Nottinghamshire were the visitors to New Road for the Friends Life t20 match. After two consecutive defeats Worcestershire needed a good result against the division leaders to maintain their push for a quarter final place. Vikram Solanki failed a late fitness test on a thigh injury he picked up in the last match against Durham. Jack Manuel was brought into the side to open the innings in his place.
Adam Voges won the toss for the visitors and elected to bat first in murky overcast conditions in front of a disappointing crowd at New Road with the SKY TV cameras present. Nottinghamshire made a good solid start in the power play overs reaching 57-0 by the end of the 7th over, with Tamim Iqbal and Alex Hales looking well set to help the visitors reach a large total. Some poor fielding and dropped catches in the first part of the innings did not help Worcestershire's cause.
Worcestershire got the break through with the last ball of Moeen Ali's first over when Iqbal was stumped by Ben Scott for 35 after an opening stand of 69. Moeen then picked up the other opener Hales well caught at deep mid-wicket by James Cameron for 39. From such a solid start the Nottinghamshire innings then fell away from 83-2 to 152 all out, with the final wicket falling on the last ball of the innings.
Saeed Ajmal took 3-28 and Moeen Ali 2-29 as the home side brought themselves back into the match, restricting the visitors to their lowest total in the t20 this season. Ajmal took his wicket tally up to 15 wickets so far in just six matches played. James Cameron took three catches and an run out with a team fielding performance that improved in the later overs of the innings.
Chasing a fairly modest total on a new pitch Worcestershire could have pulled off a surprise win against the top team in the division. Moeen Ali and Jack Manuel got the home side off to the best possible start reaching 69-0 by the end of the 8th over.
Samit Patel picked up the first wicket for the visitors with Manuel stumped for 21 off 19 deliveries with the score on 69. Moeen Ali was looking in good form and passed fifty for the second time in the competition. However he was run out the very next ball for 51 by a sharp piece of fielding by Patel after an innings lasting just 36 deliveries and containing 10 boundaries.
Alexei Kervezee and Shakib Al-Hasan should have been able to see the home side to victory reaching the end of the 15th over with 8 wickets still in hand and 39 runs to win. However after a 3rd wicket stand of 37 both batsmen were dismissed within three balls of each other. The dismissal of Al-Hasan was particularly disappointing holing out to a catch to long to to his compatriot Iqbal for 20. Andre Adams then trapped Kervezee LBW for 21. Patel finished with figures of 1-21 from his 4 overs.
With two new batsmen at the crease it then became difficult to maintain the required run rate despite Cameron making 16* from 12 deliveries the home side fell 10 runs short of the target by the end of the 20 overs in a match they really should have won.
Worcestershire (142-5) lost to Nottinghamshire (152) by 10 runs.
