Worcestershire Vitality County Championship Div 1 Draw 11 points

 

Day 4

2.49 PM Match Abandoned as a draw

Day 3

Overnight rain, followed by further rain on and off during the day meant that after a series of inspections, play was eventually abandoned for the day after the 3:00 PM inspection.

Day 2

NOTTS DOMINATE AT NEW ROAD

After yesterday's frustrating and unexpected blank day, Notts made up for lost time by completely dominating the days play at New Road leading by 154 runs with seven first innings wickets standing after a bumper memorable day of cricket consisting of 104 overs.

Spectators were greeted by warm sunshine and the sight of players practising when they entered the ground at 1000. After all the pessimism, play was to get away on time following a 1000 inspection. Notts won the toss and elected to field with Fletcher replacing the rested Stone and Clarke throwing the gauntlets back to Moores. Moores kept immaculately throughout the innings taking a memorable catch to dismiss Waite. Prior to the start, all players and spectators gave a minutes applause for the much loved Josh Baker, who tragically died aged 20 earlier this season. What a difficult start for the season for the Pears.

Fletcher (New Road End) and Pennington shared the new ball. It was apparent from the off that this was slow seamer with plenty of sideways movement. The outfield remained slow throughout particularly towards the distant Pavilion; the pitch being located on the hotel side of the square. Notts were very impressive with both the ball and in the field on the helpful pitch.

Libby and Roderick concentrated on defence, but in the fifth over, Libby edged Fletcher to Harrison at second slip who took an outstanding catch low to left in front of Clarke at first slip, 3 for 1. In the following over without further addition to the score, Pennington removed Pollock's middle stump with a well pitched up delivery. Fletcher picked up his second wicket when Roderick (2) edged him to Harrison at second slip, who took another catch diving to his left in front of Clarke, 16 for 3 in the 11th over. Lyndon James replaced Pennington from the Diglis End in the 14th over. Moores took a comfortable catch behind the wicket off Fletcher with top scorer Jones (19) the batsman dismissed; 29 for 4 in the 15th over. James took a wicket with his ninth ball having D'Oliveira lbw for 2, 34 for 5 in the 16th over. After taking 3 for 18 off 9 overs in his only spell the metronomic Fletcher made way for Paterson. Fletcher making full use of conditions tailored made for him.

Waite (16) hit consecutive boundaries off Paterson in the 20th over. Then, Moores leaping like a salmon to his left took a spectacular catch to remove Waite (16) off a legside delivery from James, 57 for 6 in the 22nd over. Pennington returned for James for the 24th over. Adam Hose (11) skied Pennington and the bowler took the return catch at the second attempt, 61 for 7 in the 24th over. In the following over Smith was leg before to Paterson for 1, 61 for 8. Leach (3) drove Paterson straight to Slater at point, 66 for 9 after 27 overs. Lunch was delayed when Finch pulled Pennington for 6 over square leg. Finch (9) got a thin edge to Pennington and Moores took the catch diving to his right. Worcestershire 80 all out off 31.1 overs, Gibbon 5 not out. Lunch was taken between the innings. Pennington 3 for 25 and two wickets apiece for Paterson and James. What a morning for Notts in the New Road sunshine.

Worcestershire could not match Notts either with the ball or in the field as Notts dominated throughout. Leach (Diglis End) and Smith shared the new ball with Hameed and Slater standing firm. Slater hit Leach for successive fours in the fifth over. Waite and Finch came on for the 11th and 12th overs respectively. Notts reached 50 via a legside two by Hameed off Waite in the 17th over. Finch conceded 10 in the 18th over with boundaries for both openers.

Worcestershire made a double bowling change for the 20th and 21st overs with Gibbon and Smith bowling. In the 25th over, Worcestershire finally made a breakthrough when a hooking Slater (41) was caught by Gibbon at long leg off Smith, 77 for 1. Notts took the lead in the 26th over with Hameed leg glancing Gibbon to the fine leg boundary. In his following over, Smith had Young (2) playing on, 85 for 2 in the 27th over. In the last over before tea, Clarke was dropped on 0, a sitter to keeper Roderick off Smith, a very expensive drop. Notts 89 for 2 off 29 overs at the interval with Hameed on 36 and Clarke on 2.

