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T20 Blast, North Group

vs Leicestershire

Grace Road, Leicester

Leics innings: The Pears won the toss and put Leicestershire in to bat on a grey, humid Sunday with rain sweeping across the country. Four consecutive wins followed by four consecutive defeats made this a crunch match for Worcs, and there could be no better start than Dillon Pennington drawing a leading edge from Nick Welch with the fourth ball, seeing the opener caught for 2 as he tried a leg-side slog. Leicestershire negotiated the remainder of the powerplay unscathed thanks to a half-century partnership from Peter Handscomb and Rishi Patel, but the introduction of the Worcs spinners proved too much for the pair. An arm-ball from Brett D'Oliveira seemed to bamboozle Handscomb, who perhaps expected a wrong 'un as he stepped back and played inside the line of the ball, which promptly thudded into his stumps for 36. This prompted a general and chaotic collapse: in the following over, Usama Mir had Colin Ackermann caught behind for 4, and two balls later Rishi Patel was LBW for 27 to make it 72-4. That became 77-5 as Louis Kimber continued the suicidal team policy of agricultural swipes at slow balls on the stumps and was bowled by Mitchell Santner; when Dolly had Rehan Ahmed caught in the deep it was 88-6, and Mir picked up a third and a fourth in two deliveries with Tom Scriven holing out and Michael Finan bowled by a peach of a googly, providing the leggy with career-best T20 figures of 4-22, beating his previous 4-24 for Sialkot Stallions in 2014. It might have been a minor moral victory for the hosts in the circumstances had they batted out the overs, but England's newest Test debutant Josh Tongue got off the mark with Wiaan Mulder caught at fine leg off a scoop, and Pat Brown had Callum Parkinson caught at extra cover to skittle Leics for 112 off 18.2 overs.

Worcs innings: Worcestershire chased circumspectly if not cautiously, punishing the bad balls while taking relatively few risks at the crease as Leicestershire tried to put spin to the fore themselves. New opener Jack Haynes was caught for a run a ball 16, while Mitchell Santner went for 18 in the ninth, Adam Hose chopped on from Rehan Ahmed for 5 in the next over, and Kashif Ali holed out to short third man for 10 five overs later. But Dolly was ever-present through the chase, and as the heavens began to open after sixteen overs, with 10 runs still required, the skipper smashed Finan for a maximum over long-on then a lofted four over extra cover to complete his half-century and a breezy victory in one fell swoop.

Worcestershire WIN by six wickets

The Verdict: The Foxes seem determined to claim Worcestershire's mantle as this summer's hapless wooden spooners in this format - alas, as we know all too well, a red ball revival for counties of our size usually comes at the white ball's expense, and vice versa - but you can only beat what's put in front of you, and the Pears did that handily. A huge five days now awaits us against the top three, with Lancashire on Tuesday, Notts on Thursday and a trip to Edgbaston on Friday. Two wins out of three is the tough but probably necessary ask.

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T20 Blast, North Group

vs Lancashire

New Road, Worcester

Lancs innings: Lancashire won the toss and elected to bat on a half-bright, half-cloudy solstice eve in Worcester. As the Edgbaston Test reached its tortured conclusion, players and fans alike could have been forgiven for having their minds elsewhere, and that's perhaps what led Phil Salt, after hitting a second-ball maximum, to sky a leading edge to cover for 6 and gift his wicket to Dillon Pennington. A similarly cavalier attempt at a reverse sweep to a straight ball caused Luke Wells to perish LBW to Mitchell Santner to leave the Red Rose 7-2, and it became not just the magical three wickets but four in the powerplay when Pat Brown had Dane Vilas caught at midwicket and Daryl Mitchell (no, the other one) caught behind off a spicy short-pitched delivery next ball. 42-4 was the powerplay total, and if Jos Buttler looked a little shellshocked at the carnage, it didn't prevent the England man leading the subsequent recovery. Obliged, alongside Rob Jones, to play a more circumspect innings than usual - his half-century came off a comparatively sedate 40 balls - Buttler nevertheless stuck to the crease with his partner for over ten overs, supplying a fifth-wicket stand of 98 before Jones reverse-swept Santner to cover for 42. Buttler was the next to go for 74 in the penultimate over, holing out off Josh Tongue, and the bizarrely late arrival of Liam Livingstone at the crease (with just ten balls remaining) yielded two back-to-back sixes, a no ball, and then his wicket at the fourth attempt for Tongue, caught at deep cover. The final over went for a few runs, despite Brown seeing off Luke Wood, but 164-8 was the sub-par total for the visitors after twenty.

