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If we could keep him fit and get him back to 2016 form that would be a real coup. A huge part of the problem in recent years has been finding a steady opening partner for Mitch, and it's reached the stage this season where it's been changing from one month to the next. Could potentially be a good move for both parties.

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Day Two

Morning: On a sunny Tuesday, the hoped-for breakthrough took some time to come, and it was Ed Barnard who struck the crucial double blow to remove Ben Charlesworth LBW trying to work the ball through midwicket, then Gareth Roderick in the same way to claim his first five-fer of the season. Unable to stay out of the game, he also held onto a sharp catch at gully off the bowling of Dillon Pennington to dismiss Jack Taylor, and it briefly looked like the Pears might take a handy first-innings lead with the visitors still 66 behind with only three wickets left. Sadly, as we've seen so often over the last couple of years, the young bowlers were guilty of straying from their line and length during a spell when the game drifted away, and Gloucestershire had all but reached parity by the time Joe Leach brought himself back into the attack and took two wickets in two balls with Ryan Higgins caught behind for 42 and Josh Shaw bowled for a golden duck. Barnard polished things off by bowling David Payne for 43, but all out for 235, Gloucs took a lead of 14 into the afternoon.

Afternoon: But it was the familiar old tale when Worcestershire came out to bat, with wickets falling left right and centre. Mitch fell LBW to the first ball of the innings, and from there only Jack Haynes and Hamish Rutherford showed any signs of resistance as the Pears collapsed to 90-8 by tea.

Evening: Joe Leach was caught at first slip for 10 off the second ball after tea, and with a lead of 76 things looked incredibly grim. But a fruitful last-wicket stand between Charlie Morris and Adam Finch lifted first the score and then the lead up into three figures, until the latter was bowled attempting a big heave-ho. Gloucestershire required a mere 115 to win, and might well have gone for it in the time remaining, but some tight bowling - particularly from the youngsters who were rather lax in the morning - strangled the run-rate and reduced the visitors to 54-4 by close. On balance you'd rather be Gloucs in this situation, but after digging yet another hole, the Worcs attack has at least raised the slender hope of taking things all the way tomorrow.

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T20 Blast, Semi-Final

vs Nottinghamshire

Edgbaston, Birmingham

Worcs innings: Notts won the toss and put the Pears in to bat on a glorious September morning, with Edgbaston bathed in sunshine. From the very first it was clear that boundaries would be at a premium, and with pace off the ball, it was down to Moeen Ali to biff some early sixes in the powerplay, before being bowled by Matt Carter for 21 off just 9 balls. Riki Wessels kept the scoreboard ticking over for a few overs more, but through the middle of the innings Notts were able to put the brakes on, and in response Worcestershire collapsed from 40-1 to 97-7. It was Ross Whiteley who proved the hero at the back end, as so often before, smashing Carter down the ground for six over long-on before dishing out a three-ball 6-4-6 to Steven Mullaney in the very next over. He holed out to deep square leg after trying one hit too many in the last over, but Daryl Mitchell was able to whack a six of his own - the rarest of sights in any format - in order to lift the reigning champions up to a total of 147-9, which felt under-par for the surface, but better than it might otherwise have been.

Notts innings: What followed was one of the most bizarre and memorable chases on any T20 Finals Day in history. The East Midlanders were cruising to victory as they lost just two wickets in the first eighteen overs, with Chris Nash caught at backward square leg for 24 off Ed Barnard, and Alex Hales caught behind for 52 after edging Moeen Ali. With 26 runs required from eighteen balls, Wayne Parnell had a nightmare over that leaked 15, and suddenly the equation was under a run a ball for Notts with eight wickets in hand. But then came Pat Brown with a penultimate over that tore the opposition to shreds, as Dan Christian holed out to mid-off trying to finish things quickly, Tom Moores was caught comfortably at long-on attempting the same, and Steven Mullaney ran himself out after a huge miscommunication with set batsman Ben Duckett. After that sudden collapse, Notts required seven off Parnell in the last over for an outright win, but with the tie-breaker being a wicket-count, a run a ball would be enough. Yet the first delivery was a dot ball to Samit Patel, who only managed a single off the second. Duckett scrambled another single off the third, before Patel ran two off the fourth. A single from the fifth ball brought Ben Duckett back on strike for the last ball of the match, needing just one run to achieve the tie that would see Notts through... but Parnell hid the ball outside off-stump, skidding it past the nervous, prodding bat of Duckett and safely into the keeper's gloves to put Worcestershire into their second T20 final in as a many seasons.