Notts added a further 145 in the final session of 43 overs played in glorious sunshine. Straight after tea, Hameed was dropped on 36 by Pollock at first slip off the returning Finch in the 30th over. Leach returned for the following over. Notts got to three figures via a no ball by Leach in the 33rd over. A cover driven four by Hameed off Finch saw him to 50 off 110 balls. Clarke was dropped once more on 3 by Libby at point off Finch. Hameed and Clarke concentrated on steady accumulation with D'Oliveira shuffling his pack. Spin was introduced in the 54th over, when the captain brought himself on from the New Road End. Clarke got to his 50 off 86 balls with a single off D'Oliveira in the 60th over. Notts reached 200 in the 63rd over. Clarke was dropped for a third time on 70 by keeper Roderick, inside edging Gibbon in the 67th over. An offside single for Hameed off Leach saw him to his ton off 214 deliveries. Worcestershire finally picked up a point in the 69th over when Hameed's fine captains knock ended when he was adjudged lbw to Waite for 100 off 219 balls (9x4), 232 for 3. Libby came on with three overs remaining. With the cathedral bells tolling seven o'clock at this iconic venue stumps were drawn with Notts on 234 for 3 off 72 overs with Clarke on 73 and nightwatchman Fletcher on 1. A one sided day totally in Notts favour played in magnificent sunshine.

Unfortunately heavy rain followed by showers approach from the west and any play tomorrow would be considered a bonus. Will New Road be able to take the deluge? A much better forecast is promised for Monday. MAG

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Hopefully the digging-up of huge turves and "cooking" them with diesel powered heater has had some beneficial result - but it's not a good look for a first class county HQ. Time will tell if WCCC were being too optimistic in bringing cricket back to their main ground after the repeated flooding over the closed season quite so soon, or not.

Posted by WCCC at 6.30AM

Ground staff at Visit Worcestershire New Road have worked tirelessly through the night to address the issues that prevented play on Day One of Worcestershire's Vitality County Championship match against Nottinghamshire. The Club are awaiting further inspections from the umpires this morning and will provide updates as soon as their decisions are made. The Club apologises for any inconvenience caused to spectators and reassures everyone that we are doing everything possible to restore the playing areas to a condition that meets the umpires' standards as quickly as possible.

Day 1

After a 1 PM inspection, the umpires abandoned play for the day at 1.30 PM.

Have a read of the Grumbler's latest newsletter while we're waiting.

Will Peter accommodate both Liam and Calvin at the expense of Tom? Liam scored just 71 runs over 4 innings (not out once) for Northants and took 9 wickets. Over those two rounds of matches Tom scored 22 (3 innings) for Notts batting at 5.

With news that there will be no play before lunch owing to "concerns over the playing surface" - Pravda

Pears media says there's "a few damp spots on the outfield", which isn't the playing surface in my book,but hey-ho we better play an extra spin option or do we need another seamer or at least Fletch in the XI as it might suit him. One thing is for sure, we should have someone batting at 5 that scores runs.

Squad:

Haseeb Hameed
Ben Slater
Will Young
Joe Clarke
Tom Moores
Jack Haynes
Lyndon James
Calvin Harrison
Olly Stone
Dillon Pennington
Dane Paterson
Liam Patterson-White
Luke Fletcher

Worcestershire have issues...

Ashley Giles on TMS

In another black armband game, Notts need to made quality tell and not get swept away in the torrent of emotion surrounding this fixture.

The T20 Blast is only a week away, so will certain key components of that side be rested or is the policy to keep playing the likes of Stone and Pennington until you break one or both of them? Where do the Mr Moores' priorities lie for Notts?