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vs Northamptonshire

County Championship, Division Two

Wantage Road, Northampton

Day One: A surprising decision from the Pears as they declined the toss on a scorching hot late-May morning and instead put Northants straight in to bat.  However, it proved to be a wise decision by Joe Leach as the Worcestershire bowling attack made the ball zip and seam on a dry, biscuit-brown pitch, and sent some Northants wickets tumbling.  Leach himself took three, with another three for Jack Shantry, and with the home side 161-8 things looked ideal for the visitors.  But the Northants tail wagged to give them a total of 238 all out, which Worcestershire set about chasing down with purpose.  Though Dolly went on 35 and Tom Fell was trapped LBW for a six-ball duck, the Pears were 108-2 at close of play, trailing Northants by 130 runs and considerably the happier of the two sides.  Daryl Mitchell brought up his half-century and remains at the crease on 52 not out, and though thunderstorms are a possibility tomorrow, hopefully he can push on and give Worcestershire a real platform to make it six consecutive Championship wins.

Day Two: Slow and steady wins the race for Worcestershire.  A day of sensible, patient batting from the visitors brought up a century for Daryl Mitchell before he was dismissed LBW on 161, and a creditable 76 from Pepsi helped the Pears to maximum batting points, finishing on 434 all out with a first-innings lead of 196.  Firmly in command of the match, there was time to take a couple of Northants wickets before the day's end, with Joe Leach bowling Holden and Jack Shantry dismissing Wakely.  The home side are 53-2 at close of play, trailing Worcestershire by 143 runs and facing the prospect of batting for nearly two days if they want to take anything from this match.  The forecast looks good, and the Pears are well on course for their sixth successive Championship win.

Day Three: A much better performance with the bat from Northants, who managed to achieve parity on Sunday afternoon before going on to set the Pears a total of 148 to win.  Though the home side managed to dismiss both Dolly and Tom Fell to keep things interesting, there was no stopping Daryl Mitchell, who decided to wrap things up before the fourth day with 78 off as many balls, including twelve fours and a six.  The sixth successive Championship win is in the bag, four of them coming this season, which makes this Worcestershire's best start since 1964. They're the only county remaining with a 100% first-class win record in 2017, and fingers crossed this form will hold through next month and the final stages of the One-Day Cup.

Worcestershire WIN by eight wickets

Star Performer: Great to see Nathan Lyon among the wickets in this match, but with two centuries in two weekends (and what would almost certainly have been a third if he'd been able to bat on), it's outstanding stuff right now from the veteran Daryl Mitchell. Long may it continue.

Next Match: Worcestershire travel to Hove next weekend in the hope of extending the astonishing winning streak with a victory against the rather vulnerable Sussex.

[themaclad]

Kohler-Cadmore going to Yorkshire

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Huge blow for the Pears, need to keep talented young players for as long as possible when they come through, but that's the nature of the beast. There's a strong suspicion that as a talented white-ball player, Kohler-Cadmore is trying to ensure he'll be well-positioned when the city-based T20 franchise comes round in 2020. All the same, with the range of talent Yorkshire have, opportunities are going to be at a premium, and you have to wonder whether he might have been better off giving it another couple of years at Worcester.

Still, good luck to the lad when he goes.

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vs Sussex

County Championship, Division Two

The County Ground, Hove

Day One: Pears put Sussex in to bat, and had an entire day in which to rue the decision.  After this week's dispiriting news that Tom Kohler-Cadmore will be leaving for Yorkshire next season, I expected some of the wind to have left Worcestershire sails, but our bowlers really struggled on a pitch that offered them little to nothing.  Joe Leach managed one dismissal, Josh Tongue another and Ed Barnard a third, but taking one wicket per session isn't going to get the Pears anywhere this weekend. Sussex close on 339-3, Wells on 139 not out, and if the pitch remains the same tomorrow then the home side will be looking for a whopping total. Too early to pray for rain?