Worcestershire WIN by one run

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T20 Blast, Final

vs Essex

Edgbaston, Birmingham

Worcs innings: Essex won the toss and put the Pears in to bat as darkness fell. On a turning pitch, Hamish Rutherford was an early casualty, following a streaky boundary by playing down the wrong line to an off-break from Dan Lawrence and losing his off-stump. From there, Moeen Ali and Riki Wessels kept the runs flowing through the powerplay, but when the former was caught and bowled from a simple chip, another minor collapse followed. Ben Cox was desperately unlucky to be given out with a stinker of an LBW decision after stepping well outside the line of his stumps and getting a clear inside edge, and it required Daryl Mitchell to steady the ship as the Pears stumbled up to 145-9; a score almost identical to their semi-final tally.

Essex innings: Where Notts in the semi-final had looked dead certs to chase down the score without breaking a sweat, somehow it was the opposite during the Essex innings, with Worcestershire keeping things well in hand for most of the evening. However, the southerners managed to accelerate at the back end in a way that had escaped the Pears, and with Ravi Bopara finding the boundary regularly, for the second time in a day it all came down to Wayne Parnell in the last over. Just when it looked like the South African would get Worcs over the line, Simon Harmer came up with a boundary off the penultimate ball, and once again two runs were required off the last delivery, with one enough to do the job due to the tie-breaker. Sadly, it was too much for ask for lightning to strike twice in the day, and a gallant defence of the T20 title was unsuccessful.

Worcestershire LOSE by four wickets

The Verdict: As gutting as the end result was, you can't begrudge Essex their first T20 title on one of the most entertaining Finals Days yet held. In a summer that's already shown us the very best of fifty-over and Test cricket, it's fitting that we saw the shortest format at its breathtaking best, and hopefully the Pears will bounce back again to give us more of the same next year.

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Some good news after the weekend's disappointment as Pat Brown is called up to the England squad for the five-match T20I series against New Zealand in November.

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County Championship, Division Two

vs Sussex

Day One

Morning: Worcestershire put Sussex straight in to bat on a surprisingly bright (though rather windy) Monday morning in Hove. As Ed Barnard was entrusted with the new ball for the first time in his career, he repaid that trust by removing Luke Wells caught behind for a duck with the third ball of the match. After a brief rain stoppage, his fellow opener Tom Haines also departed for a duck after a leading edge from the bowling of Charlie Morris offered a simple catch at mid-off. The morning got even better for Barnard when Will Beer was spectacularly caught behind for 7, leaving Sussex 32-3, and it required some careful batting from Stiaan van Zyl and Delray Rawlins to steer the hosts to lunch on 81-3.

Afternoon: In worsening light, Van Zyl and Rawlins continued to rack up runs, and their partnership had reached 94 when the former was caught at mid-on for 56 off Morris. Worcs continued to ask questions of the batsmen in the time there was, and got their reward as Rawlins played a loose shot outside off-stump to an Adam Finch delivery which was safely caught at second slip. On 150-5, the umpires then decided that the light was too poor to continue, and after bringing the players off, the rain then washed out the remainder of the day.

Evening: No play possible due to rain.

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Day Two

Morning: No play possible due to rain.

Afternoon: Resuming at 3pm, Wayne Parnell claimed the first wicket of the day with Tom Clark caught at slip for 9, and Ed Barnard followed up, dismissing Ben Brown LBW for 33. However, Sussex kept the scoreboard moving, and were 216-7 at tea.

Evening: Again a stubborn partnership frustrated Worcestershire, and the day was almost done when Charlie Morris finally got a ball to nip back to David Wiese, bowling him for 47. As bad light brought another early close Sussex were 299-8, and with two days of heavy weather forecast, there's no guarantee that score will change from here.

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Day Three

Morning: No play possible due to rain.

Afternoon: No play possible due to a wet outfield.

Evening: No play possible due to a wet outfield.

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Day Four

Morning: No play possible due to rain.

Afternoon: No play possible due to rain.

Evening: No play possible due to rain.

