ross whiteley scored his second century of the season and george rhodes turned in a fine all-round performance as worcestershire triumphed by 91 runs in the second eleven trophy encounter with derbyshire at alvaston and boulton cc.
it clinched back to back wins for coach alex gidman’s side after the success over warwickshire in the trophy opener at New Road on tuesday.
whiteley had hit an unbeaten 196 in the drawn three-day friendly encounter with somerset seconds at taunton vale.
he followed that up today by smashing an unbeaten 116 off 88 balls after worcestershire had been put into bat.
whiteley hit seven sixes and six fours as worcestershire totalled 276-6 in their 50 overs.
opener rhodes was the other main contributor with 87 from 115 balls with seven boundaries and he followed that up by returning 4-37 as derbyshire were bowled out for 185 in 42.5 overs.
rhodes polished off the game in quickfire fashion by taking the last three wickets in the space of eight balls.
but it was an all-round disciplined bowling performance which never allowed derbyshire off the leash.
when worcestershire batted, rhodes quickly lost fellow opener and skipper ollie westbury (1) caught at second slip by tom wood but then added 80 in 21 overs for the second wicket with josh dell.
the stand was broken when a rhodes straight drive was touched onto the stumps by the bowler to run out dell who was out of his ground backing up.
rhodes was then joined by whiteley and the pair plundered 95 in 14 overs with the former going to his half century off 77 balls.
his knock came to an end at 183-3 when he was caught behind by harvey hosein.
three wickets then fell cheaply with adam wiffen and zen malik both holing out to mid on and dillon pennington to long on.
worcestershire were then 222-6 after 46.1 overs but whiteley cut loose and a half century stand with keeper joe dodd, who ended six not out, came up off only 24 deliveries.
whiteley’s fifty was reached off 41 balls and in an evenly paced knock his hundred came up from 84 deliveries.
when derbyshire batted, pat brown quickly removed james kettleborough who was caught by adam wiffen at deep fine leg.
matt davis then picked up two wickets in his first over in bowling anuj dal and trapping harvey hosein lbw to leave the home side on 53-3 in the 13th over.
zen malik bowled a tight spell in mid innings and was rewarded with the scalps of thomas wood – caught by rhodes at mid on – and matthew sonczak who top-scored with 45 before finding the hands of riecko parker-cole at long off.
wiffen held onto another chance at deep fine leg to account for alfie gleadall off dillon pennington and then a third catch came his way at long on as rhodes polished off proceedings in emphatic style.
worcestershire seconds
rhodes c hosein b hartley 87
westbury c wood b azarullah 1
dell run out (sonczak) 32
whiteley not out 116
wiffen c kettleborough b gleadall 6
malik c sykes b gleadall 6
pennington c wood b hartley 4
dodd not out 6
extras 18
total (for 6 wickets) 276 in 50 overs
fow: 8, 88, 183, 199, 216, 222
bowling
hartley 10-0-64-2
azarullah 10-1-67-2
gleadall 10-0-37-2
sykes 6-0-18-0
sonczak 10-0-58-0
conners 4-0-29-0
—
derbyshire seconds
kettleborough c wiffen b brown 11
dal b davis 27
hosein lbw davis 13
wood c rhodes b malik 35
palumbo b rhodes 12
sonczak c parker-cole b malik 45
gleadall c wiffen b pennington 11
hartley c wiffen b rhodes 14
conners b rhodes 0
sykes st dodd b rhodes 8
azharullah not out 0
extras 9
total (all out) 185 in 42.5 overs
fow: 20, 52, 53, 85, 131, 156, 174, 174, 179, 185
bowling
brown 8-0-35-1
pennington 8-1-32-1
davis 4-0-19-2
malik 10-0-40-2
rhodes 9.5-1-37-4
parker-cole 3-0-19-0
