Worcestershire Academy fought back in fine style with the ball and then the bat on day two of the Tri-Series clash with Leicestershire Academy at Bromsgrove CC.
Leicestershire began the day in a strong position at 134-1 from 24.2 overs in their first innings in reply to Worcestershire’s 271 all out.
But the efforts of Lewis Evans and Pete Clark, who picked up nine wickets between them, restricted their first innings lead to 88.
Then Callum Lea and Dan Holland steered Worcestershire to 105-1 by the close – an overall lead of 17 heading into the final day.
Leicestershire had scored at five and a half runs an over on the first day.
But on day two they had to work considerably harder for their runs and lost nine wickets for 225 off 71 overs.
The last seven wickets went down for 75 runs with Shropshire satellite academy player Evans returning 5-63 and Clark 4-83.
When Worcestershire batted again, Charlie Clist was dismissed for 13 with 25 on the board but Lea and Holland took charge for the remainder of the day.
They added an unbroken 80 with Lea undefeated on 61 (103 balls, nine fours) and Holland ending 28 not out.
LEICESTERSHIRE ACADEMY – FIRST INNINGS CONTINUED
(overnight 134-1)
Butchart lbw Parker-Cole 61
Nightingale b Evans 82
Green c Parker-Cole b Clark 11
Bates c Eckland b Evans 47
Funnell c Parker-Cole b Evans 19
Bell lbw Evans 1
Dickinson c Parker-Cole b Evans 0
Patel b Clark 33
Bowley b Clark 7
Jones not out 0
Extras 9
Total (all out) 359 in 95.2 overs
FOW CONTINUED: 164, 193, 284, 293, 299, 301, 318, 344, 359
—
BOWLING
Parker-Cole 12-2-42-1
Davis 13-4-38-0
Ul-Hassan 17-1-53-0
Bragg 4-0-31-0
Clark 18.2-4-83-4
Evans 18-3-63-5
Holland 13-4-41-0
—
WORCESTERSHIRE ACADEMY – SECOND INNINGS
Lea not out 61
Clist c Green b Patel 13
Holland not out 28
Extras 3
Total (for 1 wickets) 105 in 33 overs
FOW: 25
—
BOWLING
Graham 7-2-25-0
Patel 5-0-15-1
Bowley 7-2-9-0
Trusz 5-3-11-0
Dickinson 5-1-26-0
Butchart 4-0-18-0