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Day Four

Morning: Dawn brought no declaration, as Derbyshire decided to give themselves ten overs of the final day to stretch their already scarcely-assailable lead. To that end, Harvey Hosein and Fynn Hudson-Prentice put a further 44 onto the overnight total of 268-5, falling just short of a 400 lead in the end as they elected to set Worcestershire the highly nominal target of 398 to win off eighty-four overs. The Pears openers negotiated a dozen overs of the new ball successfully, but when Matt Critchley came into the attack, a pitch which had already proved conducive to slow bowling brought instant chances; one drop at slip was swiftly followed by a ball that popped up off the bat of Daryl Mitchell, and he was caught for 12. Variable bounce then did for Jake Libby on the stroke of lunch, as he chopped a low ball from Hudson-Prentice onto the stumps for 21. The scoreboard showed 33-2 at the interval, with the runs column all but irrelevant as the Pears contemplated preserving their eight wickets through the next two sessions.

Afternoon: No one ever went bankrupt betting on Worcestershire to turn a straightforward task into an uphill struggle, and sure enough, Tom Fell began that needless climb with a pull straight to deep square leg for 13 off a Hudson-Prentice bouncer. On a mere 3, Brett D'Oliveira then fell into a simple fielding trap when he glanced a ball from Ben Aitchinson to the leg-gully just placed there for that purpose. The session wasn't even half over when Riki Wessels was dismissed LBW for 2 off an Aitchinson nip-backer, and four overs later the result seemed like a foregone conclusion when the same bowler sent down a full-length inswinger to pin Gareth Roderick leg-before for 22. At a dire 83-6, Ben Cox and Ed Barnard could have been forgiven for giving up the increasingly lost cause, but instead they adopted a positive approach towards Critchley and manipulated the field well as they slashed and swept their way to 118-6 at tea.

Evening: Still scoring at a steady clip, the seventh-wicket partnership reached fifty half an hour after resumption in the late afternoon sun, and around five o'clock Cox brought up his own 78-ball half-century with a sumptuous cover-drive off the bowling of Aitchinson. Having batted thirty overs together, and with just seventeen left in the day, it felt like the two middle-order lynchpins had saved the Pears; but after four successive maidens, Critchley dismissed Barnard LBW for 35, then trapped Alzarri Joseph for 4 in his very next over. Eight down, and with fourteen overs remaining, it was up to Joe Leach to join Coxy for a real captain's innings, digging in and ticking off the dot balls. Plenty of jangling nerves, and all the typical scenes of a tight finish in a first-class game: close fielders crowded round the bat, a boundary or two to ease the pressure, a cheer for every solid, chanceless maiden. In the fourth over from close, Sam Conners appealed for a catch behind off Leach, only to be denied by a good call from the umpire of pad rather than bat. Tick, tick, tick; dot, dot, dot. Umbrella field and tin hats on. A leave, a block, another maiden. Critchley on for the last six balls, with seven fielders around the bat. Ben Cox saw off the first four, smothering the spin expertly, and after a facing a hundred and forty-seven deliveries over three and a half hours for an unbeaten 60, the Great Wall of Wordsley dealt with the penultimate ball in the same fashion, bringing an end to proceedings with a forward defensive and a welcome fist-bump.

Match DRAWN

The Verdict: A great Championship game all round, with plenty on offer from both sides. For Worcestershire it was either a calamitous decision to insert Derbyshire after winning the toss, or else criminal sloppiness to put down so many chances in the game's very first session; either way, the outcome was four days of playing catch-up to a side that bettered them pound for pound and measure for measure until the resilience of Cox, Barnard and Leach forced the stalemate on Sunday, leaving the hosts to rue their late and unnecessarily cautious declaration. Questions again to be asked of the Pears top order, who've now obliged the middle and tail to take the strain of posting a decent score three times in a row. Likewise, the nagging fear that Worcestershire's seam-heavy attack is just too samey won't go away, though hopefully Alzarri Joseph will continue to prove an asset as he adapts to conditions. A decent result all in all, but the pressure is now on to go one better against Notts in the first fixture at New Road next week.