[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

vs Kent

County Championship, Division Two

New Road, Worcester

Day One: Kent won the toss and elected to bat on the hottest June day since 1976.  In the sweltering heat it seemed that losing the toss might be an early nail in the coffin for the Pears, but instead we were treated to a midsummer day's dream in the morning session with the Worcestershire bowling attack ploughing through the Kent top order.  With the visitors on 139-7 halfway through the afternoon things couldn't have looked better, but then for the second Championship game in a row a stubborn tail-end proved a nightmare for the Pears bowlers, who struggled to take the last three wickets before dismissing Kent for 260 all out.  The pendulum further swung against the home side when Kent took early wickets in the Worcestershire reply, with Dolly gone for a duck, Mitchell caught on 6 and Moeen almost perfectly replicating his innings from Saturday with an aggressive knock of 37 before taking one risk too many.  In the end, Joe Clarke and the lesser-spotted George Rhodes guided Worcestershire through to close of play on 95-3, trailing Kent by 165 runs; a pretty even day in the end, and one which demands some early caution from the Pears tomorrow to nudge back in our favour.

Day Two: Another baking day at New Road saw Worcestershire settle nicely into their first-innings reply, with young Joe Clarke - who's struggled for form a little this year after last season's big breakthrough, with a top score of only 39 - making his first ton of the summer, scoring 360 degrees around the wicket before being dismissed for 142 on the stroke of tea.  There was still time for the Pears to set a handy first-innings lead of 76 runs, with a half-century for skipper Joe Leach, before the innings came to a close.  In the final session, with the visitors at the crease, the new ball once again claimed casualties, and the Pears would have been happy with three Kent wickets falling before they achieved parity.  However, the southerners rallied in the last hour and managed to reach close of play at 120-3, leading by 44 runs.  This could really go either way, especially given the stubborn showing of the Kent lower-order in the first innings; if the visitors pile on the runs tomorrow then Worcestershire could well be staring at defeat on a turning pitch in spite of the good work of these first two days.  Wickets needed tomorrow, quickly and abundantly.

Day Three: Early wickets came, but unfortunately for Worcestershire, the crucial one didn't.  Kent's veteran right-hander Joe Denly stayed at the crease for the majority of another scorching day, making a career-best score of 227 in the cause of pushing Kent up to a total of 474 all out.  All in all it was a long and thankless afternoon for the Pears bowling attack, who seemed to run out of ideas as the Kent lower-order again piled on runs, setting the home side a mammoth total of 399 to win.  Thankfully, Mitch and Dolly saw us safely through to stumps, closing on 16-0.  A lot will depend on the weather and state of the pitch tomorrow, but all three potential results are still possible from this one, though a Kent win is (sadly) the most likely.  Nevertheless, a solid top-order partnership scoring at four runs an over would give the Pears a platform for a famous win, and failing that, some careful batting may yet steer us to a draw.

Day Four: What a day.  What a game.  What a marvellous advertisement for Championship cricket.  On a cloudy, breezy morning the Pears came out needing 383 to record the third-highest successful run-chase in the county's history, and from the word go, it was clear that they had no interest in settling for anything but a victory.  Dolly set the tone with a few quickfire boundaries before being bowled by Stevens for 27; that dismissal brought Moeen to the crease, who wasted no time in putting together a hundred partnership with Mitch through the remainder of the morning session, eventually losing his wicket LBW to Yasir Shah with the last ball before lunch.  In came Joe Clarke with the score 164-2, and the ensuing partnership he built with the former skipper turned the match decisively in the home side's favour, building a platform by tea for a famous win with just 63 more required.  Of course, it wouldn't be Worcestershire without a twist in the tale, and some canny spin bowling early in the evening session saw wickets fall in quick succession with a few dozen runs still required.  However, big Ross Whiteley came in to join Clarke and immediately unleashed his fearsome T20 swinging to gobble up the runs before being bowled by Yasir on 29, leaving the Pears just one run short of Kent's total.  Step up Ed Barnard to put it to bed with a beauty of a boundary off his very first ball, wrapping up one of the most extraordinary victories you're likely to see, and all against a fellow Division Two heavyweight who were unbeaten this season until today.  The Pears leapfrog Kent and take second place; presuming that Notts have got top spot sewn up, this triumph could mean everything come September.

Worcestershire WIN by four wickets

Star Performer: It would be unfair not to give a shout to Daryl Mitchell, whose innings of 142 on the final day - a fourth Championship century in five matches - was absolutely pivotal to making this win possible.  But where would the Pears have been without young Joe Clarke?  The England hopeful has had a quiet season so far, only making 218 runs from eleven innings before this week; yet with a century in each innings of this match (only the third player to do so in the Championship this summer, putting him in the company of Gary Ballance and Kumar Sangakkara), he's piled another 252 runs onto that total.  Back at Easter I didn't think it'd take anywhere near this long for the twenty-one-year-old to earn himself a star player nod in a first-class match, but it's been well worth the wait.  Top stuff, Joe.

Next Match: More history to be made as Worcestershire play their maiden day/night first-class match at Chester-Le-Street next Monday, against a Durham side who've just won their first Championship match of the season.