Worcestershire 361 for 8 (Moeen 90) beat Leicestershire 319 (Ali 88, Cosgrove 67, Leach 4-66) by 42 runs
Scorecard
Moeen Ali tuned up for England duty with 90 © Getty Images
Worcestershire rewrote the record books in completing a 42-run victory over Leicestershire. Put in to bat by on a flat pitch, they hit their highest ever limited-overs score against first-class opposition in a 50-over encounter, surpassing the 320 for 8 against Hampshire at the Rose Bowl in 2008.
The tone of their innings was set by Moeen Ali, whose 90 at the top of the order came off 87 balls and included two sixes. The England international was dropped on 22 by wicketkeeper Lewis Hill off Gavin Griffiths, but while he was not quite at his fluent best, was still more than good enough to take full advantage of some inconsistent bowling from Leicestershire’s inexperienced attack.
Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Tom Fell and Joe Clarke all leant valuable support Worcestershire raced to 200 off 30 overs. If Leicestershire hoped the dismissal of Moeen, feathering a catch behind the wicket off Zak Chappell, might slow the scoring rate, Brett D’Oliveira and Ben Cox’s partnership of 73 off 10.2 overs disabused them of the notion.
Leicestershire did pick up three quick wickets, but John Hastings and Ed Barnard combined to smash 46 off the last 20 balls to maintain the momentum until the end.
Leicestershire began as though determined to knock off the runs with overs to spare, but the alert Cox, seeing Cameron Delport had stepped out of his ground after missing an attempt to thrash Leach through the off side, threw down the stumps to pull off a remarkable stumping.
Mark Pettini raced to 36 of 34 balls before glancing a Joe Leach delivery into the gloves of Cox, but Mark Cosgrove had hit 67 off just 45 balls before Jack Shantry took a brilliant return catch high above his head.
Aadil Ali, making his first first-team appearance of the season, hit three sixes as Leicestershire kept themselves in the hunt, reaching the final six overs needing 67, but wickets kept falling at the other end. Ali was last man out, run out trying to keep the strike.
Worcestershire take their 100% record in the competition to Northamptonshire on Wednesday. Leicestershire meet Warwickshire at the Fischer County Ground on Tuesday.
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo