Worcestershire had a 97-run stand between Adam Hose and Brett D’Oliveira to thank for a crucial middle order partnership that helped the Pears recover from 52-4 to close 209-7 on a rain-interrupted opening day of Rothesay County Championship action.
After being asked to bat first in examining conditions, the home side endured a testing first session, entering the interval 93-4, with England Captain Ben Stokes in the wickets.
Adam Hose produced a defiant half-century as he and Brett D’Oliveira (41) came together to add 97 for the fifth wicket and drag the hosts back into the contest at 149-4.
However, the loss of the in and set pair in successive overs threatened to derail Worcestershire’s innings, but a lower order rearguard from Ethan Brookes (21*) saw the Pears close on 209-7.
There was a heightened sense of anticipation in the air at New Road on Friday morning, as table toppers Durham arrived at New Road to face a Worcestershire side back at home for just the second time this summer.
With the news of Oliver Hannon-Dalby’s untimely recall to Warwickshire forcing Head Coach Alan Richardson into at least one change to the eleven that went down at Northants last time out, the absence of Ben Allison, Beyers Swanepoel, Adam Finch and Ben Gibbon would see the Pears hand out a first-class debut to seamer Harry Darley.
With Jack Home and Kashif Ali restored to the side, it was over to openers Dan Lategan and Jake Libby to commence proceedings after the Pears had been forced to bat first.
Featuring for the first time since recovering from a broken cheekbone suffered back in February, the England Captain hit his straps almost immediately, taking the new ball and producing a vicious delivery from around the wicket that rose enough to catch the edge of Dan Lategan’s bat in just his second over of the morning.
After a swift four-over spell from the returning Stokes, Ben Raine pressed on for the visitors, challenging Libby and new man Roderick in a testing first hour that saw the hosts reduced to 40-3.
It was Libby, caught at second slip, who was first to depart for nine, before last week’s centurion maker Gareth Roderick saw his resolute defence broken for six, when he was dismissed in unfortunate circumstances after glancing a forward defence onto his pad, with the ball looping up into the hands of Raine on his follow-through.
Kashif Ali joined Adam Hose at the crease, with the returning Kashif eager to play his expansive array of shots in what was a productive counter-offensive of 27.
After finding the boundary five times and helping take his side past fifty, the left-hander mistimed a cut shot off and guided the ball straight to Graham Clark at point, handing Luke Robinson his first wicket of the contest.
Hose, now joined by Skipper Brett D’Oliveira, asserted his dominance in the early forays of his innings, accessing the cover boundary with frequency as he led the Worcestershire response.
Guiding their side through to lunch without any further damage, the pair left the field at the interval 93-4.
Upon the resumption, it was the hosts’ experienced middle-order duo who started in a more composed fashion.
D’Oliveira played cautiously, with Worcestershire’s skipper digging in for the Pears, under low cloud cover and a darkening sky.
Adam Hose was handed a lifeline on 28, when he was dropped by Aldridge at second slip off the bowling of Raine, a drop that Hose would go on to punish the visitors for .
Batting a place further down in the order at number five, Hose showed his class with some exquisite stroke play, whipping the ball off his pads and powering the shorter ball through the offside at will, seeing hide past 100 and celebrating a vital fifty-partnership with his not-out skipper in the meantime.
Hose reached a defiant fifty by clipping the ball off his legs through midwicket, raising his bat to the acknowledgement of a delighted New Road faithful, with the batter reaching his 16th first-class half-century from 74 balls, scoring nine boundaries in the process.
The pair had added 97 for the Pears’ fifth wicket, dragging the home side back into the contest from what had appeared a previously ominous position, with Hose not out on 59, and D’Oliveira unbeaten on 37.
At 149-4, and having wrestled back some momentum, Worcestershire were halted in their tracks as the heavens opened and the players left the field at 2:45pm, with an early tea called.
Although the players returned to the field at 4:30pm, only seven balls were bowled as the cloud cover re-emerged and the rain once again began to fall.
More endeavour from the ground staff and a break in the weather meant play resumed at 5:35pm, but it was the visitors who would enjoy the better of the opening exchanges.
Hose’s excellent innings of 59 had seen him lead the home side’s fightback, but his hard work was undone by the first ball back from the rain delay as Stokes beat his defences to register his second wicket of the day.
The home side had their captain to thank, not for the first time this season, for another crucial innings in the Worcestershire middle order, but when his defences were beaten by Raine for 41, the Pears were stumbling at 153-6.
Ethan Brookes and Matthew Waite showed excellent resilience for 14 overs to add 36 for the seventh wicket, but the latter’s defence was breached for 18 when he edged behind off a Kasey Aldridge delivery in the final embers of the day.
Brookes (21*) batted with composure alongside Tom Taylor, to see his side through to the close 209-7, keeping the Pears in the hunt heading into day two.
