[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

T20 Blast, North Group

vs Leicestershire

New Road, Worcester

Worcs innings: The Foxes won the toss and put the Pears in to bat as another unnecessarily grim July day nevertheless spared us rain long enough for a game of cricket. A dead rubber for Worcestershire after a campaign of oh-so-nearlys and how-did-they-bottle-thats, the side nevertheless came out swinging to entertain the diehard crowd; Josh Cobb and Brett D'Oliveira were casualties of a powerplay that racked up 61-2, while in the middle overs Gareth Roderick was bowled for 17 and an excellent 41 from Kashif Ali ended with an LBW on the brink of the halfway mark. A fine reverse slog-sweep was the highlight of the 18 from Ethan Brookes, and his departure brought about a slump that cost two further wickets to leave the Pears 136-7 with 26 balls remaining. But Adam Hose had been seeing it like a beachball from the moment he strode out to the middle, and he completed his half-century while peppering the boundary and forcing extras from a sloppy Leicestershire attack; holing out on 63 in the final over, there was still time for Tom Taylor to go big and push the innings up to a handsome 184-8, one run (and wicket) more than our total in the equivalent match last summer.

Leics innings: In the powerplay from hell, anything that could go wrong did for the visitors, who lost Rishi Patel to Taylor in the first over before young Harry Darley - who was pick of the Pears bowlers in the fifty-over warm-up versus Herefordshire this time last year, and against the New Zealanders in the late-summer T20 tour match - marked his second senior appearance with his maiden wicket, closely followed by his second two balls later. Taylor proceeded to see off Sol Budinger for 9, and when Matthew Waite made it 28-5 there was a paradoxical hush around the ground, as if the long-suffering faithful who'd paid their entrance money suddenly decided that a home win would be an anti-climax. But they needn't have worried, as an over or two of slack bowling and somewhat dozy fielding invited Louis Kimber and old boy Ben Cox to have a swing with nothing to lose, and suddenly the middle overs were disappearing for 12, 14 and 16 a pop. Both men made half-centuries and the Foxes were back in the running by the time Kimber holed out off Brookes for 53 with seven to go, needing 72 more off 41. A short stay from Ben Mike was ended by Matthew Waite, who then doubled up to have Lewis Goldsworthy caught behind superbly off the next ball, yet even eight down, Coxy went for it with able support from Scott Currie. Needing twenty to win off the final over, Coxy was at last bowled by Pingu, who completed his five-fer and the victory by having Currie caught off the penultimate ball, securing his best-ever T20 bowling figures to boot.

Worcestershire WIN by sixteen runs

The Verdict: Alas, too little and too late in the context of the Blast campaign, but taken on its own merits an enjoyable few hours nevertheless, offering as it did some stellar batting under pressure from both sides, a spirited fightback from Leics and a happy ending. More of the same this weekend, please, lads?