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One-Day Cup, North Group

vs Yorkshire

New Road, Worcester

Worcs innings: The Pears won the toss and elected to bat on a sunny May bank holiday Saturday morning. The curse of our iffy batting struck yet again, with Worcestershire reduced to 62-4 within fifteen overs - largely by the bowling of Steven Patterson - to leave the whole innings teetering on the brink. However, at that point George Rhodes and Ben Cox dug in with no immediate aim but survival, and over the course of almost thirty overs built what would become the county's biggest ever partnership for any wicket in List A cricket against Yorkshire, their 169 trumping the stand of 166 between Alan Ormrod and Younis Khan in 1980. When Coxy eventually went for 87, leaving the Pears 231-5 with seven overs to go, there was still time to accelerate; however, despite Rhodes completing his maiden century in any format - a real landmark for the forgotten man at New Road, ostensibly out of favour in the eighteen months since his father was sacked as head coach - boundaries were hard to come by at the death. Ross Whiteley managed just two fours and a six before being bowled for 16 by Mathew Pillans, while Wayne Parnell added only a further 9. With Rhodes bowled for 106 off the last ball of the innings, Worcestershire finished on 293-7, a score slightly above the usual par at New Road, but crucially short of the satisfying 300 milestone.

Yorks innings: The White Rose made a steady start to their reply, and it looked like it might be an easy afternoon for them until the in-form Wayne Parnell was brought into the attack. Over the course of twenty deliveries the South African had Adam Lyth caught behind for 22, Harry Brook pinned LBW for a duck and Tom Kohler-Cadmore clean bowled for 31, reducing the visitors from 46-0 to 67-3; and from there, they simply never recovered. As in the Worcs innings, one good partnership might have saved them, but Ed Barnard wreaked havoc from the Diglis End, tearing through the middle order with a grubber that bowled Jack Leaning for 24, a widish ball that Jonathan Tattersall edged behind for 13 and a wicked yorker that cleaned up Tim Bresnan for 1. At 100-6 nearly halfway through the innings it was already looking a tall order for Yorkshire, but Dolly removed all doubt by dismissing the dangerous Gary Ballance LBW for 9, then springing forward in his next over to take a tricky caught-and-bowled chance off visiting skipper Steven Patterson. At 118-8 it was all over, but there was time for the White Rose tail to have some fun in the sun with a few boundaries before Parnell returned to end it all in consecutive deliveries: Mathew Pillans being caught at backward point for 31, and Josh Poysden edging behind for a golden duck the following ball. Yorkshire 143 all out, a second five-fer in as many matches for the Kolpak, and the most crushing win of the competition so far for the Pears.

Worcestershire WIN by a hundred and fifty runs

The Verdict: Ongoing batting woes aside, this was an assured performance all round, as the Pears remain unbeaten against Yorkshire in this format since 2015. A memorable day for George Rhodes, who came within five runs of his first century in any format last summer against West Indies A, and finally crossed the line when it really mattered to join the exclusive list of Younis Ahmed, Glenn Turner, Graeme Hick and one Tom Kohler-Cadmore in making a one-day ton versus Yorkshire. Likewise, after blowing hot and cold in his early days at New Road, we're finally starting to see the best from Wayne Parnell, and his second Michelle in as many games gives him the best figures for any Worcs bowler against Yorks in List A, bettering previous five-fers from Robert Chapman in 1998, Gareth Andrew in 2009, Kabir Ali in 2002, Ian Botham in 1988 and Nantie Hayward in 2003. For the second time in a week the Pears have skittled a strong team inside thirty-three overs for less than 150, and with the Bears beating Lancashire at Edgbaston, it's now a certainty - barring a catastrophe at Derby which annihilates our net run-rate - that Worcestershire will make the knockout stage for the fourth year in a row.

