[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

County Championship, Division One

vs Somerset

County Ground, Taunton

Day One: Somerset won the toss and put the Pears in to bat on a warm, sunny Friday morning in a springtime replete with them, and for the better part of an hour and three quarters Worcestershire were able to bask in the glow of what seemed a promising start to the season. On a green-tinged pitch after overnight rain, the loss of Jake Libby edging to slip for 30 on the stroke of noon seemed a small price to pay for racing to 101-1 against the toss-winning title contenders, but Kasey Aldridge turned the last fifteen minutes before lunch into a hellish examination that the Pears top order couldn't weather, abruptly collapsing to 110-4. And it only got worse after the interval, with occasional fightbacks - including a notable unbeaten run-a-ball 32 from Matthew Waite - punctuated by the regular clatter of wickets until the misery finally ended at 154 all out. In the reply, early breakthroughs from Tom Taylor and Adam Finch raised hopes that it might not be a one-sided encounter, as the hosts slipped to 53-3 at tea, but only one more wicket from Finchy was to follow in a long evening session that saw Somerset take the lead and reach 187-4 by stumps.

Day Two: The weather continued fine, and the match continued miserably. Across two wicketless sessions Tom Banton smashed Somerset records on his way to an eventual 371, and only late scalps from Ethan Brookes and Dolly offered any consolation for Worcestershire as the hosts closed on 637-6.

Day Three: A deserved reward for the labours of Tom Hinley came on Sunday morning with his maiden first-class wicket, removing the triple centurion Banton to prompt a Somerset declaration on 670-6. And predictably, there was still time for the Pears to fall to 58-2 by lunch, which became 116-4 by mid-afternoon despite a half-century from Kashif Ali. The ship was steadied through the evening session courtesy of further fifties from Dolly and Adam Hose, but the loss of the latter left the Pears 280-5 at close, still trailing by 236 and needing to bat out the final day against a Test-standard spin attack to gain anything from the match.

Day Four: After the early loss of nightwatchman Finchy, hopes grew and grew during four hours when Dolly and Pingu dominated the crease, the skipper completing his century assuredly on a pitch that showed few hints of misbehaviour. And so it came as a nasty shock when Dolly safely padded away an Archie Vaughan delivery pitching outside a second set of stumps, only for the umpire to bizarrely adjudge the ball was Shane Warneing its way back onto the wickets. With the captain gone and the third new ball due after tea, Somerset suddenly smelled blood and Worcestershire were subjected to an onslaught surrounded by close fielders. Ben Allison was the evening's first casualty, fending a rising ball to short midwicket for 22, and though new man Tom Taylor survived an hour, he too came undone edging Jack Leach to second slip. Last man Tom Hinley, playing only his second first-class match, had over half an hour left to negotiate alongside Pingu, and yet despite numerous shouts from the increasingly desperate home side, the pair navigated their way through the remaining fifty-one deliveries to secure a famous escape for Worcestershire.

Match DRAWN

The Verdict: Clearly improvements will be needed in batting and bowling, even allowing for the impending arrival of Jacob Duffy, and it may be that an extra specialist player is required to shore up the top order a little. But all the same, it would be churlish not to celebrate a titanic effort from the Pears across five sessions and more to obtain a draw in a match where we looked dead and buried. Matthew Waite and Dolly the stars of the show, and hopefully we'll see much more of the same from them in the months to come.