One-Day Cup: Wiaan Mulder stars as Leicestershire beat Gloucestershire to reach final

Wiaan Mulder has taken 35 wickets in all competitions this summer, as well as hitting 994 runs

Leicestershire overcame an early-innings wobble as they beat Gloucestershire by six wickets to reach the One-Day Cup final.

The Foxes qualified for their first List A final since 2001 as they bowled out the visitors for 125, then lost four quick wickets before getting home on 126-4.

South African Wiaan Mulder was the star of the show, taking 3-38, before he hit a half-century in an unbroken stand of 93 with Australian Peter Handscomb as the hosts completed a six-wicket win.

Leicestershire will stay in the East Midlands for the final in Nottingham against Hampshire at Trent Bridge on Saturday, 16 September.

Hampshire romped to a nine-wicket win in the first semi-final earlier against Warwickshire at Edgbaston, having also won the toss and stuck the opposition in.

Whereas there was no way back for the battered Bears at Edgbaston, Gloucestershire did at least cause their hosts a few alarms by reducing Leicestershire to 33-4.

But Mulder (55*) and Handscomb (49*), in his final innings before returning back down under, calmed any home nerves as Leicestershire booked their first white-ball final since beating Somerset at Edgbaston in 2011 to record the most recent of their three T20 triumphs.

Wiaan Mulder and Peter Handscomb's matchwinning stand of 93 took 16.3 overs

Good toss to win for Foxes

After winning the toss and putting Gloucestershire in, the hosts did not take long to make an impact.

Inside five overs, the visitors were three wickets down as Chris Wright accounted for Miles Hammond before Mulder struck twice in three balls to remove James Bracey and Harry Tector.

Ollie Price and Graeme van Buuren mounted a recovery of sorts with a stand of 39 for the fourth wicket.

But Josh Hull accounted for Price on 22, before Matt Salisbury bowled Jack Taylor in the next over to make it 63-5.

Van Buuren then enlisted the help of Tom Price (19) to add a further 36 for the sixth wicket.

But, from 99-5, once the elder of the two Price brothers had holed out to Mulder off Tom Scriven, that started a clatter of wickets as the last five men went down for only 26 runs.

Paceman Scriven got three of them, while Wright returned to dispose of van Buuren before the hosts were all out just before the rain came.

After a two-hour delay before they restarted, Gloucestershire then quickly galloped back into the contest with three superb catches at second slip by Ollie Price.

He held on to left-hander Budinger comfortably to his left off England white-ball paceman David Payne, then four balls later took one above his head as brother Tom Price found Rishi Patel's edge. And, in Payne's next over, Price hung on to another one diving to his right to see the end of Lewis Hill.

When Anwar Ali swung a delivery in to trap Colin Ackermann in front with one that kept low, there was suddenly a sense of home concern.

But Handscomb and Mulder brought their experience and quality to bear, taking their time to settle in before upping the pace as the finish line got closer.

Leicestershire's Peter Handscomb:

"It was tough batting early on when the seam on the ball was hard. When it gripped the grass it was difficult to know which way it was going to go, but once the ball got a little bit wet and the seam softened it became easier.

"But the bowlers had put us in a position where we didn't have to panic at three down. We had the full 50 overs to bat, so it was about just taking our time and getting a feel for the wicket, and the way Wiaan was playing took a lot of pressure off myself. I could just nick and nudge it for ones and twos while he hit the big boundaries.

Leicestershire's Wiaan Mulder:

"As a team we have played a lot better in the One-Day Cup than we did in the T20 and it will be awesome to be able to play in a final in a couple of weeks' time.

"Peter Handscomb is really calm and breaks it down into small targets. He just makes it easier in those pressure situations. And they needed to take wickets, so there were always going to be opportunities for me to score."

Gloucestershire head coach Dale Benkenstein:

"The wicket didn't play as well as we thought it would and, at the end of the day 125 was never going to be easy to defend.

"But having said that we had them 13-3 and 33-4, had one or two decisions gone our way we could have been into the tail quite quickly.

"It is disappointing to lose but over the campaign we have seen some massive progress from individuals and a lot of guys contributing.

"In a lot of games when we have lost early wickets we have always been able to get good partnerships and turn the pressure back on the opposition but that didn't happen this time."