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One-Day Cup, North Group

vs Derbyshire

The County Ground, Derby

Derby innings: Derbyshire won the toss and elected to bat on a cloudy Mayday. The first over brought a dream start as Pat Brown dismissed Billy Godleman, leading run-scorer in the entire competition, with just the fifth delivery after Callum Ferguson had juggled the edged ball at least four times at first slip. However, on a flat track there was no further joy for above thirty overs as the bowlers toiled against a mammoth partnership between Luis Reece and Wayne Madsen that took the home side to 223-1. With a 400+ score looking likely, it was Ross Whiteley who enticed Madsen to edge behind for 113, making the crucial breakthrough, and from there the wickets fell regularly as the Derbyshire innings lost some momentum. The prize scalp of Reece went to Wayne Parnell after the opener chipped an easy catch to mid-on, and only Alex Hughes made a significant contribution at the death as the home side stumbled to 351-9: a formidable score, but short of what they might have achieved.

Worcs innings: There was little in the pitch to trouble the Pears openers, who helped themselves to 152 for the first wicket; Tom Fell the man to go, bowled through the gate by Alex Hughes. However, all the fireworks came from Riki Wessels, who - after a slightly uneven start to life at New Road - brought up his maiden century in Worcestershire colours with a devastating display of power-hitting. Cheerfully marmalising one bowler after another, his 130 was made with no less then eleven sixes and ten fours, and it was only one inevitable misjudgement that saw him caught at widish long-on from the bowling of Matt Critchley. At 186-2 after twenty-two overs, the Pears had effectively broken the back of the chase, but Critchley led the way in putting the brakes on the scoring, chipping away with a few wickets at crucial times, and it was down to Callum Ferguson to steady the ship. The South Australian played in stark contrast to the explosive Wessels, building his innings patiently without a single boundary for thirty-four balls, grabbing the ones and twos and earning the right to accelerate at the back end. His third century in just eight List A games for Worcs came when he pulled Wayne Madsen for four with a couple of overs remaining, and there was enough support at the other end to ensure the Pears crossed the line with minimal fuss.

Worcestershire WIN by four wickets

The Verdict: The highest-scoring one-day game ever played at Derby, with over 700 runs, and it's just a shame that a miraculous Notts win at Wantage Road denied Worcestershire top spot this year. However, it's the fourth season in a row that the Pears have made the knockout stage of the One-Day Cup, and with the competition set to be stripped of senior status from next year, every game now could well be the last. Tactics in the field betrayed, not for the first time, a lack of ideas in how to break a flourishing partnership, but it was an improved batting performance with centurions Wessels and Ferguson joining Glenn Turner (1972), Tom Moody (1991 and 1997), Graeme Hick (1995), Vikram Solanki (1998) and Phil Weston (2001) in making one-day tons versus Derbyshire. Hopefully this momentum will see us well into Friday's home quarter-final.

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A repeat of the 2016 quarter-final on Friday, albeit with the venue reversed, as Somerset visit New Road in a straight fifty-over knockout. At least, fifty overs are scheduled; the weather for the last couple of days and the forecast for tomorrow suggests that play may be considerably reduced, if we see any at all.

The visitors have earned a reputation as a strong List A side in recent years, and weight of runs is a huge factor. No less than six players notched up 200+ runs in the group stage, with James Hildreth clocking 349, Azhar Ali 305, Peter Trego 250, Lewis Gregory 242, Tom Banton 214, Tom Abell 201, and Craig Overton not far away on 168. With the ball, Overton took 17 wickets at a mere 15.82 - the fifth-best average in the competition, and the best among those who bowled in every game - while Josh Davey contributed 10, and Tim Groenewald and Roelof van der Merwe provided 7 apiece. This is a strong and well-balanced team who know their business.

