[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

Day Three

Morning: Cooler and cloudier at New Road on Saturday, but there was no turning down the heat on the Foxes. Twenty overs was the allotted time in which to go wild, and the Pears middle order made the most of it. Resuming on 456-3, Brett D'Oliveira was an early LBW casualty to Wiaan Mulder for 54, but Azhar Ali provided early boundaries and added twenty-three runs to his overnight total before getting himself in a tangle as he shuffled across his stumps and then tried to lean back to free his arms for a cut, with the net result that he was bowled by Chris Wright for 225; the highest total by a Worcs batsman at New Road since his namesake Moeen scored 250 against Glamorgan in June 2013, accrued over the course of nine and a quarter hours at the crease. With that solid platform laid, the Pears cruised past 500 and Ed Barnard provided 26 before hooking Wright straight to long leg. New man Ben Cox was in a walloping mood, and raced to his half-century off just forty-six balls, including three sixes off Callum Parkinson; one of which carried Worcs beyond their previous record innings of 561 against Leicestershire, set at Aylestone Road in August 1901. The eventual declaration left Cox unbeaten on 52, new boy Matthew Waite on 13, and the Pears 577-6 with a more-than-handy lead of 429. There was still time in the remaining half-hour of the session for Dillon Pennington to dismiss Rishi Patel LBW for 1, and as the Foxes trudged in 26-1, it was about as fine a morning's work as any loyal Pear could have hoped for.

Afternoon: Had Hassan Azad stuck around to anchor the innings, as he did at Grace Road last month, there might have been hope for Leicestershire; as it was, Charlie Morris removed the opener caught and bowled for 18 with a tumbling one-handed grab as the ball looped up off a mistimed forward defensive. From there on, there was little significant resistance - Pennington had Colin Ackermann LBW for 15, then drew a top edge from Lewis Hill with a bit of extra pace and bounce beating the batsman's lazy pull and sending Coxy sprinting with outstretched gloves back towards long stop to claim the catch for 50. Waite then got a low ball to nip back in to Wiaan Mulder as the South African shouldered arms, and it clattered the off-stump to bowl him for 24; with tea looming, the Yorkshireman doubled up as Harry Swindells was caught and bowled for a twelve-ball duck, and the interval came with the visitors 125-6 and facing a three-day defeat.

Evening: The Foxes tail were to no small extent architects of their own demise, as Ben Mike's attempted leave to Waite was half-hearted at best, the ball brushed the batsman's glove on its way through to the keeper for 2, providing Coxy with his four hundredth first-class catch. It became two wickets in three balls for Waite - and four in the innings - when Ed Barnes was strangled down the leg-side for a duck, and young Rehan Ahmed ended up in something of a ballerina stance as he stood one-legged and tickled the bat at a short ball outside off, edging Morris behind for 17. Parkinson and Wright made another half-decent last-wicket stand to put some gloss on the score - again, it was the highest partnership of the innings - but Barnard managed to wrap things up at half past five when Wright sent a flat-batted slog into the deep and holed out to Waite for 31. Without embarking on an exhaustive trawl through the record books, I suspect this is the county's largest margin of victory since beating Durham by an innings and 308 runs two decades ago in June 2002, which was itself a record-breaking feat; this would therefore be the county's second-largest victory. An absolute shoeing for the East Midlanders, and a performance to be proud of in all departments for the Pears.

Worcestershire WIN by an innings and two hundred and fifty-nine runs

The Verdict: No one in the wide world of cricket can argue with a mammoth innings victory inside three days after losing the toss, and Worcestershire deserve their Sunday off after completing this phase of the Championship season in style. Azhar Ali will rightly earn the bulk of the plaudits - his 225 was the centrepiece of this weekend's triumph - but credit is also due to Matthew Waite in his first Championship match for over three years; the Yorkshireman looked right on the money from his very first ball, and even before the wickets started falling for him, his miserly economy tied Leicestershire in knots and forced errors from the batsmen. His six scalps in the match were well-earned, and the only drawback from a Worcs perspective is that such a performance won't have gone unnoticed at Headingley. If there's even the slightest chance that Waite is surplus to requirements in his home county, it would do the Pears well to get his signature on a contract as soon as humanly possible.