Northants spoil Hick's party

Niall O'Brien congratulates Johan van der Wath on his winning six which clinched a six-wicket triumph with six balls to spare

Batting legend Graeme Hick opened Worcestershire’s £2million pavilion at New Road but then saw a defeat for his old county as Northamptonshire maintained their 100% start in the Twenty20 Cup.

The Steelbacks registered their third win with an over to spare when they scrambled past the home side’s 140 for five with three sixes and a four from Johan van der Wath in four balls from Gareth Andrew.

The powerful South African’s brutal hitting took him to an unbeaten 29 and transformed a game that was drifting away from Northamptonshire despite Niall O’Brien’s invaluable 48 not out from 38 balls.

Daryl Mitchell applied pressure by dismissing Rob White and Riki Wessels in a spell of 2-10 but Northamptonshire saw an escape route when the medium pacer’s final over cost 16 runs.

Worcestershire have won the toss in every game in this season’s competition but their batting has yet to fire consistently and for the third time in the week they failed to reach 150.

There was a bright spot with Stephen Moore finding form with an unbeaten 62 from 52 balls in his highest innings in all cricket since returning from the England Lions tour to New Zealand in March.

Worcestershire managed only 13 fours – eight of these to Moore – as Northants again showed why they are tipped as dark horses to reach the finals day at Edgbaston on August 15.

David Lucas gave them a good start when Steve Davies played across the line in the second over and Van der Wath bowled Vikram Solanki off a bottom edge after the home captain had driven him for two boundaries.

Moore and Moeen Ali made some headway in a partnership of 64 in nine overs but Northamptonshire regained control in an accurate spell by teenager David Willey.

Bowling for the first time in the shortest format, the 19-year-old left-armer took a wicket in each of his three overs and conceded only nine runs.

Catches at midwicket and short fine leg accounted for Moeen (19) and Ashley Noffke before O’Brien stumped Ben Smith.

Mitchell stopped the rot with an unbeaten 22 at the end but Worcestershire were short of a total that might have brought down Northamptonshire’s in-form batting line-up.