That said, Worcestershire delivered arguably their most assured performance of the tournament at Derby on Monday, and have both momentum and home advantage. With Hamish Rutherford gone, Riki Wessels leads the batting chart on 297, while Ross Whiteley follows on 257, Ben Cox on 213, Tom Fell on 198 and Callum Ferguson's recent century pushes him up to 130 from three games. Wayne Parnell finished the group stage as our most effective bowler with 19 wickets at 19.21, supported by Charlie Morris with 10, and the remainder shared quite equally around. On our day we can beat anyone; sadly, as the last few years have proved, we're not always capable of *making* it our day when the occasion demands it. Here's hoping last year's T20 success has changed the mentality.

It's nearly fifty-six years since Worcestershire played their first ever Gillette Cup match: a victory at home to Surrey on 22nd May 1963. With the competition set to be downgraded to a developmental tournament from next summer, every match now could be our last senior outing in a grand and venerable old event. There's nothing left to do but make it count.

Probable Worcestershire XI: Wessels, Fell, Mitchell, Ferguson, D'Oliveira, Cox, Whiteley, Barnard, Parnell, Brown, Morris

[themaclad]

Remember them bowling Lancs out for 59 in the semi memory serves me right Jack Flavell got 6 wickets

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One-Day Cup, Quarter-Final

vs Somerset

New Road, Worcester

Somerset innings: The Pears won the toss and put Somerset in to bat on a brighter day than forecast at New Road. A tight powerplay kept the visitors beneath four an over, but there was already a sense that this might not be Worcestershire's day when Tom Banton was dropped twice at slip by Callum Ferguson, first on 4 and then on 18. The opener went on to make a century in his best List A innings to date, and though the Pears struck back with regular wickets towards the end of the innings, it wasn't enough to keep Somerset from reaching 337-8 off the fifty.

Worcs innings: And with scoreboard pressure on, the Pears buckled as they've done too many times in the tournament before. There were a couple of unlucky decisions, not least Ferguson being given his marching orders off a marginal run-out that the umpire took a suspiciously long time to make up his mind about, but ultimately Worcs were simply second-best, and only Ross Whiteley managed to salvage any pride in chipping away at a hefty margin of defeat.

Worcestershire LOSE by a hundred and forty-seven runs

The Verdict: A real damp squib of an end to senior List A cricket for Worcestershire, and a disappointment all round. Sadly, all through the group stage the weaknesses that cost us in this match were apparent, and it just took a quality side to expose them fully.

With Lord's off the table, it's back to the Championship with the first red-ball home game of the year against Durham on Tuesday.

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County Championship, Division Two

vs Durham

Day One

Morning: Durham won the toss and elected to bat on a warm, sunny May morning with summer in the air. It may have been a mistake, with the new ball wreaking havoc as Charlie Morris got Alex Lees to chop onto his stumps for a duck before the newly-returned Joe Leach had Cameron Steel caught at first slip for 5 and pinned Gareth Harte LBW for 1, leaving the visitors 15-3 within half an hour. However, skipper Cameron Bancroft and Jack Burnham succeeded in steadying the ship and taking Durham into lunch on 77-3.

Afternoon: With two set batsmen at the crease, Durham put their foot on their pedal after the interval, and it took over an hour of the afternoon before Cameron Bancroft tried to work a full delivery from Josh Tongue onto the legside and was adjudged LBW for 70. With the door open, Jack Burnham then nicked Morris behind for 76 in the very next over, and Leach added to his already impressive return by clean bowling Liam Trevaskis for 5, giving the Pears another foothold in the game and sending the visitors in for tea on 194-6.

Evening: Ben Raine and Ned Eckersley frustrated Worcestershire by seeing out the old ball, and it was gone quarter past five when Morris got back to work with the new ball, removing Raine caught at second slip for 42, Eckersley caught behind for 22 in his next over, Matt Salisbury caught at second slip for 8 and Matthew Potts gone the same way - all good catching practice for Daryl Mitchell - to complete a six-wicket haul on top of his career best seven-fer at Leicester last month. With Durham all out for 273, the Pears only needed to see out two overs after six o'clock, but Mitch couldn't follow up his sterling efforts at slip with the bat, and departing LBW for a duck to Chris Rushworth left Worcestershire 1-1 at the close of play.

