[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

Day Four

Morning: A pleasant Tuesday at Wantage Road, but there was plenty of tension in the air as Worcestershire resumed on 177-6. A checked on-drive for two and a cover-drive for three were the only really attacking strokes of the first half-hour as the pair at the crease nudged and nurdled their way carefully to the 200 lead, which was the first milestone of the day; but of course, far from the most important. Tom Fell, into the nervous nineties for the first time since his return from battling cancer, was watchful at the crease as he slowly ticked off the necessary runs, reaching 99 with a bottom-edged hook off Muzarabani. The five-year wait for a ton finally ended in the next over with a flick off the hip down to long leg off Gareth Berg, and his sixth first-class century was greeted with wild applause from the pavilion. It was also the cue for the acceleration to start, as Ed Barnard pulled Berg's very next delivery into the stand for six, Fell contributed another couple of quick-fire boundaries, and Worcestershire finally declared on 255-6 with Northants requiring a stiff-but-achievable 263 in seventy overs to win. With half an hour till the interval there was plenty of time to hunt the first breakthrough, but despite Joe Leach beating the edge with a jaffer and Ben Curran surviving a very strong shout for a catch at short leg, Northants made a positive start and went in for lunch 28-0.

Afternoon: There was always the fear that after last week's unnecessarily late declaration, all caution was going to be thrown to the wind in this match, and for a while it looked like the decision to end the second innings had come too soon. At two o'clock not a single wicket had been taken all day, the pitch was looking devoid of demons, and most worryingly of all, Ricardo Vasconcelos was finding the boundary with regularity and ease. In the end, it was Leach who got the ball rolling with Ben Curran dismissed LBW for 17, and as we'd seen on previous days, wickets came in bunches. Josh Tongue, just finding his rhythm, struck twice in an over to remove Vasconcelos LBW for 31 and then tempt Alex Wakely into a mistimed shot which came off the splice for a catch at mid-on. The minor rebuild that followed didn't last anywhere near long enough for the hosts, as Ed Barnard came into the attack and caught the edge of Charlie Thurston's bat with his fifth ball, before the dangerous Richard Levi attempted to drive Dillon Pennington and was caught low at gully. It became a six-wicket session when Pennington delivered a wide, full ball to Saif Zaib which the batsman flashed at and nicked behind for five, and could have been even more but for an early tea forced by rain, with Northants 114-6 and reeling.

Evening: With a couple of big hitters still at the crease, and their intention being to treat the remainder of the game as a white-ball chase, the key for the Pears was to remain calm, let the batsmen swing and not be fazed by a couple of expensive overs. After Josh Tongue bowled Gareth Berg for 18 with a ball nipping back through the gate, skipper Adam Rossington decided - perhaps unwisely - to simply lash the bat at anything that moved, and inevitably he top-edged a steepler from Leach that was comfortably caught behind. After a little more power-hitting, Pennington coaxed a little more bounce from the pitch to take the shoulder of Muzarabani's bat for 11 and provide Ben Cox with his 500th career catch, leaving Ed Barnard to bowl Jack White for a golden duck and wrap up a comfortable win with an hour to spare.

Worcestershire WIN by seventy-eight runs

The Verdict: A riveting match and fine victory for the Pears, doubly important because the final-day weather at Edgbaston denied Somerset a certain victory and allowed Worcs to reclaim top spot. There's still a temptation to curse our caution last week and the possibility that we might have had an even bigger lead by now, but there's no way of fixing that except to show the same spirit in this weekend's huge derby against Warwickshire - the first meeting of the sides in the first-class game since June 2015 - that we've just displayed to maximum effect at Wantage Road.