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Day Three

Morning: The final day of April was another fine one, and Ed Barnard resumed against the second new ball with plenty of confidence; however, a bit of extra bounce from Stuart Broad accounted for Ben Cox, edging behind for 55. His successor Josh Baker, more than capable of hitting a ball, perished LBW for 1 to Luke Fletcher in the very next over - a double whammy that severely hurt Worcestershire's chances of putting a score on the board. Nevertheless, Adam Finch was able to stick around, supporting Barnard en route to the latter's career-best score - surpassing his 128 against Essex at Chelmsford last April - and the all-rounder completed a fifty partnership by slog-sweeping Liam Patterson-White for six. Shortly before the lead hit 200, Barnard reached his maiden 150, and if the Pears had reached the interval unscathed it would have been their session without doubt. But in the penultimate over, Finch was caught behind for 33 off Broad, and with the lead standing at 215 and only two wickets remaining, the teams went in for lunch.

Afternoon: To slog or not to slog is always the question when eight down, and though it showed great cricketing maturity for Barnard to place his trust in Charlie Morris to defend his wicket and accrue runs without farming the strike, it backfired as a Fletcher delivery that kept low removed the number ten's off-stump for 3. The lead stood at 225, and still there was no great effort to deal in fours or sixes; some inconsistent strike-farming brought Dillon Pennington on strike for the second ball of a Dane Paterson over, and the South African promptly completed his ten-wicket match haul, with Notts needing 233 to win and Barnard recording an unbeaten 449-minute 163. The chase started in perfect fashion for the Pears as Morris had Ben Slater caught at first slip for 2 off the fourth ball of the innings, but that was as good as things got with the new ball. Notts had motored on to 85 before Barnard - utterly unable to put a foot wrong - bowled Haseeb Hameed for 24. The scoreboard stood on 108-2 at tea, with the hosts needing 125 more and the visitors an unlikely eight wickets.

Evening: Missing Pennington due to injury, a depleted Worcestershire attack nevertheless took it as far as they could, as Morris had Ben Duckett caught behind for 78 off an inside edge and Josh Baker tempted Lyndon James into a reverse sweep that simply flew to first slip for 23. In the very next over Adam Finch had Steven Mullaney caught in the deep for 10, and there was a brief scent of a collapse in the air, but alas not quite enough in the pitch or on the scoreboard to make it happen as Notts made it home without further loss.

Worcestershire LOSE by five wickets

The Verdict: One of those matches where the scorecard will never tell the full story. Against undoubtedly the fiercest attack in Division Two, and arguably the County Championship as a whole, Worcestershire were always going to be up against the odds. Losing Joe Leach to illness and losing the toss under grim, gun-grey skies turned it into mission impossible. But after finding themselves in all kinds of trouble, two separate fightbacks from the Pears forced Notts to dig deep for their win, and you can only wonder how much closer it might have been had Leach been fit and Dillon Pennington not missed out on the second innings. "Plenty of positives to take" is often a platitude in sport, but in this instance it's true; Worcestershire showed bags of character this weekend, and hopefully it'll translate into wins further down the line.