Quarter finals or eliminators?
The organisational catastrophe that is the Metro Bank One Day cup reached the quarter final stage, although there were just two games. Shouldn’t there be four quarter finals? Would they be better named as Eliminators or does that start to encroach on the other competition going on? Clubs have also had to make operational plans with 48 hours notice for these matches and the winners will have to do the same again for Sunday.
Worcestershire can feel particularly hard done by, unable to use New Road having secured a home quarter final, because of the staging of the England Lions match. With it being too short notice to utilise an outground, they have been compelled to give home advantage to Warwickshire, playing the game at Edgbaston. At least it’s only a short drive!
The other issue is selection now that five teams are no longer involved in the Hundred, allowing the strengthening of the county sides left in the One Day Cup. Somerset lost 10 players to the Hundred and some clubs are operating on fumes, with further demands made by England Lions call ups. It waits to be seen how much loyalty clubs show to the players who have taken them to this stage, but with injuries building up it would be no surprise to see some returnees making their first appearances.
For all the problems, those who made the trip to watch were royally entertained. The two games took a very similar course with almost identical first innings scores and then chases that appeared to be in trouble, before being rescued by some excellent batting efforts down the order.
The headlines will be grabbed by Warwickshire’s Kai Smith, a 19-year-old born in Dubai to South African parents who completed his schooling in Kent. He came to the crease with the Bears looking down and out at 77/5, but he saw them home with an unbeaten 130 off 104 balls, an innings that included 13 fours and five sixes. He was the dominant contributor to a partnership of 181 with Will Rhodes, that took the Bears in sight of victory and it just needed the finishing touches from Jake Lintott alongside Smith.
Warwickshire lost their last two games in the group stages while their opponents Worcestershire dropped down into third place in Group A following a three run loss to Lancashire. The Pears have had to rely on a youthful seam attack because of injuries and brought in 20-year-old left arm spinner Fateh Singh on loan from Nottinghamshire. They only lost Adam Hose to the Hundred and he was brought back in to the starting eleven at the expense of Josh Cobb. Warwickshire have lost nine players to the Hundred as well as Rob Yates and Hamza Shaikh to the Lions, but did not include Richard Gleeson, the only one of their Hundred players not still involved.
Worcestershire were asked to bat first and this has been the Pears strength, with three of the top seven runs scorers in the competiton so far. Two of those, Ed Pollock and Jake Libby, who sits at the top of the rankings, were the main contributors to the innings. Pollock adopted his usual aggressive approach at the top of the order, making 54 from 64 balls, but it was Libby who held the things together. They were well placed at 134/4 after 30 overs and Libby and Ethan Brookes (21) scored a run a ball for the next ten overs. There were some cameos from the lower order that then gave the run rate a necessary boost, Tom Taylor making 28 from 18 balls. Libby eventually fell to the first ball of the 49th over, having made 112 from 115 balls and the innings finished with the Rapids on 286/9, 92 runs coming from the last 10 overs. Michael Rae finished with three for 54, the New Zealander having been re-signed by the Bears following a brief stint with them back in May. The seam bowling resources have been stretched by long term injuries to Chris Rushworth and Liam Norwell, the latter now released.
In the absence of Yates, 18-year-old Theo Wylie opened the batting with Ed Barnard and after two boundaries had helped him to a run-a-ball 11, he played one too many aggressive shots and lofted Harry Darley to mid off. He was soon joined back in the pavilion by Zen Malik, the South Asian Cricket Academy graduate playing his second game for the Bears. Barnard came into this game as the Bear’s leading run scorer with 390 at 78.00 and he and Will Rhodes took the score to 50 before Jack Home induced Barnard to lob the ball to Pollock at mid-wicket, out for 29. The Bears’ position worsened when Michael Burgess (4) pushed the ball to point and was sent back when halfway down the pitch, Ethan Brookes scoring a direct hit with one stump to aim at. Chris Benjamin was then caught behind off Brookes for 11, leaving the Bears on 77/5, still needing 210 from 31.1 overs. Smith joined Rhodes at the crease and it was the youngster who looked the more fluent as Rhodes struggled to get the ball away. Smith reached his maiden half century off 52 balls and Rhodes was just there in a supporting role. He went to his 50 off 86 balls and they had taken the score to 258 when Rhodes tried to force Tom Hinley over mid off and Brookes took a diving catch over his shoulder, Rhodes gone for 75 from 107 balls. The Bears still needed 29 from 24 deliveries and Smith had a few swings and misses before taking Tom Taylor for three successive boundaries (one a six) to complete the win with an over to spare.
