Worcestershire Royals v Derbyshire Falcons. CB40
Worcestershire named an unchanged team for the Clydesdale Bank 40 match against the Derbyshire Falcons at New Road. Luke Sutton won the toss for the visitors and elected to bowl first. Worcestershire lost an early wicket in the second over of the innings when Moeen Ali was caught at cover by Azeem Rafiq off the bowling of Tim Groenewald for 0. The home side lost their next wicket soon after when Alexei Kervezee was trapped LBW by the same bowler for 12. Scoring looked tricky on the slow paced pitch, with three maidens bowled in the first six overs alone.
The third Worcestershire wicket fell in the bowling power play when Vikram Solanki was caught at the wicket by Sutton for 17. James Cameron and Daryl Mitchell stage a recovery with a 4th wicket stand of 61 before Mitchell was LBW to Rafiq for 29. Neil Pinner also proved to be a good partner for Cameron in a 5th wicket stand of 43 with an intelligent innings of 26.
James Cameron was the stand out batsman for the home side with a very positive innings and helped Worcestershire reach what should have been an competitive target. After playing so well for his 69 it was perhaps unfortunate he was run out attempting a 2nd run when Worcestershire were already seven wickets down with less than three overs to go. After the dismissal of Cameron the home side lost their last two wickets in the space of four deliveries without adding to their score. Worcestershire were dismissed for 171 with 11 balls left in their allocation of 40 overs which in a low scoring match proved to be very costly at the end of the match. Groenewald finished with figures of 4-22 in 7.1 overs, after going for just eight runs in his first five overs.
The Derbyshire openers made a good start in their reply and were soon just ahead of the required run rate, but runs were still hard to come by. An opening partnership of 84 by Chesney Hughes and Usman Khawaja gave the visitors a very solid platform for their run chase. The partnership was only broken by Daryl Mitchell who trapped Hughes LBW for 42 with his very first ball.
Moeen Ali and Damien Wright both picked up a wicket apiece but the run chase was well judged by the visitors who always looked in control with Khawaja well set at the crease; with wickets in hand and the batting power play still to come. The home side were hampered by an injury to Mitchell in his 3rd over which forced him to leave the field. This allowed the appearance of Brett D'Oliveria as a substitute fielder for Worcestershire. The home side also regretted a missed stumping chance.
A 4th wicket stand of 56 between Wayne Madsen and Khawaja sealed the win for the home side for the loss of only four wickets with 8 balls to spare. Khawaja remained unbeaten on 89*, scoring 11 boundaries in his innings lasting 111 deliveries.
Result: Derbyshire (175-4) beat Worcestershire (171) by 6 wickets.
