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Jake Ball said he hopes he “can bounce a few Aussies out” if he wins selection for the first Test in Brisbane

George Dobell in Brisbane20-Nov-2017Most players on the verge of their first Ashes Test might be hoping to emulate their heroes, but Jake Ball is hoping for the opposite. In one respect, anyway.Ball grew-up idolising Steve Harmison. Inspired by Harmison’s pace and hostility in the 2005 Ashes, Ball would take to the garden with his brother and “try to bounce him out”.But while he will not want to replicate Harmison’s infamous first delivery at the Gabba at start of the 2006-07 Ashes – the ball that went to second slip, a harbinger of doom for a grim series from an England perspective – he is still hoping to emulate the Harmison of 2005. And that means looking to bounce out the Australian batsmen.

Broad hit by golf ball

Stuart Broad escaped serious injury after he was hit by a golf ball while playing at Brisbane Golf Club on Monday. Broad was on the putting green when he was hit on the lower back by a stray ball hit by a member of the club. He did not require treatment and is not in any way an injury doubt ahead of Thursday’s first Ashes Test.

“I hope I can bounce a few of the Aussies out,” Ball said as he visited the Gabba for the first time on Monday. I have the height and bounce.”I showed in the first couple of games on the tour that I can extract extra bounce and the Gabba is renowned for being a bouncy pitch. Hopefully I can show that and nick a few of the Aussies off.”I’m in a really good position at the minute. I think we’re going to hit the ground running and I hope to surprise a few people. I think we’ve a really good chance.”Ball has emerged as a near certainty to play in the first Test over the last few days, which may surprise a few. He has a Test bowling average of 114, after all – he has only played three Tests and two of them were in India – and he has been limited to just 22 first-class deliveries on tour to date after spraining his ankle in Adelaide.But the spells he did bowl clearly made a strong impression. Trevor Bayliss rated Ball as the side’s “best bowler” in the warm-up match in Perth, while Jonny Bairstow reckoned he was the quickest of England’s seamers. At every state, the management have said they wanted him to play in Brisbane where his height and ability to hit the seam could be an asset.”I’m really confident in what I’m doing,” Ball said. “I’ve played club cricket in Australia. I’ve always had in the back of my mind that these pitches can really suit my style of bowling and bowling in Perth and Adelaide reinforced that.”He admits, however, that there was a moment when he feared for his Ashes prospects in the immediate aftermath of sustaining the injury.”There was a split-second where I felt something wasn’t quite right,” he said. “I had my eyes closed and I was thinking ‘Does it hurt?’ All sorts of thoughts go through your head.”It was a bit gutting, especially with bowling so well in the first couple of games.”But the medical staff have been amazing. The last couple of days in Townsville went really well and I got through 17 overs at full pace and a couple of sessions of fielding. I’m now 100% confident that I can get through a five-day Test. I’m in a really good position.”You dream about playing in the Ashes. To be here and have a chance of playing is amazing and if I do get the nod, I’ll go out there and give 100%.”We’re not intimidated. All the batters have dealt with 90mph pace before and they will deal with it again. They can talk it up, talk about their pace, but it’s nothing that we haven’t faced before. We’ll look to put the pressure back on them.”

Doug Bracewell and Todd Astle combined for seven wickets to help New Zealand cruise to a five-wicket win in the first ODI in Whangarei

