[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

vs Derbyshire

T20 Blast, Northern Group

New Road, Worcester

An awful start to the T20 campaign leaves Worcestershire without a win, and desperately needing to get off the mark tonight against Derbyshire.

Worcs innings: Derbyshire won the toss and put the Pears in to bat on a muggy, overcast day.  You have to hand it to Joe Clarke, having been dropped into the role of opener since Kohler-Cadmore's departure, for really getting the team off to a flyer in the powerplay.  Derbyshire clawed it back with some wickets and tight overs in the middle of the innings before Cox and Whiteley put together their usual stellar partnership to accelerate the scoring again.  When Whiteley was dismissed in the final over it proved more of a curse than a blessing for the visitors, as big John Hastings came in and whacked sixteen off three balls to push Worcestershire up to 186-5 off the twenty, their best score of the season so far.  For the first time the bowlers have got something decent to defend; they now need to keep their heads screwed on to get the Pears over the line.

Derby innings: This campaign is going to be fourteen games of excruciating torture. Little to no wicket-taking threat. Seamers who leak boundaries like it's going out of fashion. It's no use having eight different bowlers in the attack if none can change a game under pressure; likewise, all the good batting in the world won't save you if you have to hit 200+ every game to have the slightest hope of winning. All credit to Derbyshire for an assured batting performance, but in this format the Pears are their own worst enemies, and I can't see how that will change in the weeks to come.

Worcestershire LOSE by seven wickets

Star Performer: A shout for Joe Clarke top-scoring in the first game when he's looked like he might excel as a white-ball opener.

Next Match: The Pears continue their all-singing, all-dancing T20 shitshow on Friday night with the visit of Lancashire.