HAIL Worcestershire's conquering hero Andrew Hall.

The South African all-rounder kept his cool in sweltering conditions to become the County's match-winning star in Saturday's thrilling six-run triumph over Lancashire in the semi-final of the Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy at a packed New Road.

Hall booked Worcestershire a place in the final against Gloucestershire at Lord's on Saturday, August 30, during a heart-stopping last over when Lancashire, on 248-6, needed just seven runs to clinch victory.

It began with Hall comprehensively yorking Warren Hegg followed a couple of deliveries later with Peter Martin having his middle stump ripped out.

John Wood was run out off the fifth ball and the sixth delivery left Mal Loye failing to add to his undefeated 116.

The dramatic climax had sun-scorched County followers dancing with delight and left man-of-the-match Hall summing up his feelings perfectly -- 'ecstatic'.

He finished with figures of 4-36 to add to the 26 crucial runs he cracked earlier when Worcestershire made 254-5.

Hall said: "I'm ecstatic with the way we played and getting through to the final at Lord's. It was a great team effort. We batted well and all the bowlers stuck to their guns. You can't leave anyone out because all the guys did tremendously well."

Hall admitted he fancied his chances when the last nail-biting six deliveries began, saying: "Before the last over I said to Kabir Ali that if he left me five to seven runs to play with then we were going to win. It might not always come off but I feel comfortable I can hit that right area of the pitch six balls out of six at the moment."

County director of cricket Tom Moody said: "It was one of the better last overs I've seen.

"Hally is a real fighter and he's got experience on the international stage in one-day cricket. He called upon all of that experience. He bowled well in his first spell and his last two overs were the key to our success.

"He loves a good contest -- and he certainly had a good contest on his hands in that last over. We use him at the end like that because he does get the ball in the block hole very well. It is not easy to execute that but he does it very well.

"My heart was racing but I was pretty relaxed as well because there is nothing I can do about it and there's no point in myself panicking too much. It is in the players' hands and they handled it pretty well."

The County lost the toss and were put in. Vikram Solanki fell for just two to set the scene for a tremendous 155-run stand in 32 overs between Graeme Hick and Anurag Singh.

Their partnership was broken when Singh, on 63, was caught at backward point by Chris Schofield off Andrew Flintoff after cracking seven fours.

Hick fell just three runs short of a century when Glen Chapple had him caught at extra cover by Carl Hooper. He plundered 16 fours off 112 balls.

With skipper Ben Smith making 36 and Hall chipping in with his 20-ball knock the County fans were left with one question on their lips -- 'will it be enough?' And with the mood Loye was in the answer looked like being 'no'.

But with the Worcestershire bowlers getting the bit between their teeth -- paceman Matt Mason was particularly impressive with figures of 10-3-23-1 -- the pendulum swung sufficiently close enough to the County to enable Hall to have his day to remember.

For Loye, however, it was a case of what might have been as his undefeated innings -- he hit four sixes and nine fours -- proved in vain.