1. White Rose blooms away from HQ
Yorkshire completed an outstanding series of group stage matches by travelling to Canterbury and beating Kent comfortably to ensure a bumper Sunday crowd at Scarborough for the semi-final. James Wharton made a century and, once Dom Bess broke a useful second-wicket stand between Jaydn Denly and Ekansh Singh, the home side’s batting subsided to the Tykes’ spinners.
Yorkshire played two matches at York and will now play a third at Scarborough. Other competitions have forced their hand in terms of playing away from their headquarters, Headingley, but the Broad Acres is not the county’s nickname for nothing, Leeds being 70 miles distant from Scarbados. It’s pleasing to see the club taking matches to the fans, one of the underpinning principles of this competition and something all counties once did.
2. Old virtues at New Road
Worcestershire secured the other guaranteed semi-final spot, topping their group with six wins and a tie, completing the charge for the line with a hat-trick of victories.
The best came at home to Glamorgan who, helped by Asa Tribe carrying his bat to the innings close with 122, set a stiffish target of 298. That looked a long way off at 78 for three in the 17th over, but this format rewards patience and calm heads, and Worcestershire found those attributes in their captain, Jake Libby, and Rob Jones, who put on 172 for the fourth wicket, Jones still there at the end, 110 not out.
Thirty overs may not sound much but a key difference between county cricket’s two white-ball formats lies in the value of patience. Whether batting or bowling, too much patience can kill you in a T20; across 50 overs, it really pays off.
3. Manny the boy is already a bowler
Hampshire will carry momentum into their eliminator, finishing off their set of eight matches with two wins, the latter against a slightly stumbling Gloucestershire.
The match marked a third senior outing for 16-year-old Manny Lumsden, and a third in which he has taken at least one wicket. The Basingstoke boy is no hulking teenager who could pass for 21. If anything he looks younger than his years. But he’s already generating pace and bounce from his busy, whippy action and looks a real prospect.
With growing still to do, he’ll need a bespoke development programme to allow his body to mature without the undue stress that can lead to so many injuries for young quicks. He will know that though, and he’ll also know that he has a real chance given where he is now.
4. Morgan earns his place for tomorrow
Given their dismal campaign, there’s a temptation to say, “It’s only Lancashire”, but Middlesex will still carry confidence into their eliminator after a superb chase at Old Trafford.
The visitors looked gone, ceding their place in the knockouts to Warwickshire, when they required 172 off 21.4 overs but with only four wickets in hand. At 21 and 17 respectively, Nathan Fernandes and Seb Morgan are much too young to have seen some of the legendary August chases in Manchester, but perhaps the much mutilated ground retains some of its magic.
Fernandes made 92 off 79 balls and Morgan 61 off 53 and, though it took eight from the last pair, Middlesex got over the line with a ball to spare. Morgan’s effort was especially laudable as he hadn’t picked up a bat in anger for over seven weeks. Let’s hope he keeps his place and has another chance on Thursday.
5. Batter of the group stage
If you were to write a person specification for a One-Day Cup batter, you would pretty much take Nick Gubbins’ CV as the template. At 31, he has plenty of experience, now approaching 100 appearances in List A matches, with a solid average in the mid-40s and a strike rate around 90. But he’s not going to be called up by an international side and he’s also unlikely to be poached by a Hundred franchise, despite the fact he’s probably exactly what they need.
Instead, he’s led Hampshire from the front, scoring 658 runs at an average of 131 and at a strike rate of 105. His prize is a showdown with his old employers, Middlesex, a match to relish for an old pro who has never let either of them down.
6. Bowler of the group stage
One of the delights of 50-overs cricket is that it rewards wickets more than its upstart 20-overs cousin, but I still like a miserly seamer, “their wickets” often coming at the other end.
Ian Holland, another whose profile aligns with Nick Gubbins above, won’t play in the knockouts, but his medium pace brought him nine wickets in his seven matches at an outstanding economy rate of under 4.4.
Leicestershire may have missed his runs in this campaign, but he’s not the reason they can concentrate on finishing off their super season of red-ball cricket come September.
