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Day Three

Morning: A warm and welcome Saturday brought a warm and welcome return to the field for Worcestershire's resident leg-spinner, and Brett D'Oliveira was the one to make the much-needed breakthrough after half an hour when he tempted Ben Slater into driving at a full ball outside off, and a catch was taken after a little juggling at first slip for 45. Amazingly, as happened in Worcestershire's own innings, that one wicket proved the catalyst for a collapse; with the last ball of his first over of the day, Alzarri Joseph got Ben Duckett to chase after a wide ball angled across his body, and the number three promptly sliced his drive straight to point for 5. It could have been three wickets soon after as Joe Clarke arrived at the crease determined to prove some kind of point to the county he left, and was dropped at long-on during an aggressive scoring spell; however, his number came up when Charlie Morris entered the attack and got a ball to nip back through the gate and clip the top of Clarke's off-stump for 27 in the first of a trio of scalps. His next wicket was that of Lyndon James, LBW for 4 to a full ball that swung, and he put the icing on a fantastic session by bowling Steven Mullaney for 2 with another nip-backer that the Notts skipper unwisely left. From 115-0 to 192-5 at lunch, the morning and momentum both belonged to the Pears.

Afternoon: Nottinghamshire rebuilt doggedly and carefully, and from a non-partisan perspective it was heartening to see Haseeb Hameed complete just his second first-class century since his England debut way back in 2016. But with the partnership between Hameed and Moores threatening to become a thorn in Worcestershire's side, Brett D'Oliveira came into the attack for the most astonishing over of the day: Moores, on 38, heaved the first ball - a rank long-hop - for six, came down the pitch to loft the second over cover for four, slog-swept the third over square leg for six to bring up his half-century, sent the fourth to the boundary with a reverse-sweep and the fifth also to the rope with a more conventional drive, before getting his comeuppance on the final ball when he attempted another slog-sweep and skyed the ball to long-on; from 38 to 62 and out in a matter of minutes. Yet again, that one wicket opened the door. In the very next over, Liam Patterson-White was LBW for a duck playing across the line to Joe Leach, who also accounted for Hameed when the opener shaped to cut and nicked into the keeper's gloves for 111. Still 21 short of avoiding the follow-on with only two wickets remaining, after adding ten more Zak Chappell fatally hesitated when called through for a quick single, and some sharp thinking from Riki Wessels saw him run from short leg to the stumps to receive the throw from Mitch at mid-wicket and whip off the bails. With the very next delivery, Alzarri Joseph wrapped things up with a scorching yorker at the stumps that Dane Paterson simply couldn't handle, and tea was taken with Notts 276 all out, and Worcestershire leading by a solid 160 runs.

Evening: In an admirable show of positivity, Joe Leach chose to enforce the follow-on after the break, but somehow the match had come full circle in the space of a day; after dominating the visitors with the ball for hours, the evening was destined to be another long, wicketless session as on Friday. Haseeb and Slater reached stumps unbeaten on 87-0, and realistically, Worcs will have to replicate Saturday's heroics on the final day to dismiss Notts within a couple of sessions and have a chaseable target. A draw remains the most likely result.