By Jon Batham and Ben Kosky for ECB Reporters’ Network supported by Rothesay
DAY THREE
Worcestershire (19pts) 191 & 253 beatMiddlesex (3pts) 183 & 204 by 57 runs
Matthew Waite contributed with bat and ball as Worcestershire wrapped up a convincing 57-run win over Middlesex with a day to spare at Lord’s.
The all-rounder hit six fours in a crucial 34 to allow the visitors to set an imposing target of 262 on a pitch showing increasingly variable bounce.
Waite would later claim the wickets of Sam Robson and Ryan Higgins to return 2-29 in a collective effort by the Worcester seamers as Middlesex were bowled out for 204, Joe Cracknell running out of partners on 43, while Max Holden made 40.
The match saw the latest instance of concussion protocols being followed, Worcestershire bringing in seamer Ben Gibbon after Adam Finch was forced to withdraw due to the blow on the head from a ball from Ryan Higgins in the death throes of day two.
Worcestershire resumed on 200-7 having lost six wickets for 19 on the second evening, but Middlesex were strangely cautious, seemingly content to await a new ball 14 overs away.
Against such tactics, Waite, on a pair, played fluently, driving one gloriously straight down the ground and utilizing the scoop to the vacant long leg region. Gareth Roderick was more circumspect, but the pair added 49 priceless runs by the time the ripe cherry arrived.
Thereafter the end came quickly. Roderick was bowled by Roland-Jones (three for 40) from one that kept low, an ominous sign of things to come, and Waite’s enterprising effort was ended by Robson’s sharp catch at slip, before Tom Taylor holed out in the deep.
Robson and Josh De Caires negotiated a tricky 35 minutes before lunch with the latter striking four classy boundaries. However, the opener would fall in the first over following the resumption trapped in front. Robson resisted for a while before being undone by one from Waite that kept low.
It could have been worse as Gibbon, had vociferous appeals against both Holden and Leus du Plooy turned down, the latter shout looking especially adjacent.
Neither player benefitted hugely from their reprieves, du Plooy foxed by Taylor’s first ball of a new spell which appeared to stop in the pitch and had him caught and bowled.
Taylor (3-50) also accounted for Ben Geddes in an excellent stint, the batter playing across a ball which clattered into his off stump.
And Taylor wasn’t the only Pears’ bowler to strike with the first ball of a spell as Hannon-Dalby, brought back from the Pavilion End, ended Holden’s spirited resistance by finding the edge, Roderick taking a fine low catch.
After tea, Middlesex’s fading hopes rested with Higgins and wicketkeeper Cracknell, but the former’s poor start to the season willow in hand continued when Waite bowled him to leave the host six down and not halfway to the target.
Cracknell smote Taylor for four through the covers and Zafar Gohar pulled a short one from Waite into the Mound Stand. However, thoughts of an unlikely revival were cut short by a self-inflicted wound as following several bouts of skittish running between the pair, Gohar set off for another risky single only to be run out by Dan Lategan’s direct hit.
Gibbon finally got some reward by trimming Sebastian Morgan’s stumps and while Cracknell and Roland-Jones entertained briefly, the latter was comically ran out by a deflection onto the stumps at the non-striker’s end as Worcestershire wrapped up victory.
DAY TWO
Worcestershire’s teenage opener Dan Lategan posted his second half-century in successive Rothesay County Championship games as the visitors built a handy lead over Middlesex at Lord’s.
The South African left-hander, who turns 20 next month, hit a bristling 65 from 63 balls and shared an opening partnership of 112 with Jake Libby to re-establish control after Middlesex had effectively secured parity.
Zafar Gohar top-scored on 42 as the Seaxes’ tail wagged robustly to reach 183, just eight runs short of Worcestershire’s total before Lategan, who struck the ball cleanly and with power, provided the Pears’ second innings with impetus.
But, despite Libby’s knock of 79, a clutch of late wickets – four of them for Ryan Higgins – kept Middlesex firmly in contention as Worcestershire closed on 200 for seven – an overall advantage of 208.
The home side resumed in the morning exactly 100 in arrears and under pressure at 91 for six, with the murky overhead conditions offering initial assistance for Olly Hannon-Dalby and Tom Taylor.
They lost Joe Cracknell early, adjudged caught behind to Hannon-Dalby (four for 45) off a thin edge but, as the sun began to emerge, so did a wider array of attacking strokes from Gohar and Sebastian Morgan (25).
Morgan paddled Adam Finch over the infield for four, then his hook from the following ball was fumbled over the boundary at backward square – but the teenager’s luck ran out as he pulled the next to midwicket.
