Worcestershire Head Coach Alan Richardson breathed a big sigh of relief after his side sealed a thrilling five wicket victory in the dying embers of a Rothesay County Championship game that reached a nervy conclusion on Monday.
Heading into the last day, a draw seemed the inevitable outcome, with a surface struggling for pace and Gloucestershire in possession of nine second innings wickets.
A simply staggering turnaround saw the Pears rip through Gloucestershire however, on a crazy first half of day four that resulted in the visitors being bowled out for 185, clutching a lead of just 87 runs.
The whirlwind end to the match was by no means complete, with the home side finding themselves 70-5 in an agonising run-chase that saw all three results still possible heading into the final hour.
With rain inbound and light fading, Gareth Roderick’s composed 54-ball-24 and Ethan Brookes’ punchy cameo secured the home side a dramatic victory late on.
Delighted with the upturn in fortunes, Richardson expressed his delight after his team stuck to their task in challenging circumstances.
“It was fairly nerve-wracking wasn’t it by the end!
“But another game here that’s gone down to the wire, so I am really pleased for the boys who put in a hell of a lot of work over the last four days.
“The game definitely had its moments, but it is nice to get there in there.
“There was some rain coming in, and we didn’t quite know when that was happening. That came onto our radar with probably about 20/25 to win, so then it was about trying to change the tempo a little bit, which was incredibly hard at the tempo of the game it stuck at a certain rate because of a few reasons, and the wicket was a little bit tricky to score on.
“Both sides have shown that occupancy of the crease was possible, so yeah, hopefully it was quite an intriguing game for those who watched it.
“We had a window of opportunity and we felt like we took that and gave ourselves a real chance to win the game. So, that was pleasing and it was nice for the guys who had to work so hard in that first innings, to get the rewards in the second.”
In a match that epitomised a classic Worcestershire team performance, several individuals stood up at key moments for the Pears on their way to victory.
Young spinner, Fateh Singh impressed on his first red-ball appearance of the summer, recording a maiden first-class fifer that proved instrumental in driving the Pears towards their winning position.
Alongside some more encouraging performances with the ball, Beyers Swanepoel (5-68) also weighed in with a vital first innings spell with the ball, but it was some pivotal knocks with the bat that pleased Richardson.
Ethan Brookes (66), Matthew Waite (63) steered the home side into pole position late on day three, after senior pair Brett D’Oliveira and Adam Hose had laid the foundations earlier in the match.
In Richardson’s opinion, those partnerships proved crucial.
“He