Head Coach Alan Richardson has given his reaction to Worcestershire’s performance in the LV=Insurance County Championship match with Durham at the Seat Unique Riverside.
Worcestershire will head into Thursday’s opening home Championship match with Gloucestershire at New Road lying in joint second spot after defeating Derbyshire in Game One and coming close to snatching a draw against Durham.
The last wicket pair of Adam Finch and Dillon Pennington held out for 14 overs before being parted with just 32 balls remaining as Durham won by 121 runs.
Richardson said: “They have been two really good games of cricket which have gone down to the last session on the last day.
“We’d like to have won both games, of course, but we’ve put in two pretty good performances.
“There have been some outstanding individual performances from our players, which we’re really happy about.”
Worcestershire were set a 314 target in 70 overs after Club Captain Brett D’Oliveira had opened the chance of a positive result for both sides by declaring 59 runs behind.
Richardson said: “I was really impressed with the way Brett went about it.
“We wanted to get to 110 overs, get as many as we could, and then we were looking to declare and to try and apply some pressure.
“Durham wanted to do the same, so good declarations by both captains to set up a game. “
Regarding today’s play, Richardson said: “Dillon and Adam played very well and applied themselves fantastically well as we tried throughout the day.
“The game ebbed and flowed a little bit, and we always wanted to have that chance to win the game of cricket.
“It didn’t quite come off, and so the next thing for us was to try and save it. To come as close as we did stings a little bit, and obviously, we don’t want to lose games of cricket.
“But we also didn’t want to have a game that ended in a pointless draw. We wanted to try and put ourselves in a position to win the game.
“We wanted to see how it played out. We would have hopefully bowled a little bit better on the third evening, which would have given us a bit more control, but I thought that Durham played remarkably well.
“They came out with some good intent and gave themselves a chance to bowl us out.
“All three results were possible when we went out to bat, which was a good position for everyone to be in and for people watching, and hopefully, they would have really enjoyed it.”
