[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

County Championship, Division Two

vs Leicestershire

New Road, Worcester

Day One

Morning: Worcestershire won the toss and put Leicestershire in to bat on a bright if somewhat windy Thursday, and on a pitch with only a slight tinge of green, it seemed ominously like a decision prompted by fear of going out in the middle. In the early stages it looked like it might backfire as Foxes opener Sol Budinger scored above a run a ball, but when he edged Joe Leach to first slip for 20, it opened the door for the Pears to justify the choice to bowl. Rishi Patel top-edged an Adam Finch bouncer to the keeper for 22, while an over of full, swinging deliveries from Matthew Waite dismissed Lewis Hill LBW for 14 off the first, and Peter Handscomb in the same fashion for a five-ball duck off the last. With the score 83-4 at lunch, Worcs could claim a good morning's work.

Afternoon: Picking up where they left off, Leach had Wiaan Mulder caught for a duck with a blinding goalie's catch from the skipper at backward point, before Waite had Rehan Ahmed pouched at first slip for 7. 94-6 became 117-7 when Tom Scriven attacked a short ball from Finch and was caught in the deep for 12, but having frustrated the Pears in similar fashion this time last year, Chris Wright once again proved a thorn in the side as he built a half-century partnership with Colin Ackermann. Nevertheless, when the end came it was swift; Leach claimed his third scalp as Wright was adjudged LBW for 30, and though Ackermann completed his fifty, a scything stroke outside off-stump caused him to chop on for 52 against Ben Gibbon, who duly made it two in three balls when he pinned Will Davis LBW for a duck. 173 all out at tea, it felt like a job well done, and there was scarcely a hint of the nasty twists that lay in store.

Evening: The reply was only five balls old when a lifting, seaming delivery from Wright had Azhar Ali caught behind for a duck, and from there things went hellward very quickly. Somerset loanee Josh Davey rapped the pad of Gareth Roderick to see him off for a duck, and despite some spirited counter-attacking from Ed Pollock, the ball continued to jag, swing and explode off a length; Wright kept it firmly in the corridor, and Jack Haynes edged to slip for 6 a few overs later, immediately followed by Adam Hose for a golden duck with an identical dismissal. And so it continued, Brett D'Oliveira caught behind off Davey for 6, Pollock holing out to Wright for a vital 30, Waite caught at midwicket for a duck off Davey, Finch dismissed LBW by Wright for 1, and Leach caught at cover for 4. With the score 50-9, we were firmly in the territory of the record books for the county's worst-ever completed innings, and in the end it was only a few battling boundaries from our final pair of Gibbon and one-game Somerset cameo man Jack Brooks that lifted it up to 83 all out in 21.1 overs; by a narrow margin, merely our fourth-lowest innings of the 21st century. And there was time for the humiliation to get worse, as the tired bowlers watched the Leics openers rattle along at six an over against the new ball until Brooks had Budinger caught at deep square leg for 29, and Leach had Patel caught behind for the same score. Bad light forced an early close with Leicestershire 66-2, leading by 156 after a first day that saw an astonishing twenty-two wickets fall.