[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

Day Two

Morning: A grey September Tuesday by the seaside, but despite a delayed start and a floodlit ground, the Pears openers continued to make hay. Jake Libby was the first to a half-century with a cover-drive to the boundary, the still-disciplined Ed Pollock followed suit soon after with a clip off the legs. Thereafter he began to show classic signs of wanting to dish out a Pollocking, walloping Faheem Ashraf for eighteen in a single over - including the trademark leg-side lift for six - but there were also cultured shots on show from the hitter, including an exquisitely-timed straight drive to the boundary. Another wicketless session that belonged wholly to Worcestershire, bar half an hour that went to the weather, and 187-0 was a tremendous platform.

Afternoon: With Pollock poised on 98, the temptation to go for broke just proved a bit too much; the opener was keen to pick up the two he needed off spinner Jack Carson, but an over-eager back-foot waft of the bat looped up a simple catch to the keeper to send him back to the pavilion. No such tragic heroics for Libby, who was fortunate with one inside-edge that shaved the stumps en route to the boundary, but otherwise bided his time and punished the bad balls, two of which he drove to the cover boundary to hasten through the nervous nineties and into three figures for the first time in a good while. At the other end there was a stroke of misfortune for Azhar Ali, who looked assured with some early boundaries but fell to a leg-side flick that ricocheted off the keeper to be caught at slip for 16. With Libby continuing to score freely, Jack Haynes was content to play himself in until rain brought an early tea with the Pears 268-2, already leading by 48.

Evening: Rain, rain and more rain. When the clouds finally gave it a rest and allowed some further play, there was only enough time to see off the old ball and add a couple of dozen before the arrival of the new nut and the prospect of some pace bowling prompted the umpires to call bad light and end the day with Worcestershire 289-2, leading by 69. Needless to say, for the second time in a fortnight the autumn climate is Worcestershire's biggest opponent, and day three will require some canny game management from the Pears. Without wanting to trigger a total collapse, we have to be able to put our foot on the pedal a bit, get a 200+ lead on the board by early afternoon and then get stuck into Sussex again on a pitch which may not offer the kind of help it did on the first morning.