Worcs innings: A rare early demise for Brett D'Oliveira, caught for 10 in the powerplay, but the kind of collapse that restricted Lancashire's innings just didn't come. Instead there were runs aplenty for Santner, who was unlucky to feather behind on a 27-ball 49, and still more for young Jack Haynes as he judiciously clobbered his way beyond a 38-ball half-century to 63 before perishing at deep backward square to Jack Blatherwick. But with wickets in hand and the back of the chase well broken - 150 was up within sixteen overs - the last 15 runs were no great obstacle to Adam Hose and Kashif Ali, who delivered a straightforward victory in a crucial encounter.

Worcestershire WIN by seven wickets

The Verdict: A turnaround of form, or simply the fickle winds of fortune blowing a different way? The frustration of T20 as a format is that margins are so fine, and the same tactics that work one day can fall apart the next, though they're executed no less diligently. All in all, I'm not convinced that Worcestershire's great Achilles heel - our death bowling - has changed that much from the run of four defeats, but we're back to our best in the powerplay and (crucially) the middle overs of spin; the shield with which we protect Pat Brown at the business end. No one in their right mind would have wished a season-ending injury on Michael Bracewell, and I wish him all the best in his recovery, but the return of Usama Mir is what we were crying out for a week or two ago, and however unhappy the circumstances of that second coming, it looks to be making all the difference to our attack again. The race is too close to call, but victory over Notts on Thursday would surely be one foot in the quarter-finals.

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T20 Blast, North Group

vs Nottinghamshire

New Road, Worcester

Notts innings: The Pears won the toss and put the Outlaws in to bat on a muggy midsummer Thursday by the Severn. For the second game in a row Worcestershire had prepared a slow, sticky surface, but it was Dillon Pennington who once again struck first, banging the second ball of the game in short of a length on an off-stump line, tempting Alex Hales to shape for a square drive on the back foot, only to edge the sharply climbing ball behind for a golden duck instead. Spin then came to the fore in the next over as Mitchell Santner angled one in to the pads of Lyndon James, who tried to clip it to leg, but found it straightened and cannoned into his off-stump. 8-2 off the first eight deliveries, it required some careful re-upholstery from the visitors to reach 40-2 off the powerplay, with reverse sweeps very much the order of the day. But with the half-century partnership up, Joe Clarke was struggling to break the chains, and the pressure told as he slogged Brett D'Oliveira to deep midwicket for 19, before the skipper had Matt Montgomery caught for a run-a-ball 39. With two fresh batsmen at the crease, Worcestershire were more or less happy to let Haseeb Hameed dob singles here and there until he too felt the weight of the crawling scoreboard and hoisted Santner to long-on, while the promoted Shaheen Afridi also perished quickly and cheaply in the deep. Pat Brown claimed his 100th T20 wicket when Steven Mullaney toe-ended him to cover, and the very next delivery supplied his twenty-first scalp of the campaign as Calvin Harrison (evidently struck by the fanciful delusion he was Joe Root) moved across his stumps to ramp the ball, only to miss by a mile and find his middle peg uprooted. Eight wickets down, a cutthroat Worcestershire could easily have restricted the Notts total further, but some very poor fielding compounded our already-average death bowling; the 15 conceded by Brown in the final over included two astonishingly dire drops, prompting the (understandably) irate bowler to kick at the turf and ostensibly earn himself a word or two from the umpire. But the late hitting only lifted Notts up to 139-8, and it would have been a heroic effort indeed which defended that total even on a bowler-friendly wicket.

