[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

Day Four

Morning: No play possible due to rain.

Afternoon: Having been let off the better part of two hours of the final day, it should have been a relatively straightforward task to see out the last two sessions for a sixth successive draw, but sadly, it was anything but. After taking a blow to the hand, Daryl Mitchell was caught at short leg for 62 off the very next ball, and that triggered a dismal collapse. Tom Fell departed LBW for 1 to a low ball that nipped back fiercely; Jack Haynes, after a period of resistance, was caught at first slip for 24; Brett D'Oliveira was caught down the legside for 7, while Riki Wessels got in a tangle and went LBW for a duck in the same over;, and all hope pretty much died with Jake Libby going for 36 in the same fashion. But there was time for Ed Barnard to nick behind for 1 before the interval, leaving the Pears 146-7.

Evening: With the innings already in tatters, the end wasn't long in coming. Joe Leach was LBW for 5 to the fourth ball of the session, and Ben Cox likewise for 11. Charlie Morris was the last man to go, caught behind for a duck, and the Pears were left to contemplate just how things went from bad to worse across a long weekend.

Worcestershire LOSE by two hundred and fifty-eight runs

The Verdict: After dodging a couple of bullets in the lengthy string of stalemates - notably escaping unscathed from matches in which they'd been second-best against Essex and Derbyshire - Worcestershire's nagging weaknesses finally caught up with them at Chester-le-Street. The frequent decision to insert teams after winning the toss just hasn't been working this year, the middle order folds like a pack of cards at the drop of a hat, and the bowling attack has yet to take twenty wickets in a match so far. Even acknowledging the strengths of a resurgent Durham on home soil, to collapse twice on a pitch which yielded only five wickets in Durham's second innings is beyond poor. The Pears now have to try and bounce back against an equally resurgent Notts, with pressure for a positive performance all the greater now that the unbeaten streak has suddenly become a winless streak.