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County Championship, Division Two

vs Gloucestershire

New Road, Worcester

Day One

Morning: Gloucestershire won the toss and elected to bat on a windy yet sunny Thursday in Worcester. It soon seemed the disaster to end all disasters, as just nine balls into the innings Ben Gibbon, having already drawn a play-and-miss from Chris Dent with his first delivery, made his third rear up on the opener and fly to first slip off an outside edge to see him off for a duck. It became two in two for the left-armer when he dismissed James Bracey with the next ball, angling the delivery in and drawing a thicker edge to slip for a duck. Though Gloucs dodged the hat-trick, things got steadily worse for them as Joe Leach had Miles Hammond caught at gully for 4 ten minutes later, leaving the visitors 5-3, then doubled up by pinning Marcus Harris LBW for 1, making it 8-4. They made it to the heady heights of 24 before the fifth wicket fell, Leach this time seeing off Ollie Price LBW for 11, and Dillon Pennington joined the fun by seeing off Graeme van Buuren for 14 with a steepling top-edge caught behind, before having Jack Taylor caught at mid-off for 10. A brisk counter-attack, with no further wickets, took Gloucestershire from 45-7 to 73-7 in time for lunch; it was Worcestershire's session, but sadly about as good as the day would get.

Afternoon: Whether the air lost some moisture, the pitch lost some greenness, the ball lost its shine or the Worcs bowlers simply lost their marbles, the Gloucestershire tail wagged both inexorably and predictably, led by Tom Price scoring above a run a ball. The early afternoon casualty of Zafar Gohar, caught behind off Joe Leach, seemed only to spur the visitors on as Marchant de Lange came to the crease and peppered the boundary until Josh Tongue had him caught behind after skying a top-edge. Still the resistance continued, with Price completing an excellent maiden first-class century, and it felt like a minor miracle when Matthew Waite at last deflected a straight drive from Ajeet Singh Dale onto the non-striker's stumps to run Price out for 109. A slightly early tea was taken with Gloucs 231 all out, an almost unthinkable total at 45-7, and already it felt like the pendulum was beginning to swing.

Evening: Incredibly, on a deeply peculiar day's cricket all round, the first fifteen overs of the new ball brought no wickets and few real problems at all as Worcestershire advanced to 58-0 by five o'clock. Which made the events that followed all the more baffling, as Jake Libby was dismissed LBW for 27 to open a door that Tom Price gleefully barged through, having Azhar Ali, Jack Haynes and Brett D'Oliveira caught behind for a hat-trick of ducks. Though the Pears attempted a fightback after losing those four wickets for one run in the space of eight balls, the subsidence continued; Ed Pollock inside-edged behind for 34, Ben Cox was adjudged LBW for 15, and Joe Leach edged behind for 1 to leave the Pears 118-7 at close, still trailing by 113. Matthew Waite remains the rock of Worcestershire resistance on 37 not out, but he'll need to do a Tom Price - perhaps with bat and ball alike - if the Pears are to remain in this match.