v Worcestershire CC2 @ New Road Tuesday 16 August 2005

Scorecard

Worcestershire have one over on us this year because they won the first foray into the CC against us at Bath.  We are looking to get 14 plus points from this game to take us closer to Essex (our next opponents) and leave the Pears behind - we only need a point and a half to overtake them!  The side looks a bit sparse in the experienced bowler area and we have to hope our batting will pull us through and debutants have a really good first game.  Good Luck Robert or Michael.

The side, as officially announced will be chosen from;

M.Wood, J.Francis, A.Suppiah, J.Hildreth, W.Durston, I.Blackwell (capt), K.Parsons, C.Gazzard (wkt), R.Woodman, A.Caddick, S.Francis, M.Munday

Unless the wicket looks like taking spin, Robert Woodman will make his Championship debut while Andy Caddick returned from his Sunday rest to spearhead an attack that looks singularly lacking.  I know little about Mr Woodman but the pressure is not on him primarily, it is on Simon Francis to support Caddy in the wicket taking stakes and ease the demands on the younger bowler so that he can move onto the higher level as easliy as possible. 

The line-up asks questions about the bowling squad, some of which have been effectively answered.  The strong rumours that Aaron Laraman has been given leave to look elsewhere seem confirmed but the less stringent rumours about discontent with Michael Parsons and Gareth Andrew are not helped by the fact that niether player has been considered for this game, even though they have both been heralded in the recent past as part of the 'youth policy' and seem uninjured. 

It also begs an answer from the club about what they intend to do with Richard Johnson and his injury problems.  Can we afford to have this level of uncertainty about the capabilities of one of our major bowlers.  It is a shame that Charl Langeveldt also picked up an injury just as he seemed to be getting most things right.

Worcs bat a long way down and we need to be on the money as soon as possible.  Our batting seems stronger now than at any time in the recent past with John Francis getting runs, Arul Suppiah looking like a prospect at number 3 and the 'captaincy ticket' of Matt Wood and Ian Blackwell in very fine form indeed.  They can give us totals to work with but they can't take the 20 wickets we need to win this game.  It may be down to the slow bowlers, including IB himself to get us this one, assuming that the tall Kiwi blokes takes a few as well.

Day 1

Ian wins and bats...probably because the weather forcast towards the end of the week is poor and we have loads of form in the front end line-up.  Whoops, seems to have been the wrong decision.  The choice of Rob Woodman instead of Mike Munday suggests this is not a turner but the overcast and muggy morning session seems to have been a batsman's graveyard.  1 for 19 as John Francis goes cheaply to Mason.  2 for 31 as Matt Wood follows (big dent in our run scoring potential) caught off Ali.  3 for 37 as Hildreth becomes one of a few caught - Ali again.  4 for 48 Durston caught behind off Malik.  5 for 57 Blackwell stumped.  And so would we have been if not for the fact that Suppiah stood his ground in the number 3 spot and stopped the rot with Keith Parsons. 

Either the weather conditions changed and the moisture burned off or we stopped playing silly shots and got down to accumulation.  Whatever happened we then got a partnership of 64 to settle the innings before KP went.  Carl Gazzard then joined the excellent work of Arul to put on another 77 until the new number 3 (and he's proved he can do it in more than one situation) went for an innings saving 72. 7 for 178 wasn't brilliant but Gazzard kept going with the tail and added 89 with young Woodman who seems to be able to bat (and he's a lefty!!).

At 287, Price got the 'wicky' LBW but Woodman took us over the 300 mark making 18 with Caddick and 13 with Francis before he was left without partners 4 short of a Championship debut 50.  All out for 318 looked a hell of a lot better than it did at lunchtime.  But, the batting of the back end suggests that we had better make inroads tomorrow morning early or we may be looking at a first innnings deficit.  Excellent work from the young guys - who are becoming old hands now and a fighting rearguard we haven't been known for in the recent past.