Match DRAWN

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Worcestershire County Cricket Club

2019 Season Review

An often-wet summer, during which cricket came in fits and bursts, will be remembered in years to come for the manifold exploits of Ben Stokes, the glorious World Cup triumph of Morgan's England, and one of the all-time great Ashes series that Joe Root came out on the wrong side of. Sadly, at New Road it won't be remembered for much else, certainly on the domestic front. A handful of brilliant white-ball performances and a second appearance in the T20 final, coming within an agonising whisker of being the first team to successfully defend the T20 title, rather mask the misery of a Championship campaign which the Pears began with the expectation of promotion, only to sink within one place of finishing as wooden spooners by summer's end.

As with England, some of the problem with our first-class game may be the focus on the short form. Furthermore, it's clearly been a period of transition, after eighteen months in which we lost two key young batsmen in Tom Kohler-Cadmore and Joe Clarke who Steve Rhodes had clearly hoped to build a successful team around, and the weight of runs which vanished with them have been naturally difficult for Alex Gidman to replace. After two wins from two games at the start of the Championship campaign, taking forty-seven points from the forty-eight available, a rot set in with both bat and ball: collapses were all too frequent, and a bowling attack plagued by injuries were too often inconsistent, allowing games to drift in spells when they tired. The Pears now have a winter to try and sort out these woes, before what could well be an even tougher Division Two campaign next summer.

Batsmen

It says a lot about Daryl Mitchell - and, sadly, a lot about the rest of the batting line-up - that even in a poor season by his high standards, he finished Worcestershire's second-highest run-scorer of the Championship campaign. His 2018 Division One haul of 957 runs fell away to 559 in Division Two, scored at an average of 25.41 with a high score of 139 just one of two centuries all season. In the One-Day Cup he fared little better, scoring 169 at 24.14 with the bulk of those runs coming in an opening-game ton at Old Trafford; in the T20 Blast he continued to function as a lower-order finisher and a bowler in the middle overs, taking 7 wickets at a 33.00 average. He remained a stalwart slip-catcher with eighteen grabs in the County Championship, but the pressure on him to score big runs without a steady opening partner was just too much for a large part of the season, and finding him that partner has to be one of the priorities this winter.

After a torrid 2018, Brett D'Oliveira played just nine innings this summer, and those well down the order. Even so, his 298 runs were an improvement on last year's 276, scored at an average of 37.25 - the highest for a homegrown Worcs player in 2019 - with a top score of 103 at Glamorgan in July his first ton since September 2017. In contrast it was all a bit of a nightmare for him in this year's One-Day Cup, down from 265 runs in 2018 to a mere 113 at 12.56, and reduced from 10 wickets to 6 with the ball in hand. He made a handful of T20 cameos, but the future for Dolly lies in the County Championship, and in 2020 he should ideally look to stay fit and move up the order again.

More trials and tribulations for Tom Fell, down from his 652 Championship runs in 2018 to 136 this summer at 19.43, playing just five matches as the experiment of using him at the top of the order fell flat. However, he compensated somewhat in the One-Day Cup with 220 runs at 27.50, managing a battling 53 in a losing cause against Warwickshire in April.

As a replacement for Joe Clarke, it was a tough first season at New Road for Riki Wessels. He finished the Championship campaign as the county's top-scorer, but with 593 runs at an average of 28.24, it's an accolade that reflects on the dearth of runs elsewhere. Nevertheless, having become an out-and-out middle-order batsman late in the summer seems to have helped his game, and there can be no doubting his commitment to the Pears cause in all formats. In white-ball cricket he was the destructive opener to be expected, finishing the One-Day Cup campaign as our second-highest run-scorer with 313 at 34.78, and our top scorer of the T20 Blast with 461 runs at 35.46; the highest ever tally by a Pears player in a single campaign, comfortably beating Daryl Mitchell's 412 in 2015. Furthermore, as a reliable slip-catcher he completed the County Championship with the most grabs of a Worcs outfield player with 21. Far from another Joe Clarke, it seems that in Wessels we in fact have a long-overdue substitute for Tom Kohler-Cadmore, but even as he shores up the middle order, there remains a gap at the top to be plugged.

As one of two young players making their senior debut in 2019, it was a baptism of fire for Josh Dell, who was dropped from the first XI in midsummer after making 158 Championship runs at an average of 14.36, his maiden half-century on debut giving way to a disastrous experiment as an opener which saw him make a series of ducks. He was replaced by Jack Haynes, who was perhaps that little bit more consistent with 95 runs from six innings at an average of 15.83, and a high score of 31. With the winter ahead of them, this pair of youngsters now have every opportunity to stake their claim to a starting place in the new decade.

