Friday, July 20th, 2018

County Now Switch To Championship Action After Stokes Shines For Jets

Worcestershire will now switch their attention back to Specsavers County Championship cricket after the Rapids went down by seven wickets to Durham Jets at the Emirates Riverside.

They will put the short format of the game to bed for a week after clocking up four wins in the opening six games.

The Rapids were on the receiving end of a fine performance by England all-rounder Ben Stokes as they suffered a second Blast defeat of the campaign.

They were dismissed for 121 on a wicket of variable bounce with only Travis Head (40) making a sizeable contribution as Stokes returned 4-16.

Then Stokes, with 43 off 24 balls, and Graham Clark (55 off 39 balls) put together an opening stand of 77 to set the Jets on their way to a victory completed in 14.4 overs.

Pat Brown eventually dismissed Clark and picked up two wickets to take his Blast tally to 12 in the last five games.

The Rapids were put into bat and their Vitality Blast official captain Moeen Ali – making his first Blast appearance for two years – sliced the second ball from James Weighell for four but edged the next to slip from the third ball of the innings.

Head looked in good form and got off the mark by cutting Weighell for four and collecting a couple more boundaries in his next over.

But Stokes was soon into his stride after entering the attack for the fourth over and trapped Martin Guptill lbw (7) which a delivery which kept very low.

Head was joined by Daryl Mitchell and the pair took the Rapids total to 40-2 by the end of the six over powerplay.

Head cut Nathan Rimmington for another boundary and at 56-2 off nine overs the Rapids looked to be building a useful platform.

Mitchell (17) was bowled aiming a pull shot at Rimmington but at 84-3 off 12 overs the Rapids looked to be building a useful platform.

It was the Stokes-Imran Tahir combination that sparked a flurry of wickets.

Head (40) went for a reverse sweep and was lbw to Tahir and Stokes struck twice in one over with Ross Whiteley (1) perishing at deep mid wicket and Ben Cox (17) at dee mid on.

Ed Barnard (5) was caught behind off Tahir and Stokes finished his spell by yorking Dillon Pennington (0).

In between those two dismissals, on loan paceman Luke Wood (7) holed out to deep mid on against Weighell.

The innings was completed when Brown (0) was run out by Nathan Rimmington at the non striker’s end to leave Brett D’Oliveira unbeaten on

The Rapids needed early wickets but Stokes and Clark came out with a positive mindset and put on 77 in nine overs.

Moeen made the breakthrough when Stokes (43 off 24 balls) was caught by Guptill at long off.

Brown plugged away and was rewarded when Tom Latham (15) and Clark, who hit seven fours and a six, were caught at mid on and mid off respectively.

He finished with 2-23 off three overs before the Jets completed their victory.