The latest round of Royal London One Day Cup fixtures featured thrilling finishes, high scores and May’s inevitable bout of rain.
Three matches were abandoned without a ball being bowled, two of which featured Sussex who travelled to Gloucester on the Sunday and then to Surrey on the Tuesday without playing so much as an over of cricket.
Despite the weather, a number of GM batsman followed on from the terrific form from the previous round of fixtures.
A terrific unbeaten century from Adam Lyth seems the most appropriate place to start as his Yorkshire side headed to Leicester hoping to make up for lost time after their washed-out game the previous week.
In Leicester’s previous game against Nottinghamshire over 700 runs were scored in 100 overs, so when they won the toss, they would have been only too aware that a good start was needed. Unfortunately for them, they got the opposite.
Yorkshire got off to a flyer and had the home side 39/3 inside 10 overs before three middle order 50’s restored some order for the Foxes who eventually finished with a below-par 293/9 from their allotted overs.
In reply, Yorkshire made light work of the chase. Lyth cruised his way to 132*, his first ton of the season, putting on two 100-run partnerships along the way as Yorkshire chased down their target for the loss of just one wicket and with 3.3 overs to spare.
Yorkshire’s next match against Derbyshire was far from plain-sailing, however. In a heavily reduced match due to the weather, only 24 overs a side were possible.
The White Roses this time won the toss and elected to field, which at 68/1 off 8 overs looked as though it may have been the wrong choice. This time it was Yorkshire’s bowlers that dug them out of trouble, consistently taking wickets and racing through the lower-middle order meaning Derby finished 189/6 from their 24 overs.
The Derby innings did feature some quite remarkable batting from opening batsman Ben Slater, who finished 109* from 82 balls, scoring nearly 58% of his sides runs.
Unfortunately, Slater’s efforts were in vain despite his GM teammates Duanne Olivier picking up 2/23 from his 5 overs and Wayne Madsen starting the innings off with a maiden.
The game could have gone either way when Yorkshire needed 55 from 5 overs, with 4 wickets remaining. Despite picking up 2 more wickets along the way, Derby were thwarted by some lower order slogging and Yorkshire got over the line with 1 ball to spare.
From Derby, we head to Kent as the Spitfires took on James Vince’s Hampshire side.
The home side batted first with Daniel Bell-Drummond top scoring for Kent, making a well-compiled 82 before he was unfortunately run-out chasing his first hundred of the year. In the process Bell-Drummond passed 2,000 runs for the county and made his 20th half-century in List A cricket.
However, his dismissal opened the door for Sean Dickson who made his seventh List A 50, smashing 68* from 53 balls, featuring six boundaries and two 6’s, to get Kent to 296/4 from their 50 overs.
21-year-old all-rounder Brad Taylor was the pick of the bowlers for Hampshire, taking 2/35 from his 10 overs.
Hampshire’s reply seemed to be under control when Vince departed for a typically-fluent 38, leaving his side well positioned at 107/3 with over 30 overs remaining. Taylor entered the fray and made just his second 50 in the format, reaching 56 from 63 balls before losing his wicket with his side needing just 6 runs from 10 balls to win. However, some heroic bowling from the Spitfires at the death meant that remarkably, Hampshire lost by 1 run.
Hampshire didn’t make the same mistake in their next match against Middlesex, however. In another rain-affected affair, the match was reduced to 45 overs per side with Middlesex winning the toss and choosing to bat.
The home side never really got going and consistently lost wickets at key times. The most substantial partnership of 62 was broken by Vince, who finished with 1/19 from his 5 overs to restrict Middlesex to 199/8.
In truth, the result was never really in doubt after Vince made a well-compiled 56, making up for the early loss of his two opening batsmen. Vince fell with the score on 123/3 but contributions from the rest of the batting line-up, including 11 from Brad Taylor, ensured victory with 7.2 overs to spare.
For Somerset, Lewis Gregory continues to impress with his all-round capabilities picking up 3 wickets and two 50’s in his last two matches.
The first of which came in a victory against Middlesex, notching 56 from 45 balls to get his side to 283 all out before taking 2/41 to restrict the North London side to 230 all out to round off a comprehensive display.
In the following match, The Somerset captain did much the same. Unfortunately for him, this time his efforts were in vain in a severely weather-affected game against Kent.
Batting first once again, Gregory played a more measured innings, this time making 60 in 61 balls, helping his side reach 221/9 from their 42 allotted overs. Gregory picked up Bell-Drummond for a third ball duck, but Kent quickly regrouped and by the time the heavens opened up, they were 28 runs ahead of the asking rate, winning the match by Duckworth/Lewis method after just 16 overs.
And finally, in the match between Warwickshire and Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge, two GM batsmen made 50’s, and two GM bowlers picked up 4 wickets between them.
The Bears batted first and reached 295/9 from their 50 overs, thanks in part to Adam Hose’s fourth List A 50 and his first for the season. Hose made 51 from 58 balls but did hit two 6’s along the way.
For Notts, Samit Patel picked up the wicket of his GM teammate Jonathan Trott in the third over of the match and another in the 29th to take figures of 2/48 from his 10 overs. His teammate Jake Ball continued his terrific start to the season, picking up 2/66.
In reply, The Outlaws were no match for Warwickshire and were dismissed for just 187 in 38.5 overs, despite Ross Taylor top-scoring with 56.