[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

Day Three

Morning: Declaring without further loss on 397-5, Durham set Worcestershire a stiff 458 to win, and Gareth Roderick and Brett D'Oliveira were early casualties in the chase before lunch was taken on 49-2.

Afternoon: A second half-century of the match for Jake Libby before departing, and the seventh-wicket stand of Nathan Smith and Matthew Waite held up the Durham victory charge until tea was taken on 202-6.

Evening: A fifty apiece for Waite and Smudge en route to a new best seventh-wicket partnership for the Pears versus Durham, but it couldn't last the distance as Worcestershire fell a handful of overs short of seeing out the day.

Worcestershire LOSE by one hundred and eighty-five runs

The Verdict: Comfortably (if not comprehensively) outperformed in all departments, the weekend's defeat was amply summed up by Worcestershire's inability to see out the overs that might have saved the game, with Monday being a drizzly washout. Moments to be rued include the failure to polish Durham off quickly at 141-7, conceding an extra 100+ runs in the process, then losing wickets to some dozy batting on the first evening that put us behind the game. The elephant in the room is Durham's second innings, in which Bedingham (and others) demonstrated that there were runs to be scored on the pitch if a batsman could get himself in, but ultimately the Pears couldn't produce anything like that quality at the crease. Of course, the opposition are allowed to play well, and Durham may well be bound for a higher finish this season than many would expect, but nevertheless, after a heartening first fortnight back in Division One for the Pears, this weekend was a reminder of what life at the top table can look like if you're not at the races every minute of every session. Improvement needed quickly.