Worcestershire transfer near knock-out phases as D’Oliveira stars towards Notts
Worcestershire 140 for five (Pollock 38*, D’Olivieira 36) beat Nottinghamshire 139 for 8 (Montgomery 39, D’Oliveira 2-15)
Worcestershire Rapids registered a 3rd successive win to stay on target for the quarter-finals of the Vitality Blast as they accomplished a double over Nottinghamshire Outlaws at New Road with a five-wicket success.
The Outlaws had been restricted to 139 for 8 after a splendid all-round bowling efficiency by the house facet on a pitch the place it was onerous to get the ball away.
Dillon Pennington set the tone with a probing three overs in the course of the Powerplay and the spin trio of Mitchell Santner, skipper Brett D’Oliveira and Usama Mir had mixed figures of 11-0-65-5. Pat Brown additionally picked up two extra wickets to take his tally to 21 and was unfortunate to not add to that determine after a few late alternatives had been spilled.
D’Oliveira then gave the Rapids reply early momentum with the bat. Although additionally they discovered it troublesome to attain freely towards the spinners, Ed Pollock and Adam Hose combined aggression with wise batting in including an unbroken 60 in eight overs to see the Rapids to victory with 9 balls to spare.
The Rapids at the moment are degree on 14 factors with the Outlaws however have a recreation in hand heading into the event’s finale. Notts had been with out Colin Munro (hamstring) and Samit Patel, who was lacking his first ever T20 recreation via harm for the Outlaws, and his first for any cause since 2012, ending a sequence of 145 consecutive Blast appearances.
Haseeb Hameed made his first-ever T20 look whereas the Rapids introduced Matthew Waite into their facet for brand new England tempo bowler Josh Tongue.
The Outlaws had been put into bat by D’Oliveira and shortly bumped into hassle. Alex Hales wanted yet another most to turn out to be the competitors’s all-time main six-hitter however stays on 182 after edging his first supply from Pennington via to keeper Ben Cox.
Santner additionally struck in his first over when Lyndon James tried to work the New Zealand all-rounder to leg and performed throughout a supply which knocked out his off stump. Former Worcestershire participant Joe Clarke lofted Waite for the primary six of the sport however the Outlaws had been restricted to 40-2 within the powerplay.
Matt Montgomery did his greatest to improvise towards some correct bowling and twice reverse-swept leg spinner Usama for boundaries.
But Clarke struggled to 19 from 18 deliveries earlier than he holed out to deep midwicket off D’Oliveira after including 53 with Montgomery.
Montgomery managed a run a ball 39 however then tried to hit D’Oliveira excessive and perished to a catch by Usama working again from cowl.
Hameed then aimed a giant blow at Santner and solely picked out lengthy on and Shaheen Afridi offered catching apply to deep mid wicket off Usama.
Pat Brown then lifted his wicket tally for the event to 21 with two in two balls. Outlaws captain Steven Mullaney was pouched at cowl and Calvin Harrison tried to ramp first supply and was bowled. Tom Moores did his greatest to get the Outlaws as much as a aggressive whole, with each he and Matt Carter had been dropped within the ultimate over from Brown.
D’Oliveira acquired the Rapids reply off to a flier with 4, six, 4, 4 off successive balls from James, scoring 24 of the primary 27 earlier than Jack Haynes mistimed a Jake Ball supply and was caught at mid on. Santner provided an easy return catch to Carter after which D’Oliveira picked out deep mid wicket in Calvin Harrison’s first over.
Notts sensed they had been again within the contest however the dwelling facet didn’t assist their trigger with some irresponsible photographs.
Kashif Ali aimed a mighty heave at Mullalley over the leg facet and was bowled after which Ben Cox was bowled behind his legs sweeping at Harrison.
But Hose and Pollock stored calm, content material to take the singles and pounce on free deliveries to good impact. Pollock has endured a difficult marketing campaign with the bat however, coming in at No. 7, confirmed his high quality with a number of high quality drives.