Worcestershire ended their Clydesdale Bank 40 campaign this season with a trip to Headingley to play Yorkshire. Vikram Solanki and Kemar Roach were rested for the game which allowed some of the younger squad players an opportunity to impress. Jack Manuel came in to open the innings and 19 year old Brett D'Oliveira made his senior Worcestershire debut, marking the third generation of his family to play for the county after his grandfather Basil and father Damian.
Yorkshire won the toss and elected to field first. Openers Manuel and Moeen Ali looked to get Worcestershire off to a solid start scoring 55 without loss in the first set of power play overs. The change of bowler in the bowling power play brought an immediate wicket when Moeen edged a catch off Moin Ashraf to Jonny Bairstow for 26. Manuel went on to score 32 before being caught off the bowling of Steven Patterson on the deep cover boundary by Joe Root.
A 5th wicket stand of 57 between Aneesh Kapil (20) and skipper Daryl Mitchell helped Worcestershire to recover in the middle part of the innings after being on 90-4 at one stage The Yorkshire spinners, David Wainwright (2-33) and Root (0-32) bowled economical spells as Worcestershire's innings stalled in the middle part of the innings.
Mitchell was the stand out performer for Worcestershire with a fine unbeaten innings of 81 off 80 balls. A useful unbeaten 7th wicket stand of 60 in just over six overs with Ben Scott (22*) helped Worcestershire reach 230-6 in their 40 over allocation.
In reply Bairstow and Root helped Yorkshire to their target with a dominant 3rd wicket stand of 122 off exactly 19 overs. Bairstow scored 80 off just 67 deliveries including 10 boundaries. Bairstow was eventually dismissed by Aneesh Kapil, well caught low down at back ward point by D'Oliveira.
Joe Root contributed 62 off 77 deliveries before becoming D'Oliveira's first senior wicket, caught by Mitchell at slip. At the start of the innings Nick Harrison bowled well in his eight over unbroken spell finishing with figures of 2-43, the figures would have been better had he not conceded 17 runs in his final over.
Gareth Andrew was the most economical with 0-35 off 7 overs and D'Oliveira took 1-40 in 6 overs in his debut match but overall it was not a good bowling performance with the Yorkshire batsmen dominating on a good pitch. Gary Ballance scored an unbeaten run a ball 25* to win the game for the home side with 11 balls to spare.
Yorkshire (231-4) beat Worcestershire (230-6) by 6 wickets.