Gohar kept up Middlesex’s momentum, moving within sight of a third half-century for the county only to be undone by a shrewd bowling change as Ethan Brookes tempted him to cut and Gareth Roderick snapped it up low behind the stumps.
It looked as though the Pears might give up a first-innings advantage when Toby Roland-Jones went on the offensive, lifting Taylor into the Mound Stand for the only six of the innings, but he was last out after swinging and missing at Finch (three for 61).
Worcestershire wasted no time in increasing their slender lead, with Morgan’s first over disappearing for 15 as Lategan and Libby went for their shots, raising the 50 partnership at just under a run a ball.
Lategan survived a close call when he edged Higgins’ first delivery low to slip, but exuded energy and confidence as he passed his half-century from 48 balls, following that landmark by driving Gohar over the top for six.
Having switched ends with Naavya Sharma, Higgins was dispatched for successive fours by Lategan but eventually got his man, squeezing one through the left-hander’s defences to hit off stump.
That wicket slowed the Pears’ progress, although Kashif Ali kept Libby company while he advanced to 50 shortly before tea and the pair continued to stretch their advantage in the final session.
Dismissed for a duck first time around, Libby looked assured and appeared on course for his first century of the campaign until he flashed at an outswinger from Higgins and was taken at slip.
But Libby’s was the first of six wickets to fall for just 19 as Sharma gained tangible reward for another fine display with the ball, trapping Adam Hose in front of his stumps before having Kashif (34) caught behind.
Those successes sandwiched the fall of Brett D’Oliveira, bowled by Roland-Jones and Higgins (four for 53) sent both Brookes and Finch on their way before stumps to ensure Middlesex finished the day on a high.
DAY ONE
Brett D’ Oliveira produced the only innings of substance on an otherwise bowler-dominated opening day of Worcestershire’s Rothesay County Championship match with hosts Middlesex at Lord’s.
While others poked, prodded and flailed, the Pears’ skipper showed grit, patience, craft and belatedly aggression to hit 75, complete with two sixes out of the visitors’ total of 191.
Ryan Higgins took 3-39 in the Middlesex bowling effort, while youngsters Sebastian Morgan and Naavya Sharma claimed two apiece.
D’ Oliveira runs looked all the more precious as Middlesex slumped to 32-3 in reply before Max Holden and Ben Geddes steadied the ship with a stand of 54. However, both fell in quick succession in the gathering gloom, and Ryan Higgins too was bowled as the hosts crumbled to 91-6 by the close, Oliver Hannon-Dalby (3-26) and Tom Taylor (2-13) the chief destroyers.
Middlesex opted to bowl on a green-tinged pitch and it didn’t take Morgan long to make the breakthrough.
The teenager beat Jake Libby outside off stumps three times in his opening over before plucking out the opener’s off stump in his second.
That was the host’s only reward for almost an hour as Dan Lategan, a man who was pulling pints in the New Road bar less than a year ago, as a pathway prospect, drove the ball gloriously both square and straight. The introduction of Higgins proved his undoing, the all-rounder skidding one through to trap him on the crease.
Kashif Ali was given a life when Sam Robson failed to cling onto an edge off the unlucky Sharma, but undaunted, the young quick struck soon afterwards, having Adam Hose caught behind by Joe Cracknell, a great grab at full stretch.
Kashif failed to make the most of his reprieve stumps flattened by Higgins and it was five down at lunch when Gareth Roderick nicked off for nought.
The afternoon seemed destined for a similar pattern as Ethan Brookes and Matthew Waite came and went. The latter ran out by a direct hit
D’ Oliveira though, fought back. Batting out of his crease and often taking another stride up the pitch to negate any swing and movement, the experienced batter drove the ball sweetly, particularly straight and through mid-wicket in a half-century sprinkled with nine boundaries.
Taylor provided a foil for D’ Oliveira, one sumptuous cover drive contributing to an eighth-wicket stand of 52. Once he departed D’ Oliveira twice deposited Morgan deliveries over the short boundary, the youngster having the last laugh when Holden held a catch in the deep.
Batting proved no easier when the hosts took guard, Robson falling caught and bowled to last season’s leading wicket taker Taylor, while Josh De Caires had already been dropped at slip by Brookes when he nicked Hannon-Dalby into the gloves of Roderick.
The big wicket of Leus Du Plooy soon followed, the in-form skipper giving Roderick more catching practice trying to flat bat a wide one from Adam Finch with feet in glue.
Geddes played fluently from the off, unfurling some pleasing boundaries and with the obdurate Holden at the other end, the half-century stand was raised.
But Hannon-Dalby and Taylor sparked the late collapse to leave Worcestershire in charge at the close.
Middlesex Men
Worcestershire Men
