[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

vs Gloucestershire

County Championship, Division Two

College Ground, Cheltenham

Day One: The Pears put Gloucestershire in to bat on a warm July day in the bucolic surroundings of Cheltenham.  It seemed the right decision when skipper Joe Leach managed to trap Bancroft LBW with the very first ball of the match, and wickets continued to tumble as the home side sank to 129-5, Ed Barnard distinguishing himself in particular.  But then for the fourth or fifth Championship match in a row, Worcestershire came up against a tail-end which just wouldn't budge, and Gloucestershire fought back to 343-8 by close of play.  Those two wickets need to go as soon as possible in the morning, and the Pears need to be aggressive about their reply with heavy rain forecast all day on Tuesday.

Day Two: Gloucestershire added 40 to their overnight score as the Pears finally bowled the home side out for 383.  However, the problems continued to stack up for the visitors with a top-order collapse, and it took a career-best score of 124 from Friday's hero Ben Cox to drag Worcestershire up to 300-9, at which point they (somewhat bizarrely) elected to declare with a wicket still standing and trailing by 83 runs.  Perhaps Joe Leach had one eye on tomorrow's forecast and wanted to get stuck into Gloucestershire as early as possible, but the home team made it safely to stumps without the loss of a wicket.  20-0 at close of play, a lead of 103, and the Pears have it all to do in the remaining two days.

Day Three: Very little play possible due to heavy rain; still, there was enough time for Gloucestershire to put on another forty-two runs and for John Hastings to take the first wicket of the second innings, leaving the home side 62-1 at close of play with a lead of 145.  This is, perhaps, where yesterday's declaration may make the difference: the gauntlet has been thrown down to Gloucestershire to engineer a result in this match, and it only remains to be seen now whether they'll steer for the draw tomorrow or back themselves to set a total during the first session and then let the Pears chase.

Day Four: A further session and a half saw Gloucestershire pile on over two hundred further runs for the loss of just three more wickets, eventually declaring on 286-4 with a lead of 369; it briefly looked like they might pull off the win thanks to a Pears top-order collapse which saw three batsmen go within the first half-dozen overs, leaving the visitors 5-3 with well over a session still to play. However, young Joe Clarke proved himself a cool head in a crisis, steering Worcestershire to a handy draw (though sadly the handshake left him stranded seven short of a century).  The Pears take eleven points home, keeping them just above Kent in this tight promotion race.

Match DRAWN

Star Performer: Though it was undoubtedly Joe Clarke who saved our bacon on the final day, for the second game in a row you just can't overlook Ben Cox with a bat in his hand. A career-best score richly deserved, and we'll need some more of that magic in the weeks to come.

Next Match: It's back to the bright lights of the T20 Blast for almost a month, commencing with Leicestershire's visit to New Road on Friday night.