[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.