Bowling Coach Alan Richardson has called for another disciplined performance from the Worcestershire CCC attack in a bid to seal victory on the final day of the LV=Insurance County Championship match with Nottinghamshire at New Road.
The County established a first innings of 160 after bowling Nottinghamshire out for 276, with Charlie Morris claiming three wickets in three overs during the morning session.
The visitors closed on 87-0 in their second innings – still 73 runs in arrears on a slow wicket in which patience and accuracy are vital virtues for the bowlers.
Richardson said: “The wicket has afforded some attritional cricket, and the boys have applied themselves brilliantly well throughout the day and even on the second evening as well to give ourselves a chance.
“The boys have stuck at it really well, kept the energy up, kept their skills nice and high and got some reward.
“Hopefully, we can chip away on Sunday and be as disciplined as we were yesterday and see where that takes us.
“The line of attack you have to try and go down is to wear people down.
“It looks a pretty solid surface in terms of it’s fairly flat, but for a new batter, it’s quite difficult, and you have to be very patient with bat and ball.
“If you want to score some runs quite quickly, you have to take some risks, and hopefully, with the disciplines of the bowling group, that’s where you pick up your wickets.”
Morris’s three-wicket burst gave Worcestershire some invaluable momentum as they collected three bowling points.
Richardson said: “If we are talking about disciplined bowling, then with Charlie, you are probably talking about the most disciplined man on the staff.
“He works incredibly hard, bowls his areas, and he got his rewards in that little cluster of wickets. Charlie got that momentum for us towards the end of the first session.”
Worcestershire opted to force the follow on after obtaining a substantial first-innings lead.
Richardson said: “It was a 50-50 call for me. It is an opportunity to try and chip away again, and we might have to last bat on it if that’s the way it was going to go and hopefully not have too big a target.
“I think we were happy whichever way the boys wanted to go, and we were quite happy for Joe (Leach) and the lads to get together and decide the avenue they wanted to go try and go down to win the game.”
