[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

County Championship, Division One

vs Essex

County Ground, Chelmsford

Day One: The Pears won the toss and elected to bat on a bright Thursday morning in the home counties, and within ten minutes it seemed a catastrophic decision as the Worcestershire top order was blown away in the space of two disastrous overs. At 10-4 after just twenty-seven deliveries the team could have been forgiven for packing up and going home, and even a brief fightback of 24 from Kashif Ali ended with him chopping onto the stumps a few overs later, but the Pears middle order managed to steady themselves from 46-5 to reach 100-5 at lunch. Essex continued to chip away with regular wickets after the interval, and a Brett D'Oliveira half-century was crucial to getting runs on the board before he too departed LBW to Simon Harmer for 68. At 202-9 the score was still looking a touch light, so the last stand of Tom Taylor (who made an excellent half-century) and Amar Virdi was vital in securing a batting point and surviving through the tea interval until the end came at 266 all out. The hosts started positively in response, but with three balls left of the day Taylor made yet another sterling contribution to the cause as he supplied the massive scalp of Dean Elgar LBW for 29, leaving Essex 50-1 at stumps.

Day Two: A sunny Friday, and after much morning toil Ethan Brookes complemented his useful 46 with the bat on day one by bowling Robin Das for an identical 46 before having new man Jordan Cox caught on 3. Just before lunch, Dolly ensured a decent session for Worcestershire by dismissing Matt Critchley LBW for 10, and at 151-5 the Pears could reasonably claim to have a foothold in the game. Fortunes waxed and waned in the afternoon as Virdi struck to break a 50+ partnership with the big wicket of Tom Westley caught behind for 68, opening the door for another two wickets before tea on 275-7, Essex leading by 9. But it was a tough evening as the tail continued to wag, and though Virdi and the returning Logan van Beek eventually succeeded in polishing off the lower order, it was for an eye-watering 404 that handed the hosts a dangerous lead of 138. Still, nightwatchman Joe Leach succeeded in seeing out the remaining five overs of the day to take the Pears to stumps safely on 2-0, hanging on by their coattails.

Day Three: Saturday dawned greyer, and two early wickets didn't help the Worcs cause. A fifty partnership from Kash and Jake Libby stopped the rot, and even when the former departed, the latter completed his half-century and took the Pears to lunch on 125-3, trailing by just 13. But two quick post-prandial wickets with the scoreboard still in arrears put Essex right back in the driving seat, and it required a counter-attacking partnership from Dolly and Adam Hose to give Worcestershire a fighting foothold in the game once more, until the skipper departed after making his half-century. 254-6 at tea with a lead of 116, it still seemed possible that the Pears might post a defendable score, but the swift double-whammy of losing half-centurion Hose for 64 and Ethan Brookes for 19 left the visitors teetering again with eight down for a 140 lead. Van Beek and Taylor did all they could in the circumstances, pulling and sweeping judiciously to take the lead up to 165 before bad light intervened to curtail the day's play, with Worcestershire needing something very, very special on the final day to rescue a match that was slipping steadily away.

Day Four: And on the first day of autumn, a warm Sunday in the south-east, something very, very special was exactly what the Pears produced. Not that there was much sign of it early on, with the tail dismissed for just eighteen further runs on the overnight score, setting Essex 184 to win against a Kookaburra ball; a target which felt at least a century short of defendable. But despite a steady start, Leachy claimed the big scalp of Dean Elgar plumb LBW for just 6, while Taylor produced a jaffa to have Tom Westley caught behind for 19, and with the batsmen struggling to find the boundary on a final-day pitch, a remarkable run-out from Brett D'Oliveira - who'd placed himself in a peculiarly fine silly mid-on position with his left foot barely an inch from the cut strip to block the straight drives of Jordan Cox - cracked out a goalkeeper's dive to try and catch one such drive one-handed, only to deflect it instead onto the non-striker's stumps, seeing off the otherwise unflappable Robin Das for 32. And the game-changing over got better two deliveries later as the skipper settled himself at silly mid-on again and threw out his right hand to snaffle another uppish drive from Cox, dismissing him for 11. 75-4 at lunch, Essex still needing 109 to win, Virdi - who'd held up an end superbly and economically all innings - struck in the first over after the resumption to turn one extravagantly in to Matt Critchley, who glanced it to leg-slip for 7. With belief ever growing amongst the Pears and ever shrinking amongst the incoming Essex batsmen, Paul Walter tried a swiping cut against Van Beek only to edge behind for 3, and though the seventh-wicket partnership of first-innings centurion Mike Pepper and Simon Harmer looked to be swinging the pendulum back towards the hosts, Taylor had Harmer caught behind for 19 with 65 still needed and Essex 119-7. Pepper remained the man who'd knock those runs off if anyone would, and when Virdi turned one in to him that rapped the pad bang in front with no shot offered, the resulting lap of celebration from the spinner was positively Olympian. With the runs drying up, everything Worcestershire touched turned to gold, and it was an astounding leg-side catch at full stretch from Gareth Roderick that put Essex nine down; Sam Cook could do nothing from there but hit for the boundary and hope, and when he holed out on 10 in front of a stunned crowd, it handed Worcestershire a first Championship win in Chelmsford since August 2008 in the most remarkable fashion.

Worcestershire WIN by forty-three runs

The Verdict: I said last week that one good twenty-point win and a healthy scoop of bonus points could mean survival for the Pears this year, and this victory might just be the one that does it. An astonishing turnaround that will live long in the memory, and provides colossal momentum for the all-important derby clash with the Bears next week.