The Report by Nikhil Kalro19-Dec-2017
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
The early bird often gets the worm, but there is an equally good chance of nocturnal birds catching it. There are also significantly different approaches to ODI cricket. New Zealand are a disciplined team, insistent on doing the basics right. West Indies rely on their strength: a batting approach that revolves around attempting to find the boundary more often than gaps through the field. The longer the duration of a game, the better the chances of discipline trumping aggression.West Indies weren’t able to sustain their approach for long enough, but New Zealand did as they limited the visitors to 248 for 9, and then chased it down clinically in the first ODI in Whangarei. Doug Bracewell, on his return to international cricket after pleading guilty to a drink-driving offence, picked up 4 for 55 from eight overs, and legspinning ODI debutant Todd Astle finished with 3 for 33. New Zealand’s openers, George Worker and Colin Munro then blazed away with a 108-run stand off just 100 balls to effectively kill the game on a surface that got progressively better to bat on.Chris Gayle and Evin Lewis began cautiously, playing out three successive maidens. The first five overs produced four runs. Both batsmen soon found their hitting rhythm, combining for five fours and a six in a 40-run opening stand. At no point did they consider singles as a scoring option. Bracewell then had Gayle caught behind off his first ball. A thick inside edge had Shai Hope two balls later.West Indies enjoyed their best period of batting thereafter, as Shimron Hetmyer and Lewis picked their deliveries to score off. Unsurprisingly, both batsmen were in most control when they were attacking. Hetmyer, though, failed to pick a googly from Astle in the 24th over, chipping a catch to long-off, an indicator that Hetmyer hasn’t found his batting tempo just yet.As has happened so often on their tour already, West Indies’ middle order was again done in by a combination of pace and the lack of it. Lockie Ferguson, generating 145-kmph speeds, had Jason Mohammed caught on the crease and chopping onto his stumps. Jason Holder was caught at gully, a one-handed stunner from Ross Taylor to his right, off a legcutter from Bracewell. West Indies had quickly slumped from 103 for 2 to 134 for 5.After a 43-run partnership that stabilised West Indies, Lewis misread a googly, missing a sweep off a full delivery on 76. Umpire Shamshuddin, it seemed, misread the variation too, as replays showed the ball would have missed off stump. West Indies didn’t have a review left.Rovman Powell displayed admirable patience, biding his time to carry West Indies to 50 overs. In Kesrick Williams’ company, he struck a belligerent 50-ball 59, which included two fours and four sixes.New Zealand’s top order, led by openers Worker and Munro, showed up West Indies’ woefully under-par total. West Indies’ seamers bowled two lengths: too short or too full, struggling to find the perfect length in between. Both batsmen laid into short and wide deliveries, scoring a combined 47 runs square on the off side.West Indies, though, hit back quickly with wickets in consecutive overs. Munro lobbed a catch to short cover in the 17th over, beaten slightly for pace off the bowling of Williams. Worker then misread the trajectory of a dart from Ashley Nurse, missing a cut that was far too close to his body.With no lateral movement on an even surface, conditions were perfect for batting. Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor looked largely unflustered in a 57-run partnership at 4.12 per over.One of Williamson’s strengths is his ability to rotate strike through third man with an angled bat, but with the line close to off stump, that stroke becomes risky. He chopped one such delivery from Jason Holder onto his stumps on 38.Taylor stayed circumspect through his innings, displaying a keenness to take New Zealand home. His unbeaten 76-ball 49 included just two fours, but like New Zealand’s way, it got the job done.

The captain hammered 143 to lift the total to 341, which proved plenty more than enough against Kenya Under-19s

ESPNcricinfo staff14-Jan-2018
ScorecardRaynard van Tonder smashed 14 fours and five sixes in his 143•Getty Images

Raynard van Tonder struck the third-highest score by a South African in Under-19 ODIs – matching AB de Villiers’ 143 from nearly 15 years ago – to decimate Kenya in Lincoln on Sunday.Coming in at the end of the third over, van Tonder nearly batted all the way through to finish with 14 fours and five sixes to lay the groundwork for a whopping 169-run victory. Aside from the captain’s effort, the opener Jiveshan Pillay (62 off 67) was the highest contributor to South Africa’s total of 341.Jasraj Kundi, who was Kenya’s best bowler with 2 for 49 from his 10 overs of medium pace, also ended up scoring the most runs. With his team 98 for 6 in the 34th over, he made 41 off only 53 balls, with five fours to help ensure the full quota of 50 overs was used. Akhona Mnyaka, South Africa’s left-arm quick, produced 19 dots in 24 balls and dismissed Kenya’s openers along the way. Thando Ntini, son of Makhaya, opened the bowling to pick up a wicket and string in 28 dots in 36 balls. Offspinner Kenan Smith also chipped in with 2 for 36.

