By Ben Woodall
May 31 2004

The Pears breezed through to the C&G quarter finals on Saturday after a convincing 8 wicket victory over Somerset in their most convincing performance this year. Andy Bichel was the star with both bat and ball for Worcestershire,taking 4-17 then making 38 n.o with the bat whilst sharing a 71 run partnership with Gareth Batty who finished on 32 n.o.

Kabir Ali,making his comeback from a lengthly injury lay off,looked rusty when opening the bowling and went for 48 from his 8 overs,taking the wicket of Richard Johnson in the process. Once Kabs was taken off,the game really took a turn in Worcs favour.Bichel and David Leatherdale were brought on and effectively won Worcs the game,Leatherdale taking 3-9 from 4.3 along with Bichels impressive haul of 4-17 from 7. The only real Somerset batsmen to impose themselves were England internationals Marcus Trescothick (24) and Ian Blackwell (27) yet neither of them could prevent their side being skittled out for a lowly 95 from 27.3 overs.

However, a determined batting effort was still required against a strong Somerset attack which included former internationals Caddick,Mclean and Johnson but Bichel and Batty remained strong and saw the Pears home from only 14.3 overs.