Thursday, July 9th, 2015

Rhodes And Whiteley Hit Centuries As Seconds Gain Another Trophy Triumph

Rhodes And Whiteley Hit Centuries As Seconds Gain Another Trophy Triumph

George Rhodes and Ross Whiteley scored centuries as Worcestershire Seconds overcame Nottinghamshire Seconds by 121 runs at Trent College to maintain their unbeaten start in the Second Eleven Trophy.

Coach Kevin Sharp's side have collected five points from their opening three games as a result of wins over Unicorns and Notts and an abandoned game against Durham.

Worcestershire elected to bat in their latest match and lost two early wickets.

Oli Westbury and Rhodes dug in and worked the ball around the field between them, running plenty of quick singles and surviving a couple of run out attempts and taking the total to 100 in the 24th over.

Westbury was trapped lbw to Connor Marshall for 37 after a stand of 86 with Rhodes for the third wicket.

The arrival of Whiteley saw a major increase in the scoring rate as the all-rounder and Rhodes plundered 201 in just 19 overs for the fourth wicket.

Whiteley sent the ball flying to all parts of the ground no matter who bowled, scoring 44 of the first 50 runs while at the wicket.

Despite Rhodes being on 40 when he was joined by Whiteley, it was the latter who reached his half century first – off 33 balls with seven fours and one six.

Rhodes reached his half century in the next over from 79 deliveries with one boundary.

Once Rhodes had reached his half century, he caught the boundary bug from Whiteley and, with the pair of them in fine form, milestone after milestone was passed and by the 45th over, 300 runs had been scored and both batsmen had scored centuries.

Rhodes was caught at long off by Billy Root for 101 off 117 balls with eight fours. In the following over Whiteley was caught at deep mid on by Notts captain Paul Franks for 135 off 68 balls with nine sixes and 13 fours – a total of 106 in boundaries.

Having watched the run fest with his pads on for the previous 20 overs, keeper Calvin Dickinson was bowled first ball and Ed Barnard followed suite two overs later.

A flurry of boundaries and wickets at the end of the Worcestershire innings made their final total 341-8 off their 50 overs.

Nottinghamshire could not repeat the batting fireworks of the first innings and found themselves on 28-4 in the 12th over, thanks to the opening bowling attack of Ed Barnard and Liam Smith who finished with 3-20 from eight overs.

They were aided by the fielding skills of Whiteley who caught three of the four dismissals at first slip, short mid on and cover.

Whiteley then came on first change and bowled Anuj Dal in his second over as Notts slumped to 48-5.

Two youngsters, Connor Marshall and Tom Keast, showed the other Notts batsmen how it should have been done, by batting sensibly for the next 16 overs, with Keast making a career best 70 from 84 balls before being bowled by Darrel Williams.

By this time, the target was far beyond the reach of Notts who ended on 220-8.

Worcestershire Seconds

Hepburn b Webster 0

Rhodes c Root b Webster 101

Kervezee b Webster 13

Westbury lbw Marshall 37

Whiteley c Franks b Tillcock 135

Barnard b Dal 8

Dickinson b Tillcock 0

Twohig not out 10

Williams lbw Dall 11

Smith not out 1

Extras 25

Total (for 8 wickets) 341

FOW: 1, 18, 104, 305, 311, 311, 326, 340

Bowling: Webster 3-63,Dal 2-56, Tillcock 2-77, Marshall 1-38

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Nottinghamshire Seconds

Libby c Whiteley b Barnard 9

Moores c Whiteley b Smith 2

Root b Smith 1

Dal b Whiteley 4

Tillcock c Whiteley b Smith 7

Fish st Dickinson b Williams 20

Keast b Williams 20

Marshall not out 54

Webster c Dickinson b Patel 32

Franks not out 1

Extras 10

Total (for 8 wickets) 220

FOW: 10, 12, 17, 28, 48, 80, 172, 219

Bowling

Barnard 10-0-38-1

Smith 8-2-20-3

Whiteley 4-0-18-1

Patel 8-0-39-1

Williams 10-0-56-2

Twohig 10-0-47-0

*The Seconds are next in action at Royal Grammar School, Worcester, Flagge Meadow in a three-day Second Eleven Championship match against MCC Young Cricketers starting on Monday July 13, 11am.