One Day Cup

Cricket has something that none of the famous sports have, and that is a one day cup. This competition is one of its character because the teams gather up and start playing at the start of the day, and by the end of the same day you have the tournament winner, and everything happens so fast that people are excited throughout the whole day

Northants gave themselves a chance of qualifying for the One-Day Cup quarter-finals with a four-wicket home win over already-qualified Gloucestershire.

Gareth Roderick’s 57 from 71 balls for the visitors was followed by 80 from Benny Howell, but they only made 215.

Northants opener Josh Cobb struck 58 from 83 balls including eight fours as they made easy work of their chase.

Alex Wakely (31no) and Kyle Coetzer (23no) saw them home on 217-6 with nine overs remaining.

Gloucestershire lost Chris Dent, Geraint Jones and Miles Hammond all for ducks as Olly Stone (3-34) and Steven Crook (4-37) bowled well for the home side.

And it was just a case of maintaining their focus for Northants after Cobb and David Willey (41) launched their reply with a partnership of 80.

Having qualified for T20 Blast finals day last week, they will reach the last eight of the One-Day Cup if they beat Yorkshire at Headingley on Tuesday.

On the other side we have William Porterfield’s fine century kept Warwickshire in contention for a One-Day Cup quarter-final place as they beat Sussex by four wickets at Rugby.

Chasing 218, the Irishman hit exactly 100 and shared a crucial stand of 81 with Ateeq Javid (42 not out) as the hosts reached 218-6.

Earlier, Sussex were bowled out for 217 as Australian George Bailey made 59.

Warwickshire play Kent on Wednesday at Edgbaston with victory likely to seal a last-eight spot. William Porterfield’s one-day pedigree

The 30-year-old has more List A centuries (nine) than first-class hundreds (seven). However seven of his limited-overs tons have been for Ireland.

Warwickshire’s chase got off to a poor start when skipper Varun Chopra was bowled by Chris Jordan for a duck with the third ball of the innings.

Three quick wickets in the middle order then left the Bears 130-5, but Porterfield put last year’s beaten finalists on the verge of victory with a 124-ball century which included 13 fours.

He was out the ball after reaching his ton, bowled by Jordan (3-39), but the hard work had already been done and Keith Barker sealed the win with a boundary.

Sussex, who are without a victory in this year’s competition, looked well placed at 112-2 in their innings, but lost their last eight wickets for 105 for a total which proved to be well below par.