Pears seal three-day win against Middlesex at Lord’s

Rothesay County Championship, Division Two, Lord’s (day three)

Worcestershire 191 & 253: Lategan 65, Libby 79; Higgins 4-68

Middlesex 183 & 204: Cracknell 43*; Taylor 3-50

Middlesex 3pts, Worcestershire 19pts

Worcestershire wrapped up a convincing 57-run win over Middlesex with a day to spare at Lord’s.

Matthew Waite 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.