Worcs innings: Needing just seven an over, the Pears rightly took few early risks and chose their moments carefully. Targeting Lyndon James in the second over, Dolly memorably ramped a front-foot no-ball for 4, smashed the free hit over long-off for 6, then guided the next two deliveries with identical strokes through third man for four as part of a 22-run bonanza; but the fun was checked with the wicket of Jack Haynes for 2 in the third, caught at mid-on off Jake Ball with the score 27-1. Santner supplied 13 before chipping a return catch to Matt Carter, and though boundaries were still available off the spinners from the occasional bad ball, a distinct silly season of unnecessary shots set in during the middle overs as Dolly departed for 36, followed by Ben Cox and Kashif Ali in short order, leaving the Pears 80-5 with 60 still required from 51 balls. Thankfully, the heads on Adam Hose and Ed Pollock were far calmer, and the latter in particular excelled with a show of controlled aggression after an enormously difficult season so far, finding little profit in his usual pull shots, but driving superbly and pumping a couple of valuable boundaries down the ground. Hose was the man to finish the job, and Worcestershire took another big step towards the knockout stage.

Worcestershire WIN by five wickets

The Verdict: Another assured performance which raises hopes still further that the mid-campaign slump is behind us, and we may not embarrass ourselves tomorrow night on the annual trip to Edgbaston. There are still weaknesses, of course; the fielding tonight was particularly forgettable, and though Pat Brown had a right to feel aggrieved at the two final-over drops, it wasn't those drops that got hit for four and six. The batting also went unnecessarily gung-ho for a while until Hose and Pollock brought some calm to the crease, but ultimately, Worcs have now leapfrogged Notts into second place, and could potentially even do the same to the Bears in twenty-four hours. With some of our close competitors still to play each other, we're not quite over the line, but just one more win could potentially be enough.

[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

County Championship, Division Two

vs Derbyshire

New Road, Worcester

Day One

Morning: The Pears won the toss and elected to bat on a warm, sunny midsummer Sunday in Worcester. There could be few complaints about the choice early on, as the openers put on an unbeaten half-century partnership and scored at a fair lick until Ben Aitchison got the Kookaburra ball - being trialled as an experiment in June and July - to nip back and bowl Gareth Roderick through the gate for 40 in the nineteenth over. With three figures up and only one wicket down, it was inarguably Worcestershire's session until the fourth delivery of the last over before lunch, when Azhar Ali attempted a drive to Anuj Dal and was caught at first slip for 14, evening up the scales a little as the interval came on 105-2.

Afternoon: 19-year-old academy prospect Rehaan Edavalath, handed his first-class debut during a sudden blight of squad injuries and sickness after scoring 131 for the seconds last week and 168 for Barnard's Green a day earlier, had a real Championship baptism of fire when the third ball he faced struck his pad and saw him off LBW for a duck. A half-century for Jake Libby and a fifty partnership with Adam Hose kept the ball rolling well into the afternoon, but when the latter was caught at first slip for 28 it was the start of a major subsidence. Libby was caught behind for 78 off Dal, and Ed Pollock attempted to leave the final ball of the session from the same bowler only to be bowled for 13.

Evening: Resuming on 189-6, Matthew Waite tried to counter-attack, but after a few early boundaries a seaming delivery from Conor McKerr bowled him for 19. Joe Leach then chipped the same bowler to midwicket for 3, Josh Baker - making his first appearance for nearly a year - was bowled by Luis Reece for 12, and the innings ended when Dal bowled Dillon Pennington for 18, dismissing Worcestershire for a distinctly disappointing 237 even on a pitch offering obvious assistance to the bowlers. But there was at least time to make conditions work in our favour, as overseas debutant Navdeep Saini got off to a dream Championship start by sending down his first ball on a perfect line and length to clonk the top of Harry Came's off-stump when the opener attempted the most ill-advised leave of the summer so far. It would still have been Derbyshire's day, but for the most curious of conclusions which saw the third session in a row ended with a final-over wicket; this time, the last scheduled delivery of the day from Pennington taking the edge of Reece's bat and flying low to first slip. 32-2 at close, it's even stevens in this one, but given our notorious inability to polish off a tail, early and cheap wickets are a must in the morning.

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Day Two

Morning: A bright start to Monday morning in more ways than one as Joe Leach had Brooke Guest caught behind off the fourth delivery of the day, but it was the only wicket to fall in a session that saw the visitors accrue 132 runs off some very lax bowling, reaching 164-3 by lunch and trailing by just 73.

