Neil Pinner made his competitive First XI and List A debut in the first one day match of the season against the Middlesex Panthers in the Clydesdale Bank Pro40 match at New Road. With the majority of the bowling attack from the Championship games being rested it meant call ups for Jack Shantry, Richard Jones and Shaaiq Choudhry.
Middlesex won the toss and elected to bat first. Jack Shantry bowled an economical opening spell going for just 12 runs in his opening 4 over spell. Moeen Ali also bowled well during the batting power play overs which unusually was called for immediately after the compulsory spell, when normally it is the bowling side that takes its power play overs first. Moeen went for just 21 runs in his opening 6 over spell.
Neil Dexter top scored for the visitors with 48 in their total of 206. A 4th wicket stand of 72 in the middle of the innings with Gareth Berg (31) was the key partnership for the visitors. The dismissal of Berg, bowled by Moeen Ali sparked the collapse from 157-3 to 206 all out in eleven overs for Middlesex. Jack Shantry finished with figures of 2-52 from his 8 over allocation with Gareth Andrew picking up 3-42 and Shaaiq Choudhry 2-46.
In reply Worcestershire started well with an opening partnership between Moeen Ali and Vikram Solanki who set off at a good pace and looked like they were going to chase the total down with apparent ease. Solanki in particular looked at his fluid best passing his half-century in 51 deliveries. Solanki completed a 78 run opening partnership with Moeen Ali which gave the home side a good platform to go on to win the game.
However when Solanki was adjudged LBW when on 61 it signalled a turn in fortune for the home side. The Middlesex spin bowlers did an excellent job of containing Worcestershire, which in addition to good fielding restricted the flow of runs. Ollie Rayner dismissed both openers in his first spell which stopped the free flowing of runs almost completely with none of the other Worcestershire batsmen appearing able to cope with the slow pitch and tight bowling. In particular the scoring of boundaries stopped totally from the 15th over, just before Solanki was dismissed until the penultimate ball of the innings in the 39th over.
Gareth Berg in particular proved very capable of stopping any runs being scored with figures of 4-24 in his 7 overs, helped by 2-28 by Toby Roland-Jones. Even though James Cameron battled hard for his 42 off 57 deliveries and was the last man out,the target proved too hard to chase down with Worcestershire being dismissed for 182 in the 39th over.
Middlesex (206) beat Worcestershire (182) by 24 runs.