While Australia’s pace attack has not been as effective in the ODIs as it was in the Ashes, Mark Wood and Liam Plunkett have played an important role in England winning the series

Daniel Brettig25-Jan-2018Moeen Ali believes England has benefited enormously from having two vastly different bowling attacks for Tests and limited-overs matches, with the freshness of Mark Wood and Liam Plunkett contributing greatly to an ODI series win in Australia with two matches to spare.While Plunkett was injured in the third game in Sydney and is set to be replaced by one of Tom Curran or David Willey for the Australia Day match in Adelaide, Moeen said he and Wood had been key parts of the contrasting results on this tour. Neither of England’s leading long-form bowlers, James Anderson and Stuart Broad, are chosen for ODI matches anymore, and Wood and Plunkett were able to provide an instant impact against Australia’s batsmen.By contrast, the Australian pace attack that prospered during the Tests – Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins – has looked somewhat below their best across the opening three matches, as the home side’s coaching and support staff try to manage their energy levels and workloads between now and next month’s Test tour of South Africa.”We did that a couple of years ago where Jimmy and Broady stopped playing white-ball cricket, we’ve got bowlers who are fresh when they come into the teams,” Moeen said in Adelaide. “After the Ashes series we had Mark Wood and Liam Plunkett, who are guys that bowl fast. When you’ve played the Ashes and lost and fresh faces come in to lift the dressing room, the environment is completely different.”Our 50-over team has been very strong, it’s a team a lot of countries want to emulate as much as they can. We’re very proud of it and we see it as a big thing actually. To be 3-0 up here for the first time ever is fantastic and we really are determined to win 5-0. We’ve got some brilliant players who can’t get into the team and you don’t want to give your spot up. You want to be part of this team.Aaron Finch the leading runscorer in series from either side, is out of the Adelaide match with a hamstring strain, but Moeen said that even with two centuries and a 50 in three innings, England were happy with how they had handled him.”He’s played really well but even with him scoring big runs we’ve managed to bowl quite well at him,” Moeen said. “He’s not destroyed us or taken the game away from us. We’re very pleased against a player like him, who has scored a lot of runs but we’ve still managed to win the games quite convincingly.”As one of the members of the squad to experience both Test and limited-overs series, Moeen said the contrast had been marked. “It’s obviously been tough,” he said. “A series win is going to be fantastic, 5-0 would be an amazing feeling. The Ashes was gone pretty early in the series, which was disappointing, and from a personal point of view it’s been a long tour. It started with a disappointing half but hopefully in the second half we can enjoy it.”With the Test matches I struggled throughout, the harder I tried the worse I got. The one-day stuff the intensity is there but the pressure is not as much. We have a stable team, the guys have been together a long time now and we know what we’re doing. It’s a lot different to the Tests in terms of the way we play.”It’s not as easy [to play with freedom]. When you’re playing well as an individual in Test cricket you do that anyway. With the one-dayers it’s almost a given, go out and play the way you play. We bat all the way down. You can’t do that in Test cricket as much but our one-day stuff is great to be part of.”

Netherlands needed to win this game to have any chance of staying in contention for a place in World Cup 2019. They did that.

