Royal London One-Day Cup Day-1

1st match: Glamorgan vs Essex

Glamorgan skipper Chris Cookie's decision to opting the bowl first turned costly as both the Essex opener Varun Chopra and Alastair Cook started to score boundaries at will in powerplay. Cook fell on 13th over after scoring  a smooth 40 runs with 8 boundaries. Chopra continued his form of previous year with a steady hundred as both Tom Westley and Dan Lawrence scored quick fifties which helped Essex to post a healthy total of 326-7,  Mike Hogan and Graham claimed two wickets each.

Glamorgan was unable to provide any fight in front of Essex attack, Ravi Bopara picked 3 wickets and both Siddle and Sam Cook shared 2 wickets each which end the innings of Galmorgan at only 146 runs. As a result Essex won by a huge margin of 180 runs.

2nd Match: Yorkshire vs Leicestershire

Tom Taylor provided Leicestershire a bright start after sending the top three of Yorkshire batsman quickly but Gary Balance continued his form of county matches in the white ball cricket too with a magnificent 156 innings and 20 year old Harry Brook give him enough support with his 103 run innings to post a massive total of 379 runs.
Matthew Pillans destroyed Leicestershire batting line-up with his 5 wicket haul as English international David Willey also picked 2 wickets. Despite the absence of joe root Yorkshire started their champaign with comfortable win of 213 runs.

Match-3
Gloucestershire vs Surrey

After losing George Hankins early, skipper Chris Dent (75) and keeper Rodrick (74) provided a solid start to Gloucestershire but some serious effort of Tom Curran(3/26) and Rikki Clarke(4/43) restricted them at only 235 runs.
But all the effort of the Surrey bowlers went in vain as their batting collapsed at only 88 runs in front of Chris Liddle(3/17) and Tom Smith (3/7).
Gloucestershire won by 147 runs.

Kent vs Hampshire

Ex-Kent skipper Sam Northeast scored a magnificent hundred(105*) against his old team, both Vince and Russouw scored steady fifties to help kent reach 310-9. Matt Milnes was expensive but took 5 wickets for kent. (5-79)

Kent batting looked dull in the absence of Joe Denly, as their innings end at only 220 runs. Kyle Abbott, Liam Dawson and Chris Wood took 2 wickets each.

Match-5
Lancashire vs Worcestershire

After opting to bat first Worcestershire post a massive 367 runs based on double ton of Rutherford (108) and Mitchell(101), Riki wessels also scored a quick 72 off only 45 balls, Matt Parkinson bowled superbly to claim 5 wickets at only 51 runs. All of the Worcestershire bowler contributed well to restrict Lancashire at only 242 runs, jenning's fifty was not enough and Lancashire suffered a 125 run defeat in their opening game.

Match-6
Durham vs Northamptonshire

While Smith and Warner are all set to comeback for their national side,  Cameron Bancroft lead his Durham side from the front with a superb knock of 151 runs, Richardson (102) and Steel supported him well to help their side post 342 runs, Jason Holder took 2 wickets. Holder scored an attacking 82 runs too with the skipper Alex weakly (66) but 4 wicket form Potts and 3 wickets from Salisbury end their innings at only 270 runs. Durham won comfortably by 72 runs.

Photo Source: The Guardian

Writer: Abir Chakraborty

Thanks for reading FRONT FOOT BLOG. Keep visiting this blog to get cricket updates and articles. Press the Like button and share this post if you like it. Comment here and say your opinion.

Signing off now. Will come back with the updates of other Royal London Cup newses. Keep Watching Cricket!

Stay connected, stay healthy and spread the love.