Another steady year for Ross Whiteley, our fifth-highest run-scorer in the T20 Blast with 198 at an average of 22.00, slightly down from 2018, and third-highest run-scorer in the One-Day Cup with 290 at 36.25, including a high score of 131 - his maiden List A century - in a brilliant and desperate rearguard at Grace Road. In the County Championship he improved on his run-haul from 2018, but at a lower average, with 391 runs at 26.07 and a high score of 88.

Wicketkeepers & All-rounders

In 2019 Ben Cox got back towards his Championship best, his 531 runs at a 26.55 average up on last year's 372, including an unbeaten 100 on the opening weekend at Grace Road which was his first ton since July 2017. Things weren't quite so explosive for Coxy in white-ball cricket this year, though his 238 runs at 34.00 in the One-Day Cup was a decent return for any keeper, and likewise his 203 at 25.38 in the T20 Blast. It's now been ten years at New Road for Ben, and here's hoping for ten more.

After a remarkable 2018 debut, Alex Milton struggled in his follow-up season with just 17 first-class runs from his six innings at 2.83, and no white-ball appearances.

Moeen Ali, dropped from the England fifty-over team during the World Cup and the Test side after a disastrous match at Edgbaston, was a boon to Worcestershire during the second half of the season. His 126 Championship runs across four innings gave him the third-best average in the squad at 31.50, plus a decent 7 wickets at an average of 30.00. But it was in the T20 Blast that Mo really made his mark, finishing the campaign as the county's second-highest scorer despite playing just seven of the seventeen games, with 365 runs at 73.00 including the incredible unbeaten 121 at Hove in the quarter-final, and supplying 11 wickets at a fantastic 15.82. With Mo reportedly keeping himself out of consideration for Test cricket in the near future, it could well be that he plays a vital role next summer.

After finishing 2018 as the county's top Championship wicket-taker, Ed Barnard took some time to get going this summer, and despite being the joint top wicket-taker again, his tally of 44 was a little down on the 49 and 47 of the last two years, though at an improved average of 22.57. His efforts were rewarded in September with a first chance at proving himself as a new-ball bowler, while he was also given some time in the middle-order as a true all-rounder, scoring 429 runs at 22.58 with two half-centuries. The One-Day Cup sadly encapsulated Barnard's early season travails, as he failed to repeat his exploits of the last couple of years, taking just 7 wickets at a team-worst average of 51.86 and making only 90 at 22.50 with the bat, 61 of them in his battling innings at Grace Road. But the T20 Blast gave the young man time to shine, taking 8 outfield catches - some of them spectacular grabs that went viral online - while contributing 12 wickets at 34.67, and scoring 135 runs including a career-best unbeaten 42 at Trent Bridge in the opening game. The target for 2020 has to be breaking that fifty-wicket barrier in the Championship, and if Barnard can do so, he'll be a vital part of any promotion push.

Bowlers

Skipper Joe Leach couldn't possibly be faulted for lack of exertion and dedication this summer, leading from the front in the most trying of circumstances, scoring 420 Championship runs - a higher tally than many of our recognised batsmen - and risking injury by bowling himself into the ground during spells when we were a man light. For all that, his reward was 41 wickets at 26.37; a decent haul, especially given his lengthy absence in 2018, but sadly a bit short of what was needed to push the county up the table. The constant fear of aggravating last year's stress fracture kept Leach entirely out of the One-Day Cup, while his T20 Blast contribution was limited to facing three balls as a pinch-hitter down at Hove, and scoring an honourable 1 run. Having remained fit all season, hopefully Big Joe can push on in 2020 and lead from the front again.

There was no such luck on the injury front for Josh Tongue, managing just four Championship games before his season ended, curtailing a promising campaign in which he contributed 17 wickets at a team-best average of 18.94. The One-Day Cup illustrated why he's first and foremost a red-ball player, with just 6 wickets from his six games at 50.27, but with 64 List A runs and 51 first-class, his strike rate up above 100 in the former and hovering around 50 in the latter, the young man also increasingly proved that he knows which end of the bat to hold. Keeping him fit will be vital to the county's chances next summer.

Adam Finch was handed his senior debut in 2019 after injuries decimated the Worcs attack, and featured in half of the Championship matches, taking 11 wickets at an average of 53.00. A lot still to learn for the young paceman, but all good experience under the belt.