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Mar-2018Peter Della Penna

Netherlands needed to win this game, while also improving their net run rate as much as possible, to have any chance of staying in contention for a place in World Cup 2019. They did most of that. After making 216 for 8, they bowled Papua New Guinea out for 159 to win by 57 runs. Now, they will have to beat West Indies – once again, by as big a margin as possible – then hope other results go their way.For a while, it seemed that Netherlands would get exactly the result they wanted – that is, victory by a huge margin – as PNG slid from 45 for 1 to 93 for 7. Netherlands’ plans took a hit, though, as PNG’s lower order, in the company of Kiplin Doriga, kept chipping away at the runs required to give their total some respectability. Eventually, they finished on 159, with Roelof van der Merwe doing most damage with his left-arm spin. That might not have been the margin of victory Netherlands were after, but it was still two points in the bag.The result was hardly a given when Netherlands suffered a top-order collapse of their own, going from 57 for no loss to 98 for 5. It took a lower-order counterattack to drag them past 200. The leaders of this late charge were van der Merwe (38 off 41), Pieter Seelaar (23 off 18) and Sikander Zulfiqar, who with an unbeaten 53 off 65, registered his second List A half-century.While the PNG bowlers shared the wickets around, the legspin of Charles Amini and Mahuru Dai proved most restrictive; they went at under four an over in picking up two wickets apiece. It turned out that was not enough. PNG head home from the World Cup Qualifiers without a win in four games.

Pacer says the incident was partially his fault, but maintains that he did not feel any contact when shoulders brushed

Firdose Moonda16-Mar-2018Kagiso Rabada has conceded he should not have got into Steven Smith’s space after dismissing him in the first innings of the Port Elizabeth Test, an action for which he is currently set to miss the remainder of the Test series. He insisted, however, he did not feel any contact when his shoulder brushed Smith’s.Rabada is appealing against his Level 2 sanction on Monday, with the hope of having three of his nine demerit points removed and allow him to play on; how this qualified acceptance of responsibility affects his defense only time will tell.Asked at a sponsor function in Johannesburg whether he had been harshly treated, Rabada was equivocal and said he could see both sides of the argument.”It’s debatable. Some people think so, some people don’t. I take responsibility for what happened. On the video, it looks like I got into the guy’s space, so I shouldn’t have done that. I’ll say 50/50, it’s my fault. I didn’t feel anything in the moment.”Rabada, who expressed regret for his actions in the aftermath of the Test, said that he will rethink his celebrations in future. “I must obey the rules. I do things because I’m passionate. Sometimes, you are bowling against the best players. I guess I shouldn’t really rub it into their faces. It’s a case of still have the passion, but let the batsman be after I get him out.”In the interim, Rabada has reached out to several people, including his father, who have all advised him that he needs to calm down. “Anyone can give you advice on that – it’s emotional, so your parents, a close friend, it’s about managing your emotions and making sure that you follow the rules, not do anything stupid,” he said. “It teaches you about yourself and how you react in certain situations, and what is a better way to react without losing anything. My father has given me advice, short and sweet, he told me to relax and talk with the ball.”Rabada said he would attempt to set a better example in future. “I guess incidents like these are not the best for children to see, because they can be portrayed or perceived in a bad way. It’s to do things, still being yourself, but realising that people can perceive things in a different way.”Dale Steyn, who had told media after the first Test that the demerit points were hampering Rabada’s aggression, said at the same function that Rabada’s age and inexperience have all contributed to his actions, and that in time, he will likely rein it in.”I did think he was a bit tame in the first Test, and felt the handcuffs of those demerit points sitting on him and not being able to say anything or perform the way that he likes to perform. It is going to be fine line going forward for KG.”We also remember he is 22. We all make stupid mistakes when we’re 22. It doesn’t matter how many cricket matches he has played, how many wickets he takes. He is still 22. We can’t be upset about that.”Steyn recalled the time his own indiscretion got him into trouble, and hoped Rabada will learn from his mistakes. “Maybe this needed to happen for him to learn a bit quicker. I did stupid things when I was younger. I spat in the direction of Sulieman Benn. I haven’t done anything since. We all make these mistakes.”

The elections had initially been announced for May 19, but were postponed on technical grounds

Madushka Balasuriya11-May-2018Sri Lanka Cricket’s board elections will be held on May 31 after the country’s sports ministry gave its go-ahead following consultation with the Attorney General’s department.SLC elections had initially been announced for May 19, but were postponed on April 27 on technical grounds. SLC contested that they had received permission from previous Sports Minister Dayasiri Jayasekera to appoint an election committee at an Executive Committee meeting, but new Sports Minister Faiszer Mustapha insisted on following constitutional protocol, which dictates that such an appointment requires the approval of the general membership at an Extraordinary General Meeting.As such SLC called for an EGM on May 19. However, with the SLC constitution mandating a 40-day period between calling an election and holding one at an Annual General Meeting, elections could only be held in June at the earliest. With the present board’s term ending on May 31, this would have resulted in an interim committee being appointed until the elections. While in reality this would have likely seen the present Executive Committee remain in charge in the guise of an interim committee, it would have stripped them of the power to pass annual accounts at an AGM – a pressing concern for SLC President Thilanga Sumathipala.SLC therefore petitioned the sports ministry to hold elections on May 31 or at an earlier date, citing the fact that the nomination deadline had shut on April 27. With no new nominations being accepted, SLC felt the 40-day waiting period could be waived – an assessment the sports ministry eventually agreed with.It is expected that two camps headed by former SLC office bearers Nishantha Ranatunga and Jayantha Dharmadasa will contest against the incumbent board headed by Sumathipala.

A bone stress injury in his back has forced Hazlewood into a long list of injured fast bowlers that also includes Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc

Daniel Brettig28-May-2018Australia’s limited-overs tour of England has been thrown off-balance before it begins with the withdrawal of Josh Hazlewood due to a bone stress injury in his back on the very day the squad was due to fly out.Hazlewood joins Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc in being out of action due to bone-stress-related issues, with Cummins recovering from swelling in the vertebrae and Starc still out of action due to a bone stress reaction in his right leg. Michael Neser, the Queensland seam bowler, has been drafted into the touring squad.Hazlewood’s back injury means Australia’s Ashes-winning pace trio have been ruled out of their limited-overs tour to England•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

“Josh has been managing some low-level bone stress in his lumbar spine for a short period,” the team physio David Beakley said. “He had a repeat scan today and although it has not progressed to a fracture he is starting to experience some lower-back pain. As such, we are taking a conservative approach and he will not travel to England for the one-day series.”Hazlewood bowled in Brisbane on Sunday and was taken for the extra scan after complaining of soreness. Medical staff and Hazlewood are believed to have discussed the situation with the new coach Justin Langer and finalised the decision to withdraw him from the squad late afternoon, a matter of hours before the players and support staff were due to travel to the airport to commence their journey to London.The loss of Hazlewood means the captain Tim Paine and the new coach Justin Langer have a severely depleted bowling attack to choose from, with Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, Billy Stanlake and Andrew Tye joined by Neser. Nathan Lyon and Ashton Agar are the spin bowlers in the squad.

He has led his team to four successive losses and now they face an in-form Kolkata Knight Riders on home turf in a knockout game

The Preview by Alagappan Muthu24-May-20184:36

Swann: KKR start as favourites against Sunrisers

Form Guide

Kolkata Knight Riders: beat Rajasthan Royals by 25 runs, beat Kings XI Punjab by 31 runs, lost to Mumbai Indians by 102 runs
Sunrisers Hyderabad: lost to Super Kings by two wickets, lost to Knight Riders by five wickets, lost to RCB by 14 runs

Big Picture

Sunrisers Hyderabad play the perfect game. That’s why their wins in the league phase were so remarkable.To defend small totals, Bhuvneshwar Kumar had to outsmart the enemy. Siddharth Kaul had to frustrate them. And Rashid Khan had to deliver the knockout punch. The legspinner’s lucky his googly has top-secret status. Batsmen under the age of 90 can’t read it.And to chase ’em down, they needed Kane Williamson to understand that his mastery of defence has other uses as well. Like, when he extends his arms, while taking his usual care to pick the gaps, he can hit boundaries at will.Elevating their individual skills to insane levels, and combining them seamlessly, is how Sunrisers made the playoffs. But, like any gamer worth his salt would tell you, boss mode doesn’t last forever. You need contingencies.And that’s where Kolkata Knight Riders have been brilliant this season because if Lynn doesn’t hit you, Narine will. If Karthik doesn’t smash you, Russell will. If Narine doesn’t make you question why you ever picked up a bat, Kuldeep will. This from the team that came out of the IPL auction with the smallest squad. Friday’s going to be fun.

In the news

Sunrisers have lost four matches on the bounce – their longest losing streak in the IPL – soon after winning six on the trot – their longest winning streak.KKR have won their last four matches and are relishing playing at home, something which wouldn’t have happened according to the original IPL schedule, which had the playoffs in Pune.Wriddhiman Saha, who was sidelined with a shoulder injury, was seen going through rigorous practice in Mumbai. Nevertheless, it was Shreevats Goswami who took the gloves for Sunrisers in the first qualifier and he may well do so again.

Likely XIs

Kolkata Knight Riders: 1 Chris Lynn, 2 Sunil Narine, 3 Robin Uthappa, 4 Nitish Rana, 5 Dinesh Karthik (capt & wk), 6 Andre Russell, 7 Shubman Gill, 8 Javon Searles, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Piyush Chawla, 11 Prasidh KrishnaSunrisers Hyderabad: 1 Shikhar Dhawan, 2 Shreevats Goswami (wk), 3 Kane Williamson (capt), 4 Manish Pandey, 5 Shakib Al Hasan, 6 Yusuf Pathan, 7 Carlos Brathwaite, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Siddarth Kaul, 11 Sandeep Sharma

Previous meetings

Bhuvneshwar, Billy Stanlake and Shakib Al Hasan kept KKR to 138 in Hyderabad and chased it down with Williamson scoring a fifty.Chris Lynn and Robin Uthappa brushed aside a target of 173 at Eden Gardens, where the average winning first-innings score this season is 193.

Strategy punt

Andre Russell has faced four kinds of bowling in IPL 2018 and here is how he’s gone about his work: 229 runs at a strike rate of 209 against right-arm quicks, 38 at 237 against left-arm quicks, 16 at 200 against left-arm spinners and 30 at 103 against right-arm wristspinners. Pick the odd one out. Hint: Rashid Khan.

Stats that matter

• Five KKR batsmen have made 300 runs or more: Dinesh Karthik (490), Chris Lynn (443), Robin Uthappa (349), Sunil Narine (331), Andre Russell (313). Sunrisers, meanwhile, have two. Kane Williamson, who is 15 short of becoming only the fifth player to score 700 runs in an IPL season, and Shikhar Dhawan (437)
• Bhuvneshwar Kumar is four wickets shy of joining an exclusive list – bowlers who have picked up 100 wickets playing for one franchise. Awaiting his entry are Lasith Malinga (154 for Mumbai Indians), Harbhajan (127 for Mumbai) and Narine (111 for KKR)
• Considering the quality of other wicketkeeper captains in IPLs – Adam Gilchrist, MS Dhoni, etc – Dinesh Karthik will savour becoming the first of his kind to 500 runs in a season
• Sunrisers’ economy rate in the death overs has risen from 7.49 to 11.87 over the last five games. Individual numbers have taken a hit too. Bhuvneshwar (8.2 to 15.1), Kaul (6.5 to 9.9), Shakib (7 to 13.5)

Fantasy pick

Grab as many as you can – Williamson, Russell, Karthik, Narine. But also keep an eye on Prasidh Krishna. The 22-year-old uncapped seamer has picked up 10 wickets in six matches. All of them have come in overs 16 to 20. Since his inclusion in the XI, KKR’s fast bowlers have conceded 8.5 runs an over. Before that, they leaked 12.6 an over.

Quotes

“Kane’s playing well at the moment. Sometimes people forget to just bowl good balls at him. He’s one of those bowlers who respects a good ball. It’s not to be intimidated and go away from the plan. He’s a good player, if you bowl enough in the right area you will create chances. But right now he’s picking line and length very well, so the margins for error are very tight.”

Brett D’Oliveira, in charge of Worcestershire until the return of Moeen Ali, summoned the decisive innings which saw off Lancashire with one ball to spare at Old Trafford

ECB Reporters Network05-Jul-2018
ScorecardWorcestershire Rapids got their 2018 Vitality Blast campaign off to a fine start with a five-wicket victory over Lancashire Lightning at Emirates Old Trafford.Needing 189 to take the points, the Rapids won with only one ball to spare when Ed Barnard cover-drove Jordan Clark for four.However, the victory was particularly sweet for Rapids’ skipper Brett DOliveira, who made off 37 not out off 23 balls and whose 67 run-stand with Ross Whiteley did as much as anything to win the game. Whiteley was caught by Arron Lilley for 28 in the last over to raise Lancashire’s hopes but Barnard’s fearless blow settled matters.Worcestershire’s innings had got off to an excellent start, 70 runs being scored in the six Powerplay overs, 20 more than Lancashire had managed in the same period. The only wicket to fall was that of Martin Guptill for 19, caught at mid on by Clark off Joe Mennie but Joe Clarke was given a life by Stephen Parry at mid on when he had made 11 and later another by Mennie at backward point on 40.

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That cost only two runs as the Worcestershire opener was bowled reverse sweeping Faulkner when he had made a fine 42 off 24 balls. And Lancashire’s hopes were further boosted when Callum Ferguson was caught in the deep by Clark off Parry for a 21-ball 35 and yet again when Clark bowled Ben Cox for 19.Indeed, the Rapids needed 64 runs off the last six overs and were thus grateful when D’Oliveira took 15 runs off Mennie’s next six deliveries. The runs required for victory had been reduced to 43 off the last four overs and Worcestershire’s victory seemed far more probable when 15 runs came off the 18th over. bowled by Parkinson, in which Steven Croft dropped D’Oliveira at deep midwicket on 32.Whiteley’s six in the next over almost saw the visitors home and seven runs were needed off the final six balls of the innings which were bowled by Clark, the only Lancashire bowler to take more than one wicket.Much earlier in the evening, Lancashire’s innings began quietly as Liam Livingstone and Alex Davies scored only 24 runs off the first four overs before Livingstone whacked four leg-side sixes in the next couple of overs, two of them off successive balls from Pat Brown.However, Lancashire’s skipper was caught at deep square leg by Barnard off Daryl Mitchell for 35 when attempting to hit a fifth maximum and Worcestershire’s talisman then caught Davies at long-on three balls later when the Lightning opener chanced his arm against D’Oliveira’s first ball of the innings.Davies’ departure for 20 brought two new batsmen together and Lilley’s third-wicket stand with Keaton Jennings began in circumspect fashion. But the pair still brought up their side’s hundred in the 13th over, only for Lilley to be caught at long on by Brown off the spin of George Rhodes immediately that mark had been reached.Dane Vilas then put on 28 in only 2.3 overs with Jennings before becoming the fourth batsman caught in the deep when he smacked Rhodes to Guptill and departed for a nine-ball 16. Jennings, meanwhile, reached his fifty off 32 balls having hit three fours and two sixes.But the England opener lost his middle stump to the next ball he received, thereby becoming Luke Wood’s first wicket for Worcestershire since his loan move from Nottinghamshire.James Faulkner could make only four on his return to Lancashire but Clark and Croft ensured the home side reached what seemed to be a defendable 188 for six off their 20 overs, Clark making 25 not out off 13 balls. The most successful Worcestershire bowler was Rhodes, who took 2 for 27; the most economical was Mitchell, who conceded 24 runs from his three overs.