[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

County Championship, Division Two

vs Derbyshire

Day One

Morning: Derbyshire won the toss and put the Pears in to bat on a green pitch under mild grey Midland skies. For the first hour it looked like a wise decision as the new ball fizzed around, with Ed Pollock the first victim; caught behind for 7 as a ball across his body from Suranga Lakmal seamed away. Around five to noon, Jake Libby was then dismissed LBW for 17 off Ryan Sidebottom, leaving Worcestershire 41-2. But with their marathon partnership from Sunday still fresh in the mind, Azhar Ali and Jack Haynes again combined to quell the nerves and see the Pears to lunch on 89-2; a morning that, in light of the lost toss, Worcestershire could comfortably claim as theirs.

Afternoon: It's a rare event when Worcs get to punish another team for making a bad decision at the toss, so the third-wicket pair were in hog heaven as they opened up and accelerated after lunch. Haynes was the first to his half-century, the slightly more watchful Azhar following soon after, and by the time the visitors reached tea on 209-2, Derbyshire looked fresh out of ideas.

Evening: Yet persistence paid off for the hosts. Having found a productive avenue for scoring through third man, Azhar tried a late cut to an Alex Thomson delivery that was a little too close to his body, and steered the ball into the hands of slip for 88, falling short of three figures for the second innings in a row. No such trouble for Haynes, happily, as the young man with the monkey newly-removed from his back dominated the crease like a twenty-year pro; having pulled well all day, he pivoted on the back foot to send another Sidebottom delivery through deep midwicket, past the fielder's despairing dive to the rope for his second first-class century. His career-best score was the next to go as he surpassed Sunday's unbeaten 120 shortly after five o'clock, but the new ball proved his undoing as he edged a seaming delivery from Sam Conners to first slip for a magnificent 133. Skipper Brett D'Oliveira also looked set for a good score, walloping one particularly lamentable half-tracker from Leus Du Plooy down the ground for a thundering six, but unfortunately his positivity proved his downfall as he attempted to cut Sidebottom over point only to fall for 35 to an excellent leaping catch. Ed Barnard and nightwatchman Adam Finch saw out the day's remaining overs as the Pears closed on 326-5. Though the evening was by far the most even session, with three big wickets for the hosts, it was clearly Worcestershire's day overall and a big miscalculation from Derbyshire to let us bat. 400 is the bare minimum target from here, and despite a weakened Pears attack, later on Friday we'll doubtless get some inkling of whether this is another placid pitch or if today's batting has been of a truly high calibre.