We had a go at them before the end. Two overs each from Caddick and Woodman (opening the bowling as well then - left/right combination - with identical figures of 0 for 10.  Worcestershire are 20 for 0 and we need to take them apart before lunchtime in the ssame way as on Day 1 or it will be a long long day in the field.  RW looking promising - let's see the other side of his game tomorrow morning - here's to being impressed at 1:00 tomorrow afternoon!  Game on!

Day 2

Not the greatest day in Somerset bowling history I have to admit.  Hot but not particularly humid it seems (or if it was we didn't make much of it) and a whole day in the field while the Worcestershire top order milked us for runs. 104 overs and a final day tally of 492 for 3 puts us firmly on the wrong end of this game.  The home side are already 174 runs ahead and will have about a day and a half at us with a big first innings lead unless something happens in the first session of Day 3 that failed to happen during the morning of Day 2.

The first wicket arrived at 51 to Simon Francis, who had Moore caught behind but the next didn't come until 176 runs later when Woodman got his first Championship wicket by taking Peters LBW.  In between, Blackwell and Caddick bowled the majority of the overs (51 between them) and it is hard to work out whether this is because the wicket was taking spin or the other pacemen were getting creamed.  Frank Senior's first 7 overs went for a mere 22 and he was by far the best of the attack in terms of figures.  He went for a few later but was not brought back intoo the atatck until mid afternoon.  IB seemed to use a lot of bit men with the main string of overs coming from himself and his main pace man Caddick until later on when he brought Wes Durston on to do a bit of the slow work and he got the final wicket of the day when he got de Bruyn for a mere 161.  Ben Smith wieghed in again with 117 and we got murdered in the sun. No one bowler went for huge amounts, they just seem to have scored at about 4.5 off almost everyone, all day.

Day 3 into 4

By the time I got to the point of writing about Day 3, it was becoming evident that this was going to be a lost cause.  So I've left it until the end to finish off the sad tale.  Despite the fact that the morning started well with Keith Parsons getting Davies, Smith and Batty in quick time, the damage had already been done.  Three big centuries meant that we would be chasing a huge total and though Worcestershire carried on long enough for Blackwell to get in among the wickets with two late on, they finally declared on a massive 696 for 8 leaving us to score 379, just to make them bat again.  KP's bowling figures of 3 for 81 were the only one's worth looking at although Woodman's 1 for 79 off 14 should be mentioned as it was his first game.

So the objective was to bat out a Day and a half to get a fighting draw.  It started normally with Francis, still in the hunt for a decent score, going cheaply at 28 with 15 to his name.  However, the new number three put on a 110 run partnership with his VC before Wood  went at 138 for a top score of 72.  Then the middle order didn't as much dig in as dig their own graves and jump into them!

Suppiah became the third victim 16 runs later, followed in short order by Hildreth (12), Blackwell (5), Parsons (11) and Durston (26).  Carl Gazzard put up some resistance in a losing cause but Woodman went for 0 before the close and we were a very long way behind with two wickets left at the start of Day 4.

The fight came in the morning session of the last day.  No chance of winning made the fact that Gazzrd put on a 58 run partnership with Caddick (an excellent 39) and then a 55 run one with Simon Francis (an equally excellent 29) even better.  The wicket-keeper was left 44 not out when the innings finally closed and we got over 300 but lost by an innings and 56 runs.  No points.  Big gap between us and Worcestershire now and the chances of the third spot are slipping away on the back of performances like these.

We have three games left in the CC2.  Essex - currently fourth away next week.  Northants - currently below us, at home in September.  Derbyshire - currently bottom, at home the last week of the season.  A maximum of 22 points from each game would only give us 193 (assuming we got 5 bonus points from the Worcestershire game).  Lancashire - in third - have 150 points and 4 games to play - they need 44 points from those to put us out of the running.  We don't win all three and with as many bonus points as possible then we have no chance.  It's theoretical but we have to believe it can be done.  The Essex game will probably decide it - away is not our strongest place to play for a win - we just have to do better!

Big hill to climb in Day 3.

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