Day Two: As expected, Sussex piled on the runs and reached 579-8 before declaring.  With chances of a seventh successive Championship win more or less out of the window, the Pears proceeded to bat sensibly on a nearly-dead wicket, with Mitchell and Dolly putting together the makings of a very decent reply. Worcestershire 139-0 at close of play, and if conditions remain the same tomorrow then this one looks likely to meander to a draw.

Day Three: Astonishing. And not in a good way. Cruising along with a 200 partnership, both Mitchell and Dolly got themselves caught this afternoon and precipitated the batting collapse from hell. Fourteen Pears wickets fell in total as Sussex enforced the follow-on, and in the space of a day this has gone from a likely draw to a nailed-on innings defeat. It'll take a Biblical flood tomorrow to save the Pears, as they close on 124-4 still trailing Sussex's first innings total by 143 runs.

Day Four: After two more early wickets, everything rested on the forecast of afternoon rain for the Pears. To their credit, Ross Whiteley and Ed Barnard made a long and heroic seventh-wicket stand to shepherd the visitors safely to lunch, but the bad weather didn't arrive quickly enough to save the day as the last wickets tumbled. A weekend to forget for Worcestershire; now have to make sure we get firing on all cylinders again before the big semi-final in a fortnight.

Worcestershire LOSE by an innings and seven runs

Star Performer: Ross Whiteley and Ed Barnard did themselves proud on the last day, with a half-century for the former, but with 121 in the first innings and 54 in the second, the real danger man for Worcestershire was once again Daryl Mitchell. Sadly, we can only look back on the point when he and Dolly were 215-0 on Sunday and shake our heads at what happened next.

Next Match: Worcestershire return to New Road after a month away, and will look to bounce back against visitors Glamorgan.

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vs Glamorgan

County Championship, Division Two

New Road, Worcester

Day One: Glamorgan put the Pears in to bat, and oh, has ever a day started so badly and ended so well?  It looked like the home side were picking up exactly where they left off last week when the first three wickets fell within eight overs for just fourteen runs.  However, the impending batting collapse was staved off by the middle-order, with Ben Cox making 93 off ninety-nine balls and Ed Barnard whacking a handy 60; finishing their innings 267 all out after tea, there was a sense of disappointment at a low score coupled with relief that it wasn't worse.  But you judge the pitch after both teams have played on it, and after a shaky and lucky start from Glamorgan, the visitors obliged with a batting collapse of their own.  Nineteen-year-old Josh Tongue was the star man as Worcestershire steamrollered the Welshmen: his remarkable spell of 5-3 in nineteen balls skittled the top and middle order save for opener Rudolph, who remains 49 not out as Glamorgan close on 76-6, trailing by 191 runs with just 4 wickets remaining.  If things go our way in the morning there's every chance the Pears could make Glamorgan follow on, which seemed unthinkable at 4pm today.  What a difference a day makes.

Day Two: If football is a game of two halves, then Championship cricket is undoubtedly a game of four days; and this was an awful one for the Pears from start to finish.  Needing only four wickets to put a stranglehold on Glamorgan, they instead huffed and puffed and proved themselves toothless against a partnership between Cooke and Rudolph that lasted all morning and half of the afternoon.  Even when the breakthrough came with two quick wickets, the Glamorgan tail continued to wag, and by the time Worcestershire had finally bowled the visitors out, a little before 5pm, they'd set a first-innings lead of 114.  There was, of course, time for things to get that little bit worse for the home side, losing Daryl Mitchell for just 18 with an edge to slip.  At close of play Worcestershire are 34-1, trailing by 80 runs, and facing an enormous task on Sunday to swing this game back in their favour.  What a difference a day makes, indeed.

Day Three: When Worcestershire are in a hole, you can always back them to dig deeper.  No less than six wickets fell before the Pears had achieved parity with Glamorgan, and the other four went in quick succession shortly after lunch, leaving the visitors with a laughable total of just 16 to chase down for the win.  Ed Barnard dismissed Selman to make it look a bit more respectable, but for the second weekend running Worcestershire are well beaten, and questions must be asked at New Road. Is it the standard midsummer slump? Has the Kohler-Cadmore affair thrown things into disarray behind the scenes? Whatever the answer, it needs fixing before the season fizzles out.