At Leicester it was a rerun of last year’s final between Leicestershire and Hampshire and it was a game that went down to the last over, the Foxes getting home by three wickets the winning run coming off the penultimate ball.
Hampshire had utilised Liam Dawson in their last group game and also brought in John Turner to replace Mohammad Abbas. Louis Kimber had already played the last two games for Leicestershire, released by Birmingham Phoenix, while Ian Holland is on loan from Hampshire and was therefore unable to play for the Foxes in this match, Chris Wright coming in.
The Foxes chose to field first and Nick Gubbins remained at the top of the Hampshire batting order, alongside Fletcha Middleton. Gubbins has had a quiet competition so far, passing fifty just once, but he took a liking to the Foxes attack, posting his highest List A score with 136 from 139 balls. The top order were able to hang around with Gubbins long enough to get the score to 129/3, but it was with Dawson that the innings’ biggest partnership was made. They took the total to 220, but Gubbins then played on to Wright, having deposited the previous ball for six. 220/4 rapidly became 220/5, as Wright bowled Toby Albert two balls later and Dawson was caught and bowled by Roman Walker having just reached his 50. A total that was heading for 300+ started to drift as the Foxes bowlers seemed to get the upper hand, but an excellent 39 off 20 balls from 18-year-old Dominic Kelly, gave the innings a badly needed boost and they finished on 290/8.
The competition’s second highest run scorer Sol Budinger opened for the Foxes alongside Walker, sent in as a pinch hitter. He did not last long, edging John Turner through to Ben Brown behind the stumps for four. Turner followed that up by bowling Budinger (20) and inducing and edge from Lewis Hill (4), taken by Brown to leave the Foxes 30/3 after 8.4 overs. Ajinkya Rahane and Peter Handscomb had come together in a worse position in the deciding group game against Gloucestershire and again they built a commanding partnership, neither looking in any trouble. It was therefore a surprise when Handscomb top edged a hook shot off Turner into the hands of Kelly at long leg. His 74 from just 53 balls had helped put on 128 for the fourth wicket, leaving Rahane on 52 not out and the Foxes needing 133 from 22 overs. Momentum moved further towards the Hawks when Brad Wheal bowled Louis Kimber for two and 158/3 had become 167/5. Wheal then dismissed Rahane for 70, caught on the short boundary and Hampshire had taken control with Leicestershire 188/6, still needing 103 from 94 balls.
Two experienced heads in Ben Cox and Liam Trevaskis regained the upper hand for the Foxes, adding 94 for the seventh wicket. Hampshire did not help themselves as Cox was put down by Kelly when on 31, although the same fielder took the catch to dismiss him for 45 off the last ball of the 48th over. With just nine needed from 12 balls it appeared too late, but the next over, bowled by Wheal, went for just four runs. Hampshire were compelled to use Kelly for the last over, his first three having gone for 27 runs, but a dot and then a leg bye left the equation four from four, or three for a super over. Disappointingly the next ball was a front foot no ball and although the free hit was a dot, two singles saw the Foxes home. Trevaskis finished on 60 not out from 55 balls, while Turner picked up four for 44.
Warwickshire will now travel to Cardiff to play Glamorgan, while Somerset host Leicestershire. Glamorgan and Warwickshire met in the group stages, although the game was abandoned after one innings. Hopefully supporters will feel able to make the trip for what should be two exciting semi finals.
