Rory Kleinveldt scored 33 and took two wickets to be the hero of the day, taking Northamptonshire to an unbelievable win over Worcestershire in the Royal London One-Day Cup.
Check these numbers: Northants were three down for nought (yes, 3-0) to a hat-trick by Joe Leach, which included Richard Levi, first ball of the innings. At 19-6 after just eight overs (yes, that’s right, 19-6 after eight overs), no one would have given Northants much chance of winning the 50-over game.
Then came Big Kleinveldt: Ordinarily, 33 off 39 balls would not be the greatest innings ever played, but in this context, it was the winner.
Mind you, with the pitch providing some disconcerting bounce, the game could easily have been over by lunch but for a let-off for Kleinveldt when he had made only eight. If a low chance at third slip had been held, Northants would have been 27 for seven. Instead the burly Saffa clouted seven fours in a partnership of 50 in 12.2 overs with Josh Cobb.
They took the target to 127, but Kleinveldt (2-20) then supported Azharullah (4-22) in demolishing the Worcesters line-up for 105. Win by 21 runs. Funny old game.
Colin Ingram continued his fine form for Glamorgan in this 50-over format. After two successive hundreds, he followed up with a solid 51 off 86 balls, the top-scorer in a total of 182-9 against Hampshire. Remarkable, the game was called off because of the dangerous state of the pitch, with Hants at 26-0, which further enhances Ingram’s effort, although the pitch did deteriorate rapidly.
Glamorgan started the Royal London Cup group stage with a two-point deduction after being punished for producing a poor pitch in last season’s competition – the pitch used on this occasion was the same one.
Ashwell Prince finally came good in this competition with an excellent 82 off 87 balls for Lancashire against Warwickshire. He had had a lean time in his first two innings, scoring just five runs, but he settled in well, striking just five fours and a six. He and Alviro Petersen (22) put on 62 for the second wicket and helped Lancs to a healthy 265-7. But it was not enough, and Warwicks squeezed in with one ball to spare.
Elsewhere, Proteas leggy Imran Tahir, at a loose end after being released ahead of the Bangladesh Test series, was taken on by Nottinghamshire and made an immediate impact, taking 2-45 off his 10 overs in a seven-wicket win over Essex.
Notts are his fifth English county after spells with Hampshire (for whom he took 200 wickets across all formats in 2014), Warwickshire, Yorkshire and Middlesex in his formative years.
Compiled by Mark Salter
