worcestershire rapids captain joe leach believes the records will continue to tumble in list a cricket
the all-rounder was part of the rapids team which re-wrote the record books yesterday when they hunted down a target of 377 with 16 balls to spare against leicestershire foxes in the royal london one-day cup.
a day to never forget for those fortunate enough to be present at New Road saw the rapids:
*complete the highest ever successful run chase by any county in english one-day cricket
*achieve their highest ever individual list a score via callum ferguson’s magnificent 192
*clock up their best ever list a team score of 380-4 against first class opposition
*be part of the highest ever match run aggregate in a list a match involving worcestershire – 756-8 off 97.2 overs at 7.8 runs per over and 94.5 runs per wicket.
*see callum ferguson become only the third worcestershire player to score a list a century on their county debut after phil jaques in 2006 and phil hughes in 2012.
*witness the foxes also score their highest team score in list a competition – 376-4 – against first class opposition.
but leach feels the nature of one-day cricket circa 2018 means such record-breaking days will more and more become the norm.
he said: “we would have liked a bat yesterday but it is difficult to defend now, the way guys hit boundaries, with only four men out for large chunks of the innings.
“all these list a records just seem to be getting knocked off game by game and, when we play on good pitches with good players, it is difficult to know what a good score is.
“the way it’s going, the scores seem to be getting higher and higher every year and if you play on flat pitches with these white balls, these records are going to keep on tumbling.
“i’ve said all along that we will score 400. you look at our fire-power and yesterday ben cox didn’t bat, ross whiteley only faced a handful of balls, ed barnard didn’t bat, i’ve didn’t even had to get my pads on.
“we are very confident that we can knock down those big totals now and hopefully that is the belief that will stand us in good stead going deeper into this tournament.”
