Usama Mir, Brett D’Oliveira to the fore as Worcestershire halt shedding run
Worcestershire 113 for 4 (D’Oliveira 51*, Rehan 2-25) beat Leicestershire 112 (Mir 4-22) by six wickets
Worcestershire Rapids stored alive their hopes of qualifying for the knockout phases of the Vitality Blast by ending a run of 4 straight defeats within the North Group with a snug six-wicket win over Leicestershire Foxes.
The dwelling facet, backside of the desk with simply two wins from 9 matches, had been dismissed for simply 112 in 18.1 overs as legspinner Usama Mir completed with a T20 career-best 4 for 22 and fellow wristspinner Brett Oliveira took 2 for 17.
Skipper D’Oliveira’s unbeaten 51 then noticed his facet dwelling within the seventeenth over to lift their factors haul to 10 as they bid to construct on their 4 back-to-back wins firstly of the competitors and clinch a top-four end.
Australian wicketkeeper-batter Peter Handscomb, not initially a part of the Foxes’ Blast plans however drafted in as harm cowl with batter Lewis Hill and abroad tempo bowler Naveen ul-Haq amongst these absent, top-scored with 36 from 20 balls and Rishi Patel made 27 from 22 however the next-highest rating was Wiaan Mulder’s 11.
Having been put in on a gradual pitch, the Foxes regarded set to put up a aggressive whole regardless of shedding Nick Welch to the fourth ball of the innings, racking up 56 runs within the powerplay for that one loss.
Welch miscued an enormous drive in opposition to Dillon Pennington however after Patel had launched a free hit over the long-on boundary following a Josh Tongue no-ball, Handscomb confirmed the Foxes what they’d been lacking by plundering two sixes and three fours.
But every part fell aside for the house facet simply as quickly because the Australian was out within the eighth over, bowled by D’Oliveira’s first ball as he was overwhelmed attempting to work to leg. The second-wicket pair had blitzed 64 in 39 balls however no different partnership exceeded 13 as one wicket adopted one other in speedy succession.
The subsequent over noticed Mir – introduced again by the Rapids as a alternative for the injured Michael Bracewell – dismiss Colin Ackermann and Patel within the house of three deliveries because the Foxes skipper was caught behind off an inside edge and Patel was leg earlier than attempting to slog-sweep after hitting two sixes in his 22-ball 27.
Louis Kimber was bowled giving himself room to drive Mitchell Santner earlier than Rehan Ahmed holed out to long-on. Mir took two in two balls, having Tom Scriven caught within the deep and bamboozling Mike Finan with a first-ball googly.
Mulder’s ramp was effectively caught by a diving Pennington earlier than the rout ended with Callum Parkinson attempting to lob a ball from Pat Brown over D’Oliveira at further cowl solely to be foiled by an athletic leap and one-handed catch.
The final 9 wickets fell for 46 because the Foxes had been out in 18.2 overs, which might solely be described as depressing, a lot as Mir and D’Oliveira had bowled effectively, requiring the guests to attain at lower than six an over to win the sport.
Although the sky was darkening as they started their innings, the Rapids knew they might afford to not take dangers as long as they stored in entrance of the DLS calculation, with simply 5 overs wanted to be bowled by the Foxes to make it a match.
It thus didn’t matter that their 37 for 1 from the primary six regarded modest subsequent to the house facet’s 56 for 1, Jack Haynes the one loss as he clipped a ball from Matt Salisbury into the arms of Kimber on the leg facet.
Leicestershire gave themselves a faint glimmer of hope as Santner discovered the fielder on the long-off rope and Adam Hose bottom-edged a ball from Rehan into his stumps, the Rapids shedding wickets in consecutive overs, however at 66 for 3 from 10, they had been nonetheless in entrance on DLS with thunder rumbling close by.
Kashif Ali grew to become a second sufferer for Rehan when he edged to brief third man within the fifteenth over however by then solely 21 runs had been wanted from 35 balls. Rain now was falling however the umpires sensibly stored the gamers on the sphere lengthy sufficient for Ben Cox to brush Ackermann for 4 and D’Oliveira to hit Finan for a mighty six over lengthy on and a lofted 4 over further cowl to clinch victory with 22 balls to spare.