Afternoon: And so it continued. Though Navdeep Saini should have had Leus Du Plooy caught at slip on 69 but saw the chance go down, and Leach then had Wayne Madsen shelled in the cordon on 94, the afternoon brought 121 runs and still no breakthrough, leaving Derbyshire 285-3 at tea with a lead of 48.

Evening: The second new ball achieved what had eluded the bowlers since 11.01, allowing Joe Leach to dismiss Wayne Madsen LBW for 143 after a stand of 267 with Du Plooy; Dillon Pennington then had Haider Ali caught behind for 9 to raise hopes of a collapse, but it wasn't to be. The visitors closed on 374-5, leading by 137 and cruising towards an imposing declaration.

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Day Three

Morning: A delayed start on Tuesday thanks to early rain, but upon the resumption, another drop at slip off the bowling of Joe Leach signalled no change in form or fortune for the Pears. Adding 63 for no loss in the curtailed session, Derbyshire took lunch 437-5 and 200 up.

Afternoon: And on and on it went, until Derbyshire at last declared on 578-5, the first innings lead standing at 341. The plan from Worcestershire in response was all-out attack from Gareth Roderick and Jake Libby, but the rather obvious pitfalls of this plan announced themselves when the latter, having already been granted a reprieve with a drop at slip, skyed a pull for an easy catch on 17.

Evening: It went from bad to worse as Azhar Ali was dismissed LBW for 3 in the gathering gloom, but though bad light finally brought a premature conclusion to a miserable day, there was a bright moment for Rehaan Edavalath after the indignity of his first-innings duck, when he scored his maiden first-class runs with a four through third man off Alex Thomson. 70-2 at stumps, trailing by 271 and requiring a lengthy rearguard action to save the game.

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Day Four

Morning: A sunny Wednesday, and as the first delivery of the day was a full-toss, Gareth Roderick wasted no time in clipping it through midwicket for four, signalling his intentions from the word go; he brought up his half-century, and despite the loss of Rehaan Edavalath caught at first slip for 15 and Adam Hose bowled for 1, the stand-in opener remained at the crease until lunch with the score 132-4, and the largely irrelevant deficit 209.

Afternoon: A 155-ball century for Roderick was the reward for his patience and proactivity, but as the sky clouded over he departed for 123. Yet Ed Pollock, swapping places with him in the batting order, saw off an unlikely 138 deliveries by tea to see the Pears safely in on 196-5.

Evening: In a rain-affected final session with parity 134 long runs away, all Worcestershire had to do was occupy the crease, but after bringing up his fifty, Pollock went for a predictably unnecessary shot and was caught off a top edge for 56. Nevertheless, Matthew Waite and Joe Leach managed to stick together until one scheduled over remained, when Derbyshire shook hands on a distinctly Kookaburra-flavoured draw.

Match DRAWN

The Verdict: An average midsummer encounter that neither side was likely to win, with neither the pitch nor the ball offering much assistance. Concerning first-innings batting once more, and the bowling unit continues to show a rank inability to be consistent with line and length for sustained periods of time, but this time at least, we escaped punishment for it.

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T20 Blast, North Group

vs Durham

New Road, Worcester

Durham innings: The Pears won the toss and put Durham in to bat on a close and overcast Friday evening in the Midlands, and when Dillon Pennington had Alex Lees caught at mid-off for 2 with the fourth ball of the match, it seemed an inspired decision. But Durham recovered to 45-1 by the end of the powerplay, and though Mitchell Santner had Michael Jones caught at long-on for 39 during his typically economic spell, it otherwise rained boundaries through the middle overs. The visitors continued scoring above ten an over, though Usama Mir bowled Brydon Carse for a whirlwind 39 and Adam Finch had Graham Clark caught at long-on for 78, but a disastrously sixtastic no-ball extravaganza of a final over made the score uncomfortably resemble the pasting the Bears dished out at Edgbaston last Friday, Durham weighing in at 216-4 off the twenty.

Worcs innings: It looked like the same old script as Brett D'Oliveira was bowled for 7 in the second over of the chase, shortly followed by Jack Haynes for 24. But a quickfire 42 from Santner got Worcs back in contention, and though the Kiwi was caught at long-off soon after, a judiciously timed set of boundaries from Adam Hose lifted the Pears up to the par score of 112-3 around the halfway mark, which was when the failing light finally grew too much for the umpires and the points were duly shared.

