[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

vs Northamptonshire

One-Day Cup, Northern Group

Wantage Road, Northampton

Worcestershire go into this match in second place in the group, facing Northants who are winless after two and need a victory to give themselves any real hope of qualification. After his heroics at Leicester on Sunday Moeen Ali is out for the Pears, replaced by former captain Daryl Mitchell.

Worcs innings: Northants won the toss and put the Pears in to bat.  A chilly afternoon and an awful, awful start.  Wickets were thrown away very cheaply by the Pears top order, only Mitchell distinguishing himself with a good solid knock of 75.  Once the former captain went, it was wicketkeeper Ben Cox who seized the mantle, steadily turning a slow and tottering innings into a respectable (and crucially, defendable) score before one ramp-shot too many saw him caught on 82, his best-ever score in List A cricket.  Still the tail continued to wag, and there was time for Ed Barnard and Jack Shantry to smack a few boundaries between them in a spirited last-wicket stand that took Worcestershire to a handy total of 277-9 off the fifty.  After a stinker of an innings that saw us at one point on 118-5 with five of our best batsmen failing to make double figures, 278 to win is a far better score than I dared hope we'd set, but even so, the reigning T20 champions are perfectly capable of biffing their fair share of sixes beneath the lights and will fancy their chances of chasing this down.  The pitch was offering a little bit earlier on, and the Pears bowlers are going to have to make it work for them big-time, because I suspect they'll need to skittle Northants if they're to defend this score and keep the winning streak going.

Northants innings: A cagey and cautious run-chase turned into a bona fide thriller in the death overs as Northants, cruising comfortably towards victory following a 123-ball ton from Rob Newton and a useful half-century from captain Alex Wakely, slipped from 198-4 to 238-7 in a few overs leaving wicketkeeper Adam Rossington carrying their hopes of a win on his shoulders. For Worcestershire, unable to dismiss the stubborn Rossington, it boiled down to a containment game with skipper Joe Leach bearing the pressure of an immense final over in which Northants required 14 to win. After conceding a boundary off the first ball, Leach struck back with a pair of yorkers right in the blockhole, leaving the equation at 10 off 3 balls. But not to be beaten, Rossington smacked back-to-back boundaries off the fourth and fifth balls, and needed only to beat the infield off the last delivery to snatch the win for the Steelbacks. Up stepped big Joe Leach, and up charged big Adam Rossington... with a swing and a miss. Northants claimed the single as the ball rolled through to Ben Cox, and finished their innings on 277-7, levelling the scores and sharing the spoils with a point to each team. A fair result from a tense, exciting and utterly remarkable day of cricket at Wantage Road.

Match TIED

Star Performers: How do you even begin to decide, in a game where every run scored, every delivery bowled and every ball fielded proved vital, in its own small way, to avoiding defeat? Former captain Daryl Mitchell deserves credit for providing something of an anchor in the difficult first half of the Pears innings, and likewise Ben Cox for doing the same in the second half. Both Hastings and Leach were right on the mark with their death bowling, and Dolly was economical throughout the middle overs when the match could have drifted away from Worcestershire. But ultimately, it was the last-wicket partnership between Ed Barnard and Jack Shantry that hoisted the Pears up from 250 to the magic number of 277 which Northants couldn't quite overcome. The former's 42 off 27 balls is a knock that any number ten can be proud of, while the latter's tally of 12 encompassed two vital boundaries off the final two balls of the innings. As they say at Tesco, every little helps.

Next Match: Still unbeaten (by the skin of their teeth), Worcestershire face their toughest challenge of the season so far when they welcome Yorkshire to New Road on Friday.