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One-Day Cup, North Group

vs Northamptonshire

Wantage Road, Northampton

Worcs innings: Northants won the toss and put the Pears in to bat at a cold, windswept Wantage Road. With tight, stump-to-stump bowling aided by the overhead conditions, the home side soon had Worcestershire right on the back foot. Riki Wessels was the first to go, caught at short extra cover off Ben Sanderson, who also removed Tom Fell as he tried to cut, only to be caught with a low, diving one-handed catch by Richard Levi at second slip. Daryl Mitchell holed out to mid-on off Blessing Muzarabani, and with the Pears 23-3, it all looked very grim. Thank heaven for Hamish Rutherford, on the eve of his 30th birthday - and playing perhaps his last game for the Pears - as he took control of the innings from there. Two half-century partnerships followed, and though the wickets continued to fall at regular intervals, the New Zealander remained at the crease and kept the scoreboard ticking. At 188-8 with ten overs remaining, it looked like Worcs might fold altogether, but Rutherford completed his third century in just five innings by sweeping Rob Keogh to the boundary, and then accelerated in the last couple of overs with the aid of Josh Tongue. When the Kiwi finally departed for 126 on the fourth ball of the 49th over, the Pears were still three short of the 250 milestone, but Charlie Morris came in to help nudge the score up to a respectable (and crucially, defendable) 254-9 off the fifty.

Northants innings: It was a poor start from the Worcestershire attack, who seemed not to heed the example set by their counterparts in the first innings, giving the batsmen too much width and leaking a few early boundaries as a result. It took five overs for Charlie Morris to make the first breakthrough, prising out Richard Levi who attempted a rash shot over mid-off, and he doubled his haul in his next over with Ben Curran caught at the same position. At 41-2, honours were more or less even, and what followed was the cagiest, most cat-and-mouse run-chase I've seen in a long time. Having struggled against spin in their own innings, the Pears wasted no time in bringing Mitch and Dolly into the attack after the powerplay, and for a full twenty overs the pair strangled the run-rate and heaped pressure onto Josh Cobb and Alex Wakely at the crease. It was a question of who would blink first, and after a steady partnership of 75, the out-of-form Cobb finally grew impatient for a half-century that would never come, coming down the wicket to Dolly and finding himself bowled for 44 as a result. Five overs later Mitch got in on the act, first with Wakely caught and bowled for 46; then on the final ball of his spell, Adam Rossington committed the cardinal sin of trying to sweep to the boundary rather than see out the over, and was LBW for 7. And still the game remained in the balance at 144-5 with sixteen remaining. With Rob Keogh and Luke Procter at the crease, Northants needed only to bat out the overs to win; it was Ed Barnard who tempted the dangerous Keogh into a mistimed pull shot that flew comfortably to midwicket, while Wayne Parnell had Ian Holland caught behind the following over after lashing a couple of useful boundaries. At 194-7, Procter was the last recognised batsman, and fast running out of partners as Barnard pinned Nathan Buck LBW and Parnell had Ben Sanderson caught behind. A few handy fours from the lower order had lifted the home side up to 222-9, and Procter did his best to finish the job, but there was an air of inevitability when, with eight balls remaining, Blessing Muzarabani lifted the ball up to short cover to leave Northants 234 all out.

Worcestershire WIN by twenty runs

The Verdict: Far from the most convincing performance - in all honesty, I suspect that if Jason Holder had been in the Northants side, Worcs would have lost this one comfortably - but a win's a win, and the Pears hold their ground in second place. If this is Hamish Rutherford's final innings for the county then it's a fine way to bow out; it's just a shame we can't have him and Callum Ferguson in the same side. A fourth batting collapse in four games is cause for concern, but for now, there's no choice but to hope it'll all click in time for Sunday's derby against the Bears.