[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

When Hodd hit a six off the penultimate ball I really thought we were going to bottle it. Good match, all in all.

[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

One-Day Cup, Northern Group

vs Durham

Roseworth Terrace, Gosforth

Durham innings: Worcestershire won the toss and put Durham in to bat in warm, sunny weather with a forecast for later rain. They wasted no time making inroads with a wicket in the first over, and from thereon Durham struggled to put a meaningful partnership together. The Pears had the home side all out in just over 45 overs for a total of just 209, and had every reason to be proud of a terrific bowling performance. But of course, pride is what goes before the fall...

Worcs innings: When torrential rain is forecast for the evening and Duckworth-Lewis looms on the horizon, the one thing you can't afford to do in this game is to piss away early wickets with silly shots. However, that's precisely what Worcestershire did as the top order collapsed, losing four wickets in the powerplay and propelling the Duckworth-Lewis par up to 80+ runs in no time. Dolly and Ben Cox were charged with rebuilding the innings as the clouds came in, and though they played magnificently to push the score within a whisker of where it needed to be, the rain cut short the recovery and condemned the Pears to defeat in a game they would likely have won given another ten or fifteen minutes of play.

Worcestershire LOSE by nine runs (D/L)

The Verdict: A farcical and utterly self-inflicted defeat from the Pears, who had a desperately poor Durham side on the ropes and then lost sight of their game management. It doesn't help matters that bogey team Lancashire are up next, though the weather forecast for the weekend suggests a point apiece is the most likely outcome there. From being well in contention for the top three, the task has suddenly grown a lot harder thanks to some really headless chicken stuff at the crease.

[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

One-Day Cup, Northern Group

vs Lancashire

New Road, Worcester

Lancs innings: The Pears won the toss and put the Red Rose in to bat on a cloudy morning after heavy thunderstorms overnight. Lancashire started brightly nevertheless, and despite the early loss of the in-form Keaton Jennings who edged to first slip from a wicked Josh Tongue delivery, the visitors found boundaries easy to come by. It took two wickets in three balls from Ed Barnard to stem the flow, and Tongue struck again shortly before an impromptu lightning break to remove the dangerous Liam Livingstone and even up the contest. Upon resumption, the tail fell quickly with Joe Leach, Dolly and Moeen Ali (playing his first domestic game since midsummer last year) all claiming LBWs, but a stubborn last-wicket partnership of 38 dragged Lancashire up to 254-9 as Graham Onions played every shot in the book. It felt like a lightweight score, but the momentum somehow seemed with the visitors.

Worcs innings: You'll never go bankrupt betting on Worcestershire to make life difficult for themselves. In the entire top and middle order, only Joe Clarke can truly claim he fell victim to a great ball as he was dismissed LBW by Graham Onions. Every other batsman that came in duly got himself out to one needless shot or another as the Pears staged an unnecessary re-enactment of Friday's farce at Gosforth. At 93-6 with 162 runs still to knock off it all looked a foregone conclusion, but Daryl Mitchell - who's struggled for runs in all formats this season - rose to the occasion. Knowing that the loss of his wicket would effectively end the game, the veteran played a magnificent innings under unbelievable pressure that combined caution with skill, supported first by Ed Barnard and then by skipper Joe Leach, who impressively put aside his usual gung-ho approach with the bat to instead build a solid eighth-wicket partnership that proved unbreakable. The visitors were perhaps guilty of complacency and some lax death bowling, but boundaries at key moments enabled Worcestershire to take it into the last over needing 13 to win. The first two balls each went for singles; 11 required from four deliveries. Mitch pulled the third ball backward of square leg to bring up his century and make it 7 needed from three balls. A single off the next brought Leach on strike, and needing 6 from two balls, the skipper obliged by smashing a four. With 2 required off the last delivery (and most Worcs fans praying we could snatch an unlikely tie), Joe Mennie bowled a wide, and already determined on making a run no matter what, the Pears pair scrambled home for the bye that won the match with one extra ball still remaining.