Dillon Pennington was another early casualty of the injury curse at New Road, kept out until June. His eventual contribution was 8 Championship wickets in four matches at 37.62, with 9 at 33.00 in a twelve-game T20 Blast campaign. I suspect the county will keep him primarily for white-ball cricket in the immediate future, though if he can bring that red-ball average down beneath 30.00, he may yet play his part in the longer form.

After a fairly unremarkable return to the first team in 2018, Charlie Morris came roaring out of the blocks in April and topped the division's wicket-taking charts for a couple of months. Though things slowed down for him as the season progressed, he vastly improved on last summer's haul with 44 scalps at 21.48, figures that made him the Pears top wicket-taker for 2019, a whisker ahead of Ed Barnard on average. He was also the county's second highest wicket-taker of the One-Day Cup, replicating his tally of 11 from 2018 with an improved average of 27.64, while making only a cameo in the T20 Blast. For a bowler who spent so long out of the game re-modelling his action to come back so strongly is testament to Charlie's willpower, and I only hope he can go from strength to strength in the next twelve months.

Though initially rusty, there can be doubting how swiftly kolpak signing Wayne Parnell grew to enjoy his cricket on the banks of the Severn. Bedevilled by injury like so many others, he managed only half of the Championship season, but claimed 22 wickets at 23.05 which would have seen him right up alongside Morris and Barnard if he'd stayed fit. He was by some distance our most potent weapon in the One-Day Cup, one of the competition's best bowlers overall with 22 wickets at 18.86, and our second-best bowler in the Blast with 13 wickets at 29.85, including the nerve-shredding final dot ball in the semi-final against Notts. Providing 205 first-class runs with the bat, including 63 in the narrow defeat at Old Trafford, along with a half-century apiece in the One-Day Cup and T20 Blast, Parnell is a vital piece of the jigsaw as the Pears rebuild.

It was always going to be tough for Pat Brown to match his exploits of 2018, but the young man gave it a solid effort, and his 17 wickets in the T20 Blast at 24.76 again made him the county's best strike bowler, earning an England call-up as a reward. List A this season wasn't such a happy hunting ground for Brown, with just 5 wickets from his four matches at 39.40, but hopefully international experience will allow Browny to improve his game all the more through the winter.

Overseas Players

Hamish Rutherford arrived at short notice in April and made a big impression, to the extent that you can only wonder how much better our season might have been with the Kiwi in the ranks all summer. As it was, his ton on debut was complemented by a further hundred runs in the autumn, giving him a tally of 220 runs at a county-best average of 44.00. His T20 contribution was rather more understated, with 42 from five games at 10.50, but in the One-Day Cup he was Worcestershire's highest scorer, his 317 runs from just five games coming at an average of 63.40, with one destructive century against Lancashire and a more watchful (and ultimately match-winning) ton at Northants. With the Pears in need of another solid opener, Rutherford has to be in contention to return next year.

Having been the toast of New Road in 2018, Callum Ferguson wasn't quite the irresistible force we might have hoped this summer. His 503 Championship runs at 31.44 put him up among the better batsmen in a poor season, but from our overseas player, we could perhaps have hoped for more than one century and a couple of fifties. He likewise struggled in the Blast with 129 at 18.43 - barely a third of last year's return - and during four appearances in the One-Day Cup, his figures were bumped up significantly by a patient, match-winning ton at Derbyshire that offered a tantalising glimpse of what we'd seen from the South Australian a year earlier. As talented as he is on his day, if promotion is the goal for 2020, I'm not convinced that Fergie is the best option for main overseas man.

Bouncing back from World Cup heartbreak, Martin Guptill did his job for the second year running in the Blast, supplying 259 runs at 32.38, though his absence was keenly felt in the final.


Highlights of the year? Sadly, few and far between. But it was a treat to open the season with an innings victory at Leicester, and to demolish Yorkshire with one of our finest one-day bowling performances. We made a long-overdue Championship return to Kidderminster for the first time since 2008, and put Sussex to the sword by the sea courtesy of Moeen Ali's greatest-ever T20 knock. We humiliated Notts in an unforgettable semi-final climax, as some small measure of retribution for nicking everyone else's players. We took our Blast defence down to the wire with a weakened side, and blooded a new set of youngsters in preparation for another promotion campaign.

And so until 2020, it's a fond farewell to New Road.