the Pears instantly ran face-first into a brick wall with the loss of Adam Hose caught behind for 8, followed three balls later by Gareth Roderick top-edging for 1. But with Ethan Brookes studiously anchoring the innings and supplying some fine reverse sweeps into the bargain, Nathan Smith came in and gaily peppered the boundary until he departed for 33 off 16; the highest strike-rate of the Worcs innings up to that point. But the best was yet to come, as Matthew Waite came out to face eight balls of the weather-curtailed innings; the first two singles offered no inkling of the final-over fireworks to come as Worcestershire sat on a sub-par 153-6 and the Bears entrusted the ball to George Garton, only for raw Pingu Power to smoke him over the short leg-side boundary for 6-4-6-6-6-6, pushing the Pears up to a magnificent 187-6.

Birm innings: Right from the off, Tom Taylor had the new ball swinging round corners, and it was a wicked inswinger aimed at the blue wide-line that pitched two feet outside off and then swerved to clatter off-stump which removed Alex Davies for a golden duck, before Cobb drew a leading edge from Yates in the next over to take the return catch for a silver duck. It got worse still for the hosts in the third over when Pingu bowled Sam Hain for 14, but there was always going to be a fightback, and a partnership subsequently developed between the enterprising Dan Mousley and Moeen Ali, facing his former club for the first time since rejoining the Bears. Whether the occasion got to him or it was just an old-fashioned Mo off-day, the latter managed only a run-a-ball 16 before Pingu rearranged his stumps with a scorching yorker that had Mo swiping across the line in vain. But with Chris Benjamin coming out swinging, the nauseating in-house commentary team on the live stream found plenty to chirp about, and Mousley - who apparently "lives for these derby days" - wasted no opportunity to showboat and play to the crowd. Even when Benjamin holed out for 21 off Brookes, the hosts were keeping pace with the Pears innings on 100-5, which became 126-5 three overs later as the commentators urged "just one big over." And that was what they got, though not the way they'd have wished; Taylor was the hero who first had Jacob Bethell caught for 7, then mopped up Zak Foulkes for 1, and finally showcased his footy skills to great effect in running out the annoying Mousley, who subsequently looked to be blubbering his way off the field. It was all done bar the shouting, but the fat lady always appreciates seeing some icing on her cake before she opens her lungs, and it was absolutely fitting that Pingu should bowl George Garton and then remove Jake Lintott LBW for a golden duck with the next ball to skittle Birmingham for 132 and bring the Norman Gifford Trophy back to New Road in style.

Worcestershire WIN by fifty-five runs

The Verdict: With nothing else to play for but pride and a desire to dodge last place, derby day was always going to be an important one this time around, and as frustrating as this hit-and-miss Pears side can be, they came up trumps when it mattered. We can probably draw a line under the T20 for this summer now, but more of this in other formats would be hugely appreciated.