Middlesex v Worcestershire. CB40 Lord's. Match report.
Worcestershire named a youthful team for the Clydesdale Bank 40 match against Middlesex at Lord's in a SKY TV floodlit match. With Vikram Solanki and Daryl Mitchell injured and Damien Wright and Alan Richardson rested it was a chance for some of the younger players to stake their claim. Matt Pardoe made his List A debut, Adrian Shankar made his Worcestershire debut and Chris Whelan played his first competitive match for over a year after coming back from injury.
Neil Dexter won the toss for the home side and elected to field first in overcast conditions with the threat of rain never far away. Alexei Kervezee scored 47 and Moeen Ali 36 but the Worcestershire innings struggled to get going and the visitors found themselves at 125-5 in the 28th over when Matt Pardoe was LBW for 11. It was perhaps a match that Worcestershire needed a big innings from one of their more experienced players.
James Cameron and Gareth Andrew changed the momentum with a 6th wicket stand of 87 in just 11 overs which helped Worcestershire reach a more respectable total. Gareth Andrew after quickly playing himself in scoring singles cut loose with some extravagant shots hitting 48 in just 35 deliveries with 3 fours and 2 huge sixes. James Cameron was unbeaten at the end on 60* to confirm his place as leading one day run scorer for Worcestershire as the county reached 217-6 in their 40 over allocation.
In reply Middlesex cruised to victory under the flood lights helped mainly to a class innings by Dawid Malan who struck 75 from 77 deliveries. Contributions from Paul Stirling (41) and Gareth Berg (51*) ensured that the home side reached their target with relative ease with 26 balls to spare. The Worcestershire bowlers struggled with their line at times and bowling 12 wide deliveries did not help their cause. Shaaiq Choudhry was the most economical bowler with 1-29 from 6 overs but overall the bowling attack was not able to put the home side under any pressure.
Result: Middlesex (221-4) beat Worcestershire (217-6) by 6 wickets with 26 balls to spare.
