[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

Day Three

Morning: A Saturday as dim and overcast as Worcestershire hopes began with Brett D'Oliveira perishing to the second ball of the day, which skidded low on to his pad and sent him packing without adding to his overnight score of 6. At a truly dreadful 43-4, it looked like Essex would wrap up a twelfth consecutive home victory with time to spare, but Riki Wessels came to the crease determined to take the fight to the southerners. Scoring at his usual brisk pace, driving confidently on the off-side and down the ground, he brought up his fifty off just eighty-two balls, hurrying the Pears along to 132 before Jamie Porter pinned him deep in the crease with a nip-backer right in front of the stumps, LBW for 54. Nevertheless, Jake Libby stood strong at the other end, having brought up his own half-century, needing only a partner to stick around with him and rebuild an innings that stood on 142-5 at lunch.

Afternoon: Still requiring a couple of hundred just to beat the follow-on, the second session got off to the worst possible start as Ben Cox became the latest LBW casualty in the first over after resumption, attempting an ill-advised sweep to Simon Harmer for just 7. From that point, everything depended on Libby continuing his rearguard and Ed Barnard giving the opener the necessary support. There was an anxious moment when the former was struck on the pads offering no shot, but Simon Harmer's appeal fell on deaf ears, and Libby immediately rubbed salt into the wound by skipping down the pitch and lofting the off-spinner for four over cow corner. Barnard found the rope with relative ease too, playing some elegant leg-glances and cover-drives to keep the scoreboard ticking, bringing up his half-century from ninety balls with a single off Harmer, and there was time for Libby to complete his century with a swift two off the same bowler before the Pears took tea on a considerably healthier 239-6.

Evening: Of course, facing the second new ball and still standing over a hundred short of the follow-on, there was plenty of work yet to be done. But Libby and Barnard were only too happy to accelerate against an Essex attack who were suddenly flagging and growing frustrated; a mark of which came when Sam Cook, four-wicket hero earlier in the innings, had a needless shy at the stumps which flew for four overthrows around half past four. Shortly thereafter, the Pears broke the county record for a seventh-wicket partnership against Essex, surpassing the 126 of Graeme Hick and Duncan Catterall at Chelmsford in September 1999, and even then there were still personal milestones to be marked off: Barnard broke his previous first-class best of 75 (scored against Durham at New Road in September 2017) a little after five o'clock, and continued to find the boundary with confidence as he moved into the nineties, before polishing off his maiden first-class century by tucking Jamie Porter behind square leg for a brisk couple. After twelve career half-centuries without a conversion, the celebrations were sufficiently warm on an all-too-cold April evening, but the main concern remained avoiding the follow-on and surviving till stumps; the irrepressible Barnard achieved the former with a splendid off-drive, and though Libby found himself subject to a late appeal for a catch off Simon Harmer, Worcestershire closed safely on 350-6, trailing by 140. A day that unquestionably belonged to the visitors, who - for the time being, at least - have put the reigning champions in the long-forgotten position of not getting their way on their own turf. All that remains on the final day, with Essex being required to bat again, is for the Pears to keep a firm grip: see out as much of the morning and get as close to parity as possible; make the champions work hard for runs in the second innings, and then steer the game towards a draw that's been thoroughly deserved on the balance of play.