Ed Barnard scored a superb century to spearhead a splendid fightback by Worcestershire on day two of the LV=Insurance County Championship match with Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge.
Barnard continued his excellent form with the bat to lead Worcestershire to 225-5 by the close – an overall lead of 118.
He completed the third Championship hundred of his career with the first delivery of the second new ball as he steered Luke Fletcher to third man for two runs.
It came off 193 balls and contained ten boundaries, and he ended the day unbeaten on 101.
Barnard’s fine effort followed on from his 57 against Leicestershire and 75 versus Sussex in the opening two Championship fixtures after his 79 and 90 versus Oxford UCCE and Durham UCCE, respectively, in the warm-up games.
Barnard is undoubtedly building on last summer’s major contribution of 746 runs at an average of 49.73, which led to his promotion up the order.
He came to the wicket at 32-4, with Worcestershire still 75 in arrears, and received excellent support from Jack Haynes and Ben Cox during partnerships of 67 and an unbroken 126, respectively.
Cox also showed tremendous fighting qualities in initially blunting the Nottinghamshire attack and gradually accelerating.
His half-century, reached just before Nottinghamshire took the second new ball, was also richly deserved. It spanned three hours and contained seven fours.
He will resume tomorrow on 51 not out.
Nottinghamshire began the day on 203-7 – a lead of just 44 runs – after the Worcestershire bowlers, backed up by some excellent fielding, fought back during the final session yesterday.
Charlie Morris gave Worcestershire the perfect start to the morning when Tom Moores (19) drove a delivery straight into the hands of Jake Libby at cover.
But Stuart Broad took advantage of some short deliveries to hit an unbeaten 45 off 27 balls with two sixes and six fours.
He put on 57 for the ninth wicket with Luke Fletcher before Adam Finch wrapped up the innings with two wickets in four balls.
Fletcher (18) fell to a fine catch by Brett D’Oliveira at mid-off, and he held onto a more straightforward chance in the same position to dismiss Dane Paterson (2).
Finch ended with figures of 11.5-2-59-3; Morris 16-4-72-2, Dillon Pennington 13-1-67-2, Ed Barnard 18-6-58-2 and Josh Baker 1-0-5-0.
When Worcestershire batted for a second time, Ed Pollock (0) lost his middle stump after pushing forward to Fletcher’s second delivery of the innings.
Jake Libby (3) went for a drive and was caught at backward point off Fletcher.
Azhar Ali (5) received an awkward ball from Broad, which bounced a bit and was caught at backward point.
D’Oliveira (5) came up against a delivery which stuck in the pitch and lobbed up to mid-wicket.
Haynes had batted well in the first innings for a top score of 37 and again looked in good touch.
He and Barnard batted in a confident fashion after lunch.
Barnard flicked Lyndon James to the fine leg boundary to complete a half-century stand from 108 balls.
Haynes looked in little trouble in moving onto 49 but then went to hook a short delivery on Broad’s return to the attack and was caught by Ben Duckett at backward square leg.
His 98 ball knock contained seven boundaries, and the stand was worth 67 in total with Barnard.
Cox joined Barnard and provided determined support to the all-rounder, who pulled Broad for four to steer Worcestershire into the lead.
The wicket-keeper-batter on-drove Liam Patterson-White for four to bring up the fifty partnership from 149 balls.
The pair successfully fought their way through a late hostile spell from Broad before reaching their individual milestones just before the close to great applause from their teammates.
