Royal London One-Day Cup, Emirates Old Trafford
Worcestershire 367 all out (49.1 overs): Rutherford 108, Mitchell 101; Parkinson 5-51
Lancashire 242 all out (40.4 overs): Jennings 54; Tongue 2-35
Worcestershire beat Lancashire by 125 runs
Centuries from Daryl Mitchell and Hamish Rutherford helped Worcestershire defeat Lancashire by 125 runs on the opening day of the 2019 Royal London One-Day Cup.
Under blue skies in Manchester, former New Zealand batsman Rutherford struck 108 off 95 balls in a knock which included 10 fours and three sixes as the Pears made 367 all out with five balls unused.
Rutherford batted nicely, finding the boundary regularly. However, he offered a chance on 89 when he was dropped by Lancashire Captain Dane Vilas.
Worcestershire veteran, Mitchell, supported the Kiwi well – notching his fourth century in seven matches by scoring 101 before being stumped by wicketkeeper Brooke Guest.
Debutant Riki Wessels also contributed well, adding 72 before gifting leg-spinner Matt Parkinson with his first wicket of the day – chipping the ball to England bowler James Anderson for a routine catch.
Ross Whiteley (36) and Ben Cox (24) were the only other Worcestershire batsmen to reach double figures as the Pears lost their last four wickets for two runs inside seven balls.
The New Road side posted their highest List-A score against Lancashire, surpassing the previous best of 314-5 at Old Trafford in 1980.
At one point they were on course to record their highest List-A score ever, but Parkinson had other ideas as he claimed his first five-wicket haul of the season and took career-best figures of five for 51 in his 10 overs.
Elsewhere in the bowling department, there were two wickets apiece for Australian Glenn Maxwell and fast bowler, Saqib Mahmood. Anderson – England’s leading wicket-taker in Test cricket history, made his first List-A appearance for Lancashire since May 2017 and ended up wicketless in the eight overs that he bowled.
Needing 368 for victory at a rate of more than a run a ball, Lancashire needed to go hard from the outset in their reply. The Red Rose didn’t look in any real rush in the opening powerplay, losing an in-form Haseeb Hameed for five in the fourth over.
Guest (36) and England batsman Keaton Jennings (54) looked to rebuild after the early loss and the latter brought up a half-century before departing four balls later.
Maxwell was the new man in and he upped the tempo slightly, adding 35 runs in a 21-ball cameo – striking two fours and three sixes before hitting spinner Brett D’Oliveira to Rutherford at mid-on.
Once Maxwell was out, Worcestershire went through the motions with the result more or less a foregone conclusion.
Vilas (29), Rob Jones (27), Steven Croft (32*) and Parkinson (10) made double figures before Lancashire were all out for 242 with 9.2 overs to spare.
WHAT THEY HAD TO SAY
Parkinson, who took career-best figures of 5-51 was pleased with his individual performance and said: “Having had the tough four or five months that I’ve had with the stress fracture and the injury in Dubai, it’s pleasing.
“My role was to take wickets. To come on and break stands [was good]. When I bowled, it came out nicely and the results were good too.
He then looked ahead to congested fixture list and said: “You have no time to think. The lads will train tomorrow at Trent Bridge and go again Friday.
“The whole competition is done in two and a half weeks. We played today and then again on Friday and Sunday. It’s a big week and if we don’t get the results now, then it puts us in a difficult position.”
NEXT UP
The Red Rose now face a trip to Trent Bridge when they take on Nottinghamshire at 11:00 on Friday.
They will be looking to bounce back from today’s defeat and take on a Nottinghamsire side who have had recent success in this compition – winning the cup in 2017.
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