It all feels very tight now, with the pitch obviously offering some movement in spite of perfect batting weather. Vital for the Pears to get through a tough first hour tomorrow and then try to cash in.

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Day Two

Morning: Another wonderfully warm day, and it wasn't even four overs old when Worcestershire's innings went from bad to worse with Tom Fell dismissed LBW by Matt Salisbury for 6, trying to work the ball on the legside. Nightwatchman Charlie Morris was an inevitable casualty fifteen minutes later, nicking behind for 3 and leaving the Pears 17-3; a position not too dissimilar to the one Durham found themselves in at the same time yesterday. From there, George Rhodes and debutant Josh Dell donned their tin hats and dug right in, scoring at 1.4 an over to see out the session and grind Worcs to 57-3 at lunch.

Afternoon: The war of attrition came to an abrupt end shortly after the interval when Rhodes departed LBW to Ben Raine for 28, and with Worcestershire 64-4, Riki Wessels came to the crease with no intention of messing about. After taking fourteen deliveries to get off the mark, the new man at New Road accelerated nicely, almost doubling the score in the space of ten overs, picking up four boundaries in six balls and then smashing Liam Trevaskis down the ground for two sixes in one over. He brought up his half-century with little fuss, but the moment was much sweeter for Josh Dell, who completed his own maiden fifty on Championship debut by steering Chris Rushworth down to third man for four. With 138 runs since lunch for the loss of just one wicket, it was unquestionably Worcestershire's session when the sides broke for tea at 195-4.

Evening: Durham did fight back, breaking the partnership in the evening sunlight when a full delivery from Gareth Harte beat Dell's straight drive, bowling him for 61. There was time for Wessels to complete his maiden century in Worcestershire colours before he too departed, caught at midwicket for 118 off the bowling of Matthew Potts. But if the door had swung open for the visitors, Ben Cox and Ross Whiteley took care to slam it shut again, with the latter bringing up a half-century with a few lusty blows before stumps. Closing on 321-6 with a lead of 48, it was Worcestershire's day despite a difficult start, and the Pears will have twelve overs in the morning to reach 350 for a fourth batting point. From there, presuming there are still wickets in hand, it would be disappointing not to see a three-figure lead, and perhaps a 400+ score to pile the pressure on Durham.

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Day Three

Morning: Another sunny morning, and despite losing Ross Whiteley for 72 in the third over of the day, bowled by Chris Rushworth, the Pears secured a fourth batting point with four deliveries to spare when Ed Barnard edged Ben Raine to the boundary. There was another wobble immediately after, with the home side slumping from 354-7 to 354-9 as Ben Cox clipped a Matt Salisbury delivery to midwicket for 38 and Joe Leach was bowled for a duck attempting to pull in the same over, but a handy last-wicket partnership carried Worcestershire up to 390 all out, with a useful first-innings lead of 117. There was time for three further overs in the session, and Durham reached the break on 14-0.

Afternoon: Talk of Durham's batting frailties prior to this game was no exaggeration, as the visitors simply fell apart after lunch. Three balls into the session Charlie Morris got the party started, dismissing Alex Lees LBW for 2, and Joe Leach followed up three overs later, bowling Cameron Steel for 17 with a ball that nipped back. After an hour of consolidation, the prize scalp of Cameron Bancroft fell to Josh Tongue when he chopped onto his stumps for 25, but that moment was surpassed shortly afterward when a legside delivery from Ed Barnard was taken by Cox standing up to the stumps, who whipped the bails off in a flash despite momentum carrying him the other way, and thus removed Gareth Harte for 25. There was still time for Tongue to bowl Ned Eckersley for 12 with a ball that kept low, sending the visitors in to tea on 110-5, still in arrears and fast running out of wickets.

