[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

Day Three

Morning: Another sunny morning, and despite losing Ross Whiteley for 72 in the third over of the day, bowled by Chris Rushworth, the Pears secured a fourth batting point with four deliveries to spare when Ed Barnard edged Ben Raine to the boundary. There was another wobble immediately after, with the home side slumping from 354-7 to 354-9 as Ben Cox clipped a Matt Salisbury delivery to midwicket for 38 and Joe Leach was bowled for a duck attempting to pull in the same over, but a handy last-wicket partnership carried Worcestershire up to 390 all out, with a useful first-innings lead of 117. There was time for three further overs in the session, and Durham reached the break on 14-0.

Afternoon: Talk of Durham's batting frailties prior to this game was no exaggeration, as the visitors simply fell apart after lunch. Three balls into the session Charlie Morris got the party started, dismissing Alex Lees LBW for 2, and Joe Leach followed up three overs later, bowling Cameron Steel for 17 with a ball that nipped back. After an hour of consolidation, the prize scalp of Cameron Bancroft fell to Josh Tongue when he chopped onto his stumps for 25, but that moment was surpassed shortly afterward when a legside delivery from Ed Barnard was taken by Cox standing up to the stumps, who whipped the bails off in a flash despite momentum carrying him the other way, and thus removed Gareth Harte for 25. There was still time for Tongue to bowl Ned Eckersley for 12 with a ball that kept low, sending the visitors in to tea on 110-5, still in arrears and fast running out of wickets.

Evening: Jack Burnham, the top scorer in Durham's first innings, was the first of the evening's casualties when he pushed forward to Tongue and edged behind for 26, with the visitors leading by just 12. However, to their credit, Liam Trevaskis and Ben Raine put together the most stubborn and productive partnership of the innings in the hour that followed, and they all but guaranteed that the game would go to a fourth day before Raine was caught at midwicket for 23 off Leach. With a three-figure lead already looking unlikely, Liam Trevaskis departed LBW for 47 to Tongue, who promptly yorked Matt Salisbury for a duck with the very next ball to complete a five-fer - his best figures to date against an English county - and though he couldn't turn it into a hat-trick, Leach had Chris Rushworth caught behind for 2 the next over to bring the innings and the day to a close. Durham all out for 197, and Worcestershire will require 81 to win on Friday: even with the Pears propensity for arsing things up, it would take a catastrophic collapse to blow this one, and as long as the weather behaves, it should be a simple task.