[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

County Championship, Division Two

vs Nottinghamshire

Day One

Morning: Notts won the toss on a grey September Tuesday and put the Pears in to bat on a green pitch. There were soon casualties to show for it; notwithstanding his recent form, Ed Pollock played Jake Ball onto the stumps for a duck, and some steepling bounce from the same bowler took Azhar Ali by surprise as he edged behind for 6. Positivity was the watchword from the third-wicket partnership, but it proved all too brief as Jake Libby was LBW for 18 to Worcestershire's great bete noire Dane Paterson, before Jack Haynes followed him after a run-a-ball 33, edging Steven Mullaney behind. Incredibly, there was time for things to get worse as Ed Barnard edged Paterson to second slip on the stroke of lunch. 99-5 at the interval, it all felt like the same old story for a Nottinghamshire encounter.

Afternoon: But incredibly, there was some backbone in the middle order. Cliched though it may be, Brett D'Oliveira indisputably played a captain's innings through the afternoon, supported by the increasingly impressive Gareth Roderick. Defending watchfully and putting away the bad balls with some well-timed strokes, Dolly completed a comfortable half century before the interval, capping a wicketless session in which the Pears recovered to 187-5.

Evening: Bringing up his fifty, Roderick happily accelerated to match the pace of Dolly, who was already tucking into some indifferent bowling; each man contributed a six to the innings to go with a series of well-struck boundaries. But the second new ball saw Dolly fall to Mullaney for 85, caught behind on the drive, and new signing Matthew Waite - here on a two-game loan before his three-year full-time stint begins next summer - managed only 5 before perishing LBW to Brett Hutton. Still, the Pears reached stumps on 297-7; no mean feat against the division leaders, who would have expected to bowl Worcestershire out by the day's end after winning the toss and electing to field. With Rodders still at the crease there's a golden opportunity to push the total up well beyond 300 in the morning, but even if Notts wrap things up quickly, Worcs have still got what feels like a decent par score on the board.