Evening: Jack Burnham, the top scorer in Durham's first innings, was the first of the evening's casualties when he pushed forward to Tongue and edged behind for 26, with the visitors leading by just 12. However, to their credit, Liam Trevaskis and Ben Raine put together the most stubborn and productive partnership of the innings in the hour that followed, and they all but guaranteed that the game would go to a fourth day before Raine was caught at midwicket for 23 off Leach. With a three-figure lead already looking unlikely, Liam Trevaskis departed LBW for 47 to Tongue, who promptly yorked Matt Salisbury for a duck with the very next ball to complete a five-fer - his best figures to date against an English county - and though he couldn't turn it into a hat-trick, Leach had Chris Rushworth caught behind for 2 the next over to bring the innings and the day to a close. Durham all out for 197, and Worcestershire will require 81 to win on Friday: even with the Pears propensity for arsing things up, it would take a catastrophic collapse to blow this one, and as long as the weather behaves, it should be a simple task.

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Day Four

Morning: On a considerably more inclement day than those preceding, there was tension in the air as the Pears set about chasing a total so low that the visitors really had nothing to lose by going into all-out attack. Sure enough, within five overs Daryl Mitchell was LBW offering no stroke to Chris Rushworth, who then bowled George Rhodes for a duck as he attempted a drive three balls later, leaving Worcestershire 26-2. A few overs later, the Durham paceman bowled Josh Dell for 4, removed Riki Wessels for a duck - again within three balls - and then completed a remarkable five-fer by dismissing Tom Fell LBW for a patient 36. By that point the Pears had staggered to 55-5, and though a couple more wickets might well have put the cat among the pigeons, they never came. Ross Whiteley and Ben Cox were the calm heads in a crisis, taking Worcs over the line to a second successive Championship win, and the top of the Division Two table.

Worcestershire WIN by five wickets

The Verdict: In bowler-friendly conditions on a fourth-day pitch, facing a new ball in the typical first-hour New Road minefield, the top-order collapse can probably be forgiven. What matters is the 47 points accrued from a possible 48, matching in just two games the grand total of two red-ball wins in 2018. With Joe Leach back and Charlie Morris joint leading wicket-taker for the division, while Josh Tongue put in another assured performance before a watching Ashley Giles, we have the makings of a formidable attack at our disposal. And we'll be needing them, with the next four matches all against potential promotion rivals, beginning on Monday with a trip to Old Trafford, in a phase of the season that may go a long way to determining our ultimate fate.

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First plays second at Old Trafford on Monday, with either Worcestershire or Lancashire set to end their winning streak, and the other side gaining a vital early boost in the promotion race.

The corresponding fixture last season at Southport was a hard one to swallow, as the Pears looked firm favourites to win right until the last day, when an unbreakable partnership slowly wrested the game away. No shortage of runs for Lancs, with Rob Jones leading on 190 so far, Dane Vilas on 165, Keaton Jennings on 161 and Haseeb Hameed on 150. With the ball, Richard Gleeson leads the way with 10 wickets, Tom Bailey has 8, Jimmy Anderson, Glenn Maxwell and Graham Onions all have 6, while Josh Bohannon and Liam Livingstone have picked up a couple apiece.

For Worcestershire, Riki Wessels has weighed in with 161 runs, ahead of Ben Cox with 153, Ross Whiteley with 129 and Daryl Mitchell with a comparatively sedate 123. Charlie Morris has stormed to the top of the wicket-taking chart with 15 at a remarkable 12.67 average, but Josh Tongue is hot on his heels with 12 at 14.92, and the returning Joe Leach wasted no time picking up 6. If Callum Ferguson is available again then I'd expect him to make his Championship debut; Tongue misses out with a niggle, and will probably give way to Wayne Parnell, but otherwise we should be looking at an unchanged side.

Probable Worcestershire XI: Mitchell, Fell, Ferguson, Dell, Wessels, Cox, Whiteley, Barnard, Leach, Parnell, Morris