Worcestershire LOSE by nine wickets

Star Performer: An honourable mention for Ben Cox, who gave us his season-best first-class score of 93 in the first innings, but there's no doubting that the star of the bowling attack was teenage paceman Josh Tongue, who took six wickets in the first Glamorgan innings. He's still got a lot to learn, but is looking a handy young seamer.

Next Match: Worcestershire's first semi-final since 2004 takes place next Saturday, with either Yorkshire or Surrey coming to New Road in the One-Day Cup.

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One silver lining from the weekend for the beleaguered Pears was Australia's early exit from the Champions Trophy, which means seamer John Hastings will rejoin the county in time for Saturday's One-Day Cup semi-final. This also means a farewell to Nathan Lyon, who's undoubtedly a world-class spinner, but for one reason or another just hasn't had the same impact as his compatriot. He leaves having contributed six Championship wickets and a single One-Day Cup wicket to Worcestershire's 2017 campaign.

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Now confirmed that Worcestershire will face Surrey in the One-Day Cup semi-final at New Road on Saturday. The other semi at Chelmsford sees Essex up against Notts.

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vs Surrey

One-Day Cup, Semi-Final

New Road, Worcester

A scorching hot midsummer's day at New Road is the setting for Worcestershire's first semi-final since 2004.  Given the form of the respective sides going into this one, let alone the gulf in general quality of players, it's difficult to see anything but a Surrey victory.  But nevertheless, there's a lot at stake - not least pride - and here's hoping that the Pears can put on a show and make a game of it.

Surrey innings: Surrey won the toss and elected to bat in the 32C heat.  A nightmare of a powerplay saw both teams live up to their form going into this match: Surrey smashing everything in sight to the boundary, Worcestershire bowling poorly and making some very sloppy mistakes in the field.  However, in the middle overs the home side regained a little of the confidence they showed in the group stage, with the spinners Moeen, Mitchell and Dolly reining Surrey in and taking the key wickets of Mark Stoneman, Jason Roy and Rory Burns respectively.  John Hastings was expensive on his first game back, but succeeded in dismissing Sangakkara in a crucial contribution to the cause.  Nevertheless, on a flat dead wicket with a quick outfield, Surrey managed to step on the accelerator at the death and post a final total of 363-7.  In some ways a moral victory for the Pears, as it looked early doors like the visitors would pile on an unassailable 400+, but still this chase will be the second-biggest in the domestic game (after Nottingham's record-breaker last night) if we make it.  If we want to get to Lord's, we'll have to earn it.  Surrey the favourites, Worcestershire with nothing to lose.

Worcs innings: Ugh.  Absolute suicide from the top-order set the tone for what was to come. In a chase with shades of their defeat at Old Trafford in the group stage, Worcestershire proved utterly unable to get a partnership of any kind together, while Surrey claimed soft wickets regularly to peg the home side back.  The only real positives were an aggressive early showing from Moeen and half-centuries further down the order from Dolly and Ross Whiteley, dragging the Pears above 200 to make the final result a little less humiliating.  Still, it was an emphatic win for the visitors nevertheless, bowling us out for 210, and yet another hard lesson in knockout cricket for a Worcestershire team struggling to put Kohler-Cadmore's departure behind them and regain their feet as the defeats come thick and fast.

Worcestershire LOSE by a hundred and fifty-three runs

Star Performer: There was some excellent stuff with both the ball and the bat from Dolly, but it was power hitter Ross Whiteley who top-scored in a pretty woeful Worcestershire innings, making 55 and giving the Pears a bit of hope (perhaps false) for the coming T20 campaign.

Next Match: The Pears somehow have to dust themselves down and find a way to regain some form in the County Championship as promotion rivals Kent visit New Road on Monday.

[themaclad]

Think your fans annoyed Batty just a tad

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Think your fans annoyed Batty just a tad

Ha ha! Yeah, he properly went to town on us.