Worcestershire seal home semi-final

Worcestershire booked a home semi-final against Nottinghamshire or Kent in the Royal London Cup by seeing off arch-rivals Warwickshire by one wicket in a real nailbiter at Edgbaston yesterday.

Joe Leach’s side staved off a late fightback by Warwickshire to secure the narrowest of victories – and top spot in the North Group.

Chasing Warwickshire’s 292, Worcestershire seemed cruising when they needed 21 from 11 overs with five wickets in hand.

But they ended up scrambling home by one wicket as Dillon Pennington (three from 20 balls), on his first-team debut, and Ed Barnard (13 not out from 14) got the job done. Put in, Warwickshire made 292-7, with Sam Hain (68), Tim Ambrose (75) and Will Rhodes (69) keeping the Bears in the game.

Worcestershire’s reply was then given a lightning start by Moeen Ali, who rode his luck for 114 off 74 deliveries – pyrotechnics which put Worcestershire in the box seat, though it was Ben Cox’s classy 80 off 85 balls, which brought the best batting of the day.

Second-top Notts stayed on course to defend their trophy after thrashing Derbyshire by eight wickets.

Yorkshire edged through to the knockout stages for the fifth year running by beating already eliminated Northants at Headingley, chasing down 242 with four wickets in hand and an over remaining.

Yorkshire visit Essex in the quarter-final next Thursday, while Notts host Kent.

114 Moeen Ali hit his century off just 74 balls for Worcestershire