365 Sporting Days

It’s a gloomy Bank Holiday Monday and we have 4 games in the Royal London Cup today. 3 of the games will decide who qualifies from the Northern league, any of the top 4 can still get one of the top 3 slots. The table looks like this before this round of matches. Lancashire can only sit and watch from a distance and hope a young Yorkshire team do them some favours. I’m going to post this as a starter and fill the details in once the matches have been completed, let’s hope the weather doesn’t have too much say. Back from an afternoon in London, so here we go with the last games in the Northern group.

• Notts played – 7, Won – 5, RR – 0.715, Points 11
• Worcs 7, 5, 1.198, 10
• Lancashire 8, 5, 0.344, 10
• Durham 7, 4, 0.472, 9

Derbyshire 351 for 9 v Worcestershire 353 for 6

Billy Godleman won the toss for Derbyshire and elected to bat. As I write they’re 33 for 1, with Godleman himself having been out for a Duck. That proved to be unproblematical as his opening partner Luis Reece and Wayne Madsen put on 222 for the 2nd wicket. Reece scored 128 from 108 balls and Madsen 113 from 97 balls. Alex Hughes played a cameo role hitting 43 from 31 and Derbyshire finished on 351 for 9 in their 50 overs.

In reply Worcs had a pretty decent start themselves as well as 2 centurions. Rkik Wessels and Tom Fell put on 152 for the first wicket. Callum Ferguson came in at 3 and he and Wessels added another 34 before Wessels was out having made 130 from just 62 balls! That was some innings! Ferguson made a slightly more sedate century and was not out for 103 from 95 balls. Ferguson had 5 partners and helped steer Worcs to 353 for 6, a win by 4 wickets.

• Luis Reece – 128 from 108 Balls – Strike Rate 118.52
• Wayne Madsen – 113 from 97 Balls – Strike Rate 116.49
• Riki Wessels – 130 from 62 Balls – Strike Rate 209.68
• Callum Ferguson – 103 from 95 Balls – Strike Rate 108.42

Leicestershire 340 All Out v Warwickshire 304 All Out

Colin Ackerman won the toss for Leicestershire and elected to bat, they’re 29 for 1 in the 6th over. Their 2nd wicket fell at 85. There were 3 scores over 50. with Harry Dearden making 69 form 62 balls, Colin Ackerman 74 from 80 balls and a top score for Tom Taylor with 98 from 56 balls, a strike rate of 175. There was some hard hitting going on in this final round! The wickets were shared between 5 bowlers and Derbyshire were bowled out for 340 in 49.3 overs.

Warwicks started well with their opening pair Ed Pollock and Dom Sibley putting on 71 for the first wicket. Top scorer Rob Yates was run out on 66 and Warwicks fell short as they were bowled out in 47.1 overs for 304. Leics won by 36 runs.

Northamptonshire 325 for 7 v Nottinghamshire 328 for 9

Alex Wakely won the toss for Northants and elected to bat, they’re 24 for 1 in the 7th over after Richard Levi was bowled for 9. This turned into an amazing game of cricket as Northants built a decent score. Ricardo Vasconcelos and Josh Cobb put on 117 for the 2nd wicket. Cobb made 63 from 65 balls and Vasconcelos 74 from 78 balls. Rob Keogh contributed 71 from 60 balls and Alex Wakely 53 from 42 balls. They made 325 for 7 in their 50 overs.

Notts were looking to finish top to go straight to the semi-finals, with a home match to boot. Things weren’t going too well as they fell to 116 for 5. Alex Hales had a cameo role on his return, scoring 36. I was checking through the afternoon and saw a fairly high number of runs needed from not too many overs, I noticed Samit Patel was in and thought to myself, if anyone can get them there he can. And so it proved, he batted for nearly 3 hours and made 136 from 124 balls to see his team to the win with 3 balls to spare. A partnership of 111 with Tom Moores for the 6th wicket set things well on the way. Notts made 328 for 9, winning by a wicket.

• Samit Patel – 130 from 124 Balls – Strike Rate 109.68

Yorkshire v Durham

Tom Koehler Cadmore won the toss for Yorkshire and put Durham in to bat, they’re 55 for no wicket in the 7th over. Of all the games that could’ve changed things at the top of the league this was the one that got rained off. So, no result and no play off spot for Durham, Lancashire keep 3rd spot through having 5 wins to Durham’s 4.

The top 3 matches the table above with 2 extra points for Notts and Worcs. Worcs will play the team finishing 3rd in the Southern league and Lancs will play the team finishing 2nd. Hampshire will remain at the top of the Southern league and will go directly to a home semi-final. The winner of the match involving Worcs will play Notts, the winner of the match involving Lancs play Hampshire.