Worcestershire WIN by three wickets (D/L)

The Verdict: What goes around comes around. On Friday Worcestershire lost a match they had no business losing, and two days later they won one they had no business winning. This miraculous turnaround keeps the Pears on top of the Northern Group, though the Durham defeat remains a galling reminder of where we could have been by now. In truth, the team lacks the swagger of last year and the absence of Tom Kohler-Cadmore is keenly felt, because Travis Head is a poor substitute at the minute. Nevertheless, when you're on top of the pile, something must be going right.

[themaclad]

Bit of a flat track today

[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

One-Day Cup, Northern Group

vs Leicestershire

New Road, Worcester

Leics innings: Leicestershire won the toss and elected to bat on a cloudy morning which soon brightened up. It was obvious from the very start that the pitch was an absolute road, and for the Worcestershire bowling attack the wheels didn't so much come off as they were never on to begin with. The only batsmen to go did so by going aerial one too many times, and in such conditions it was the relatively effective and economical bowling of Ed Barnard, finishing 3-64 off his ten overs, that stood out for the Pears. Nevertheless, the Foxes set a truly daunting total of 376-4 off their fifty overs, and the home side - who've suffered top-order collapses in both of their last two games - knew that to gain victory from here would require not only Worcestershire's biggest-ever List A score against another first-class county, but also the highest successful run-chase in the history of one-day cricket in England.

Worcs innings: Things literally couldn't have looked worse for the Pears a little after three o'clock when Moeen Ali - continuing his awful run of form in all formats and at all levels of cricket - sliced a ball straight to point off a mistimed drive. That brought Australian debutant Callum Ferguson, in for the absent Travis Head, to the crease with the hosts 5-1 in just the second over, and none of the glum stalwarts around New Road could ever have predicted what was to follow. Ably supported by Joe Clarke at the other end, Fergie wasted no time in going after the Foxes attack, hitting Varun Aaron for a trio of boundaries off a single over as a statement of intent. Nor did the boundaries dry up, and the hundred stand for the second wicket came up off just eighty-eight balls. When Clarke finally holed out to Cameron Delport at deep midwicket after trying to thump one over cow corner, it brought Sunday's hero Daryl Mitchell to the crease to provide a half-century off 29 balls while Fergie brought up his own ton at the other end. Records began tumbling on the flat track. The Aussie new boy was already just the third Pears player to score a century on List A debut after his compatriots Phil Jaques in 2006 and the late Phillip Hughes in 2012, but the milestones came thick and fast thereafter as he first surpassed the highest one-day score by a Worcestershire batsman against Leicestershire (beating Graeme Hick's 110 not out at New Road in 1999), and then shattered his own career-best score of 169. Absurdly, by the time we hit the thirty-over mark the game already felt like a foregone conclusion with the home side cruising, and though the run-rate slowed a little when Daryl Mitchell departed in the same fashion as Clarke, Worcestershire had already gained enough breathing space to give Dolly a few overs to get in. At the other end Fergie didn't let up, and with a magnificent boundary down the ground he set a new record List A total for a Worcs batsman, beating the 180* scored by Pears legend Tom Moody against Surrey in the NatWest Trophy at the Oval way back in August 1994. It would have been a fitting conclusion had he stuck around to score the winning runs, but unfortunately the exhausted Australian nicked one behind at the death on 192, bringing Ross Whiteley in to smash the hosts swiftly to parity. With 16 balls to spare, it was Dolly who struck the winning boundary to square leg, and Worcestershire had made a mockery of the record target.

Worcestershire WIN by six wickets

The Verdict: The largest successful run-chase in the history of English one-day cricket. The fifth-largest in the world. The largest score by a Pears batsman in List A, besting Long Tom Moody's 180 that had stood for a quarter of a century. Sometimes you just have to stand back and applaud a great performance and a great game of cricket all round. Worcestershire extend their lead at the top of the group, and but for the agonising defeat at Durham, would almost certainly have qualified by now. As it is, we travel to Trent Bridge on Friday to face the reigning champions, knowing a win would effectively seal the deal. With this debut Callum Ferguson has set himself an impossibly high standard to live up to, but if he turns in even half the same performance at Notts, things will be looking good.

