[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

Day Two

Morning: Good Friday dawned as warm and sunny as anyone could wish for, and a decision to keep faith in the somewhat out-of-sorts Josh Tongue very quickly yielded a reward as he found some extra bounce to bamboozle Zak Chappell, aiming for his half-century but only being caught at third man for 46. A few more runs flowed, with one particularly unfortunate inside-edge zipping to the boundary, but Matthew Waite capped an excellent first innings by enticing a steepler from Conners to deep mid-on, completing his second Pears four-fer and dismissing Derbyshire 321 all out. The reply could hardly have presented a greater contrast to Derbyshire's approach at the crease, eschewing Bazball for Boycottball as the Pears ground a watchful path through the first fifteen overs. So it was hard not to have some pity for Ed Pollock, having restrained his natural instincts so admirably, when Sam Conners set a simple leg-side trap that the opener duly pulled a short ball straight into for 22. Still, Worcestershire took lunch on 66-1, and with the tail mopped up and only one wicket down, could comfortably claim the session as theirs.

Afternoon: There were harder times to come, of course. With the run rate remaining well below three an over and the scoreboard ticking at a fly's crawl, all it took was one good ball or a lapse in concentration to break a partnership cheaply, and having played a few expansive shots to the boundary, Azhar Ali's attempt to force Conners off the back foot only resulted in him edging behind for 23. With his nagging line and length, Conners then drew a careless flick from Jake Libby that was caught at midwicket for 42, and another attempted rebuild came to a premature end when Adam Hose, playing his first red-ball innings since September 2019 and manifestly struggling to settle during a probing over from Suranga Lakmal, was trapped LBW for 15 off the final ball from the Sri Lankan (perhaps a little unluckily, having got a stride in and with the ball angling to leg). At that point, 139-4 looked a concerning score, if not an alarming one; steering safely to tea on 152-4 was a minor moral victory for the Pears, seeing out a session whose 86 runs for 3 wickets was fairly even on paper, but felt overall like a drift of momentum to Derbyshire.

Evening: Finally, with the Easter sun lingering long in a clear sky, Worcestershire upped the tempo after the break. Jack Haynes, who'd played a measured innings, brought up his half-century en route to a hundred partnership with the skipper, until he fell pulling Zak Chappell backward of square leg for 62. In contrast, Gareth Roderick's stay at the crease was short as he departed LBW to Chappell for 1, but there was no stopping Brett D'Oliveira as he picked up exactly where he left off in 2022, finding the boundary with ease and swatting Anuj Dal down the ground for a thumping six. His fifty came on the way to batting Worcs into a slender lead of 10 as stumps came on 331-6, with Dolly on 87 and Waite providing sterling support on 34. With lower-order hitting still to come, it would be disappointing not to extend that lead to at least 50 in the morning, and while there are undoubtedly twists and turns still to come, this was very much Worcestershire's day.