[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

One-Day Cup, Group B

vs Durham

Riverside Ground, Chester-le-Street

Worcs innings: Durham won the toss and put the Pears in to bat on an overcast Tuesday morning that kicked August off in the same miserable vein as July. A positive start by the openers put on 58 before Brett D'Oliveira moved to the off-side to ramp a ball from Paul Coughlin, was struck on the leg in line with an imaginary fifth stump, and promptly adjudged LBW for 28 by umpire Stevie Wonder. Partner Azhar Ali also scored above a run a ball, but after pulling Oliver Gibson for 6 the young seamer responded by bowling him for 41, and new man Rob Jones departed LBW for a measured 24 on the sweep to Liam Trevaskis. It fell to Kashif Ali to really get the innings motoring, bringing up his half-century with one of the four total sixes in his knock, and despite partner Jake Libby being caught off a top-edge for 45, at 248-4 with eight overs remaining, a score north of 330 seemed on the cards; but another iffy LBW decision was given against Kash on 76 when a full left-arm orthodox ball from Trevaskis angling down leg and showing no apparent off-break struck him in front. It proved the beginning of a collapse as Trevaskis completed a hat-trick and Coughlin followed up with the eighth wicket soon after, but as he's done so many times before, Ben Cox played a blinder at the death with a half-century lifting us up to 300 with an over to go - supported ably by 15 from Dillon Pennington including two fours, and an unbeaten 13 from Ben Gibbon encompassing a six - and eighteen runs off the fiftieth resulted in Worcestershire's highest List A score against Durham, surpassing our 275-3 off forty-five overs in July 2001 and setting 319 to win.

Durham innings: A strong start for Graham Clark meant a strong start for Durham, and though Gibbo pegged them back having Alex Lees caught behind for 12, the runs continued to leak all over the pitch. Ten overs later Josh Baker had the dangerous David Bedingham caught for 31, but the scalp of Clark was his major breakthrough, having the opener stumped for 79 after Coxy fumbled the ball then recovered sufficiently to shovel it off the ground onto the stumps. From there the wickets came regularly: Ben McKinney chopping the third delivery from Matthew Waite on for 5, Dolly breaking out the googly to see off Michael Jones LBW for 18 and bowl Liam Trevaskis for 12, before having Paul Coughlin caught on the boundary for 23, and with the run-rate climbing and boundaries at a premium, attempts at big hitting did for the tail. Baker bowled Migael Pretorius for 15 aiming a blow over cow corner, George Drissell was run out for 15 by a direct hit from Dolly with the bat bare centimetres short of the crease, Gibson was bowled by Pennington for 1 to wrap things up with twenty-two balls to spare, and only 21-year-old Jonathan Bushnell - left unbeaten on 60 - could claim to have offered any real resistance from the middle order.

Worcestershire WIN by forty-two runs

The Verdict: After a nightmarish and somewhat stillborn campaign last summer, getting off the mark quickly was the only concern this time round, but doing so with a record win (and a first away against Durham since 2016) is so much the better. There seems enough hitting in our top and middle order to cause problems for most teams; with the ball, Gibbo was a touch expensive, but may have been preferred to Pat Brown as the latter got hit around the park a lot in the Blast. Dolly and Baker look a potent threat for putting the brakes on and taking wickets in the middle overs, while even Waite, Pennington and Leach managed to bowl economically despite some early damage (the former managing to bowl one of only two maidens in the match). Bring on the next game.