[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

A repeat of the 2016 quarter-final on Friday, albeit with the venue reversed, as Somerset visit New Road in a straight fifty-over knockout. At least, fifty overs are scheduled; the weather for the last couple of days and the forecast for tomorrow suggests that play may be considerably reduced, if we see any at all.

The visitors have earned a reputation as a strong List A side in recent years, and weight of runs is a huge factor. No less than six players notched up 200+ runs in the group stage, with James Hildreth clocking 349, Azhar Ali 305, Peter Trego 250, Lewis Gregory 242, Tom Banton 214, Tom Abell 201, and Craig Overton not far away on 168. With the ball, Overton took 17 wickets at a mere 15.82 - the fifth-best average in the competition, and the best among those who bowled in every game - while Josh Davey contributed 10, and Tim Groenewald and Roelof van der Merwe provided 7 apiece. This is a strong and well-balanced team who know their business.

That said, Worcestershire delivered arguably their most assured performance of the tournament at Derby on Monday, and have both momentum and home advantage. With Hamish Rutherford gone, Riki Wessels leads the batting chart on 297, while Ross Whiteley follows on 257, Ben Cox on 213, Tom Fell on 198 and Callum Ferguson's recent century pushes him up to 130 from three games. Wayne Parnell finished the group stage as our most effective bowler with 19 wickets at 19.21, supported by Charlie Morris with 10, and the remainder shared quite equally around. On our day we can beat anyone; sadly, as the last few years have proved, we're not always capable of *making* it our day when the occasion demands it. Here's hoping last year's T20 success has changed the mentality.

It's nearly fifty-six years since Worcestershire played their first ever Gillette Cup match: a victory at home to Surrey on 22nd May 1963. With the competition set to be downgraded to a developmental tournament from next summer, every match now could be our last senior outing in a grand and venerable old event. There's nothing left to do but make it count.

Probable Worcestershire XI: Wessels, Fell, Mitchell, Ferguson, D'Oliveira, Cox, Whiteley, Barnard, Parnell, Brown, Morris