[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

One-Day Cup, Northern Group

vs Nottinghamshire

Trent Bridge, Nottingham

Notts innings: The Pears won the toss and put Notts in to bat on a grey morning. After navigating safely through the powerplay without the loss of a wicket, the first breakthrough came with the dangerous Alex Hales chopping a straight ball from Ed Barnard onto the stumps, and the home side never really settled after that. Moeen Ali took his best List A bowling figures ever with 4-33 off his ten overs as Notts collapsed to 202 all out. You'd think, from there, that it'd be a walk in the park for the group leaders. But you'd be wrong...

Worcs innings: Only Worcestershire could set a new record run-chase and then arse up the simple job of knocking off 203 runs all in the same week. Of the entire Pears top order, only the out-of-form Moeen could claim he was genuinely beaten by a great delivery; every other man got himself out to one unnecessary shot or another as the team folded. Notts bowled well, offering no loose balls and building up the dots, but common sense should have suggested to the Worcs batsmen that simply batting out the fifty would guarantee victory. Daryl Mitchell tried his best to salvage the game as he did last Sunday against Lancs, but it was always an uphill struggle, and lightning just wouldn't strike twice. Awful, awful, awful, awful.

Worcestershire LOSE by thirty-eight runs

The Verdict: What a way to come crashing down to earth after Tuesday's heroics. The biggest concern is that this is now the third time in four games that Worcs have collapsed while chasing a low score; it's clearly not an accident or an isolated instance. With regard to the bigger picture, it's put a dent in hopes of finishing top and places an extraordinary weight on Sunday's match against Northants to make qualification. The last thing we want is to go to Edgbaston next week needing a win at all costs.

[themaclad]

Ace picture of Trent Bridge

[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

One-Day Cup, Northern Group

vs Northamptonshire

New Road, Worcester

Worcs innings: Northants won the toss and put the Pears in to bat on a beautiful June morning at New Road. Granted, it didn't look so beautiful when the increasingly luckless Moeen Ali went for a second-ball duck in the first over, leaving the home side 0-1 on the back of Friday's capitulation at Trent Bridge, but any fear of another collapse was assuaged by Joe Clarke and Callum Ferguson proceeding to put together a record second-wicket partnership for Worcestershire in List A cricket, with their stand of 239 eclipsing the 208 made by Vikram Solanki and the late Phil Hughes against Lancashire in 2012. Still, all good things must come to an end, and Clarke was eventually dismissed by Graeme White in the thirty-eighth over after making his century and getting a little impatient at the crease. Fergie remained to steer the Pears through the fifty with help from Ben Cox and Brett D'Oliveira, but there was a little concern at the interval that on a flat track which saw no less than 756 runs scored on Tuesday, Worcestershire's total of 348-5 might just be twenty or thirty runs too short.

Northants innings: The visitors certainly gave Worcestershire plenty to think about in the early stages of the chase, keeping effortlessly in touch with the run-rate as the leaky Pears bowling attack offered up at least one loose ball each over to be despatched to the boundary. Despite pegging Northants back with two or three wickets, it remained a tight game until Ed Barnard began to get his line and length consistently right and put pressure on the set batsmen. Some timely economical overs from Dolly and Daryl Mitchell forced mistakes at the crease as Northants tried to find the boundary again, and by the time Adam Rossington departed for 63, the chase was effectively done. In the end the visitors came up well short, losing their final wicket with two balls to spare.

Worcestershire WIN by thirty-four runs

The Verdict: We needed to win, and we did; ultimately, that's all that matters. The Pears return to pole position in the Northern Group, level on points with Warwickshire, setting up a straight shootout between the two rivals at Edgbaston on Thursday. If Lancashire win Tuesday's Roses match then both teams will at least have the comfort of knowing that qualification is assured; however, should Yorkshire take the two points at Old Trafford then the loser at Edgbaston two days later will be depending on other results that night to see them through to the knockout stage. We're set for a very, very tense evening's cricket.