Match TIED (D/L)

The Verdict: A peculiar old evening, but as a bird-in-the-hand kinda guy, I'll happily take the point over the possibility that Worcestershire might have managed 105 more off 54 balls with seven wickets remaining. It is, however, almost certainly now a straight shootout between Worcs and Derbyshire for a quarter-final place in Sunday's final group game.

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T20 Blast, North Group

vs Derbyshire

Racecourse Ground, Derby

Worcs innings: The Pears won the toss and elected to bat on a cloud-patched Sunday afternoon; a wise decision on the face of our recent ropey bowling efforts, and one that instantly paid dividends with Brett D'Oliveira the only early casualty, skying a catch for 23 as Worcestershire reached 70-1 off the powerplay. The middle overs were a little more circumspect, ticking over at a run a ball and losing Jack Haynes (bowled for 44 by Zaman Khan), but the fifteenth brought a deluge as Mitchell Santner teed off, sending the first ball from Matthew McKiernan sailing over deep midwicket with a golf swing, the second flat-batted over cover-point to reach his half-century, the third picked up off his pads and dispatched just forward of deep square, and the fourth slog-swept over cow corner before McKiernan let himself off the hook with a no-ball single off what should have been the fifth. Santner was eventually bowled for 64 by Zak Chappell, and a couple of further cheap middle-order wickets followed, but Adam Hose and Ed Pollock were in a hitting mood, and after plundering a couple of sixes from the penultimate over, Chappell's death bowling in the twentieth got the treatment from the pair; wd-6-6-1-nb1-6-2-2 was the magic sequence which lifted Worcs from 195 up to 222-5. And if we couldn't defend that, we'd never defend anything.

Derby innings: Derbyshire began the chase gamely, and neither Tom Wood holing out to Dillon Pennington for 7 nor Haider Ali top-edging Pat Brown to mid-off slowed them down. Staying in touching distance of ten an over with wickets in hand for a charge, and notoriously iffy Worcs death-bowling on the horizon, it felt vital when Usama Mir had Harry Came stumped for 43 at halfway (after a superb over of just four runs from Santner had turned the screw on the batsmen), and with the first ball of the Pakistani's next over, Leus Du Plooy was caught at long-off to leave the hosts 117-4. But still Wayne Madsen kept on scoring, and it took a blinder of a tumbling catch from Browny off the bowling of Adam Finch to see him off for 63. Santner got the wicket he richly deserved when Brooke Guest was caught at cover for 20, and as the chase slipped away little by little, all the tail could do was chip in a boundary or two apiece before perishing. Derbyshire didn't survive the full twenty, but for the first time since 2019, Worcestershire have survived the group stage.

Worcestershire WIN by twenty-eight runs

The Verdict: For all that this was meant to be a bum-squeaker, Worcs put the opposition to the sword so professionally that the win hardly felt in doubt at any stage, and the reward is a quarter-final visit to Hampshire on Friday night. It capped off a campaign in which the county won its opening four games for only the second time in the history of the format, and despite the mid-stage slump, we deservedly progress to a re-run of the 2015 encounter which saw the Pears eliminated on Duckworth-Lewis due to fading light at New Road during the chase. There'll be no such worries down at the Rose Bowl, and though I don't think we've quite got what it takes to go all the way this year, hopefully we can avenge that 2015 disappointment and see another Finals Day after a four-year absence.

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Leading T20 Run-Scorers

1. Mitchell Santner - 404 (33.66)
2. Adam Hose - 397 (39.70)
3. Brett D'Oliveira - 369 (26.35)
4. Jack Haynes - 353 (23.53)
5. Kashif Ali - 238 (19.83)


Leading T20 Wicket-Takers

1. Pat Brown - 24 (22.41, econ 11.09)
2. Usama Mir - 19 (16.89, econ 7.29)
3. Brett D'Oliveira - 15 (18.66, econ 8.23)
4. Mitchell Santner - 12 (28.83, econ 7.28)
5. Dillon Pennington - 11 (31.27, econ 8.25)