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Day Two

Morning: A sunny spring Saturday with a stiff breeze, and despite losing Nathan Smith softly for 4 when he chipped a half-volley straight to short midwicket, and Joe Leach to a Chris Rushworth short ball which flew off the shoulder of the bat and was caught high at second slip for 11, Jason Holder stuck to the crease with Adam Finch and supplied a crucial 29 that lifted the Pears to 360 before slicing an attempted wallop to deep backward point. Handed the new ball, Worcestershire then produced some menacing overs which the Bears openers somehow weathered to make it to lunch 35-0.

Afternoon: Reward for their luckless early efforts came in the first over after lunch with a classic Joe Leach dismissal that swung in to the driving Rob Yates and removed off-stump for 26 via an inside edge. Unfortunately, as the Kookaburra softened it offered vanishingly little to the bowlers from there, and it took a banged-in short ball from Adam Finch to remove Alex Davies on the pull for 26, before Nathan Smith closed the session by tempting Will Rhodes into an uppercut straight to slip for 64. 189-3 at tea, the Pears had the three wickets they'd have wanted but the 150+ runs conceded in the process allowed Warwickshire to shade the session.

Evening: Although the bowlers tightened up a little, runs were still a little too easy to come by and wickets a little to hard. Staring down the depressing barrel of an Ed Barnard century, Adam Finch nevertheless earned himself the freedom of Worcester by dismissing the turncoat all-rounder LBW for 89, and in the dying overs of the day when it looked like the fifth-wicket partnership would carry the Bears through to close, Smith superbly fielded a messy Jacob Bethell sweep that spooned up aerially behind the wicket, and pinged it in to Gareth Roderick who whipped off the bails to beat the batsman's desperate dive. 292-5 at stumps, it was marginally Warwickshire's day, but the Pears remained in the running with the new ball due first thing in the morning.