Sunday, August 11th, 2024

Academy keeper again amongst the runs to secure ECB Bunbury Festival win

Worcestershire Academy keeper-batter Joe Porter played another key role with the bat to see the Midlands to victory with one ball to spare against the North at the ECB Bunbury Festival at Loughborough.

Porter had earlier in the week made 28 not out to steer his side to victory over South-West.

On this occasion he came to the wicket at 97-3 after the Midlands had been set a revised target of 175 in 25 overs under the Duckworth-Lewis Method.

Porter, part of the 2023-2024 Academy intake, made a run a ball unbeaten 36 to help secure another win.

He struck pace bowler Thomas Bentley for a huge six over long on and hit two other boundaries.

Porter put on an unbroken 51 for the fifth wicket with Oscar Butcher (22 not out) to see his side over the finishing line in 24.5 overs.

The North had earlier made 154-4 from 31 overs before rain intervened and led to a revised DLM target.

*Porter had also hit 11 not out as the Midlands (135-5) also came out on top by two runs in a T20 match against South-West (133-8) with Alfie Higgins scoring 12 and Lucian Brockman bowling four overs for 26 runs.