[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

One-Day Cup, Northern Group

vs Warwickshire

Edgbaston, Birmingham

Warks innings: On a sunny afternoon which soon clouded over, the Pears won the toss and put the Bears in to bat. Yorkshire's win at Old Trafford on Tuesday, coupled with reports of another strong performance from the White Rose at Headingley and from Notts at Trent Bridge, made the equation plain: the winner of this match would top the group, while the loser would be eliminated. For the first couple of hours everything went Worcestershire's way, with tight bowling placing pressure on the home side and forcing the errors which led to wickets. At 126-5 the men from New Road were in the driving seat and Warwickshire on the ropes, but a crucial partnership between Tim Ambrose and Will Rhodes gave the Bears a platform from which to launch at the back end, and launch they did. Some comedy fielding didn't help matters, and when Warks reached 292-7 off their fifty, going into the interval it felt like they had the momentum.

Worcs innings: And the pendulum just kept swinging in the home side's favour as Joe Clarke was caught behind off the first ball of the innings, while Callum Ferguson chopped an Olly Stone delivery onto his stumps for 7, Daryl Mitchell was unluckily run out by a direct hit from Jeetan Patel and Dolly was tucked up by pace for a simple LBW by young seamer Henry Brookes. Not for the first time this campaign, Worcestershire were four wickets down for less than a hundred runs, and it took a virtuoso display of counter-attacking from Moeen Ali, ably supported by Ben Cox in run-a-ball mode, to keep the Pears in touch. Predictably, Moeen perished shortly after bringing up his century, but Ross Whiteley came in and played an unusually cautious innings to navigate Worcestershire to within 21 runs of victory. It should, at that point, have been a breeze. But Whiteley will never do in ones and twos what he can do in fours and sixes, and one waft of the bat too many saw him caught at short third man by Ed Pollock. This, in itself, wasn't a problem. The real problem came in the following over when Cox was bowled trying to cut the ball to the boundary, and Worcs were 274-7 with 19 runs still required. Skipper Joe Leach managed the riskiest of fours through midwicket before departing to a pacy Brookes yorker, and with just two wickets remaining, the Pears now needed 14 runs to win. Nineteen-year-old debutant Dillon Pennington was sent out to partner Ed Barnard, and the youngster had a true baptism of fire blocking an endless succession of yorkers and bouncers from the frontline Warwickshire bowlers while the calm and collected all-rounder eked out the necessary singles. Worcestershire were within 5 runs of victory when Pennington, having already been reprieved from one nailed-on LBW, was finally trapped leg-before with the final ball of Keith Barker's ten overs. From that point it was all in the hands of Barnard, who clipped a shot towards third man and set off for a single, only to see Keith Barker tumble over the ball and watch it race to the boundary. The scores were level; qualification was assured, but the job wasn't done until Barnard played one last majestic cut through the ring of fielders to the point boundary for four.

Worcestershire WIN by one wicket

Worcestershire are CHAMPIONS of the Northern Group

The Verdict: A large part of this performance was summed up by a wide-eyed Dominic Cork in the Sky studio, who could only ask "how did they let it get that close?", somewhat oblivious to the fact that "how did they let it get that close?" has been the official motto of Worcestershire County Cricket Club for a very long time. Nevertheless, the Pears made it over the line, and it's an incomparable achievement for a small and relatively cash-strapped county to have topped the Northern Group two years in a row with a side devoid of Kolpaks and depending entirely on its own young, homegrown players. I stand by my assessment earlier in the campaign that this team is weaker than last year's - the loss of Tom Kohler-Cadmore hasn't quite been plugged by promoting Joe Clarke to opener and bringing in Callum Ferguson at three, and in the absence of John Hastings our death-bowling is as leaky as a colander - but they've dished out a few bloody noses nevertheless, and with an extra year's experience under the belt I can only hope that the Pears will go toe-to-toe with Kent or Notts next weekend and put 2017's capitulation to Surrey well and truly behind them.

[themaclad]

Great game which you so nearly cocked up, how Pennington survived was beyond me then came Barker's slip classic stuff