[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

One-Day Cup, Group B

vs Northamptonshire

Wantage Road, Northampton

After a truly godawful five defeats on the bounce to commence the 2022 One-Day Cup, having barely scraped past Herefordshire in the warm-up game, the Pears travelled to Wantage Road on an autumnal August day to try and salvage something from the summer's white-ball disaster.

Northants innings: Worcestershire won the toss and put Northants in to bat in overcast conditions, leading to an early wicket for Ben Gibbon who dismissed Emilio Gay LBW for 7. New man Will Young then survived an LBW shout of his own before rain interrupted the innings at twenty to noon, with the home side 44-1. The action resumed at one o'clock with 42 overs per side scheduled, but it was some time before Adam Finch was able to break the increasingly lucrative partnership, bowling Ricardo Vasconcelos with a quick straight ball that seamed in slightly to the left-hander. That breakthrough brought another when Gibbon hit the stumps directly with a throw from the third man boundary to run out Saif Zaib for 1 before the rain returned. With the overs reduced to 39 per side and Northants 206-3 after a century partnership, some gut-wrenching death bowling allowed the hosts to hoist themselves up to a commanding score. Lewis McManus holed out in the deep at the end of the penultimate over off Dillon Pennington, but Young sent Finch the full distance off the last to reach his century and close the innings on 248-4, setting a Duckworth-Lewis adjusted target of 254 to win.

Worcs innings: Early wickets have been the great curse for Worcs in this year's competition, so the steady opening partnership of Azhar Ali and Taylor Cornall was precisely what the doctor ordered, the former finding the boundary off the third ball with a fierce square cut, while the latter showcased his superb talent for the straight drive. With both openers reaching a half-century and three figures on the scoreboard for no loss, it was Cornall who eventually ran out of luck, caught at mid-on for 61 with the Pears 138-1. Gareth Roderick came and went quickly with a timely exhibit of How Not To Play A Ramp Shot, but returned as a runner for the injured Azhar as the latter clipped the ball one-legged to the boundary for his first white-ball Worcs ton. He went on to make his best List A score in England, surpassing his 110 for Somerset in 2019, but fell for 130 two short of his best-ever score in the format in 2016. With Northants piling a bit of late pressure on, briefly pushing the run-rate back up above a run a ball in the dying overs, Ed Barnard struck a few vital boundaries to carry the Pears within a whisker of the target before perishing in the final over, and Jake Libby struck the winning four to give Worcestershire the elusive taste of one-day triumph.

Worcestershire WIN by six wickets

The Verdict: It's frustrating to see things click so late in the day, with only dead rubbers left for the team to play, but with any luck some of the individual performances in this long-overdue win may give the players confidence going forward and allow for lessons to be learned next summer.