All-round Mitchell sees of rivals
Worcestershire kept their Yorkshire Bank 40 campaign alive as Daryl Mitchell signed off a golden two days in a nine-run win against Warwickshire at New Road.
01-Jun-2013
Worcestershire 210 (Mitchell 71, Moeen 56, Patel 3-43) beat Warwickshire 201 (Javed 40*, Mitchell 3-27, D'Oliveira 3-35) by nine runs
Scorecard
Scorecard
Worcestershire kept their Yorkshire Bank 40 campaign alive as Daryl Mitchell
signed off a golden two days in a nine-run win against Warwickshire at New
Road. Mitchell followed up a championship century against Essex on Friday
with a top score of 71 in his side's total of 210 for 9 and then took 3
for 27 as their local rivals were dismissed for 201.
The pressure applied by Mitchell was matched by Brett D'Oliveira as the
21-year-old leg-spinner, bowling in front of the stand named after his
grandfather, Basil, claimed 3 for 35, his best List A performance.
Yet there was still a late scare for the hosts as Warwickshire's ninth-wicket
pair Steffan Piolet with 30 and Ateeq Javid, 40 not out, added 47 at a run-a ball
before Alan Richardson bowled Piolet. Even then Javid smashed successive sixes off Moeen Ali in the penultimate over, only for last man Chris Wright to be run out when sent back by his partner.
On a slow, low pitch, the new ball represented the best chance for batsmen to
make progress and this was where Worcestershire won the game with Mitchell's
partnership of 95 with Moeen in the first 15 overs.
Although Worcestershire's innings ended in disarray, with five wickets falling
to Darren Maddy and Jeetan Patel in the last five overs, they had enough runs on
the board to end a run of three successive defeats in Group A.
Warwickshire were persistently pegged back by flashes of brilliance in the
field as they chased 211 for victory. Moeen held an overhead one-handed catch from Varun Chopra, Aneesh Kapil ran out Jim Troughton for 31 from midwicket and Ben Cox scooped up low chance from Tim Ambrose at square leg.
Javid and Piolet gave the visitors a glimmer of hope with some lusty late blows
but they fell just short in the end when Wright was run out in the penultimate
over.
Worcestershire's early surge could have been choked off if Patel had not put
down a fierce but straightforward chance from Moeen at extra cover. Wright was the unlucky bowler and he more than anyone was to suffer as the two
openers each hit two boundaries in his next over.
With momentum established, Moeen turned on the style, driving Rikki Clarke into
the crowd at long off on his way to a half-century in only 44 balls.
Warwickshire eventually stemmed the flow of runs as Piolet and rookie
offspinner Javid took the pace off the ball. Piolet claimed the key wicket when Moeen was lbw for 56 but Mitchell, although going through 25 overs without a boundary, put on 60 with the talented England Under-19 all-rounder Kapil.
They took Worcestershire up to 182 in the 34th over before Wright bowled
Mitchell and there was little to come when Kapil, after making 42 from 51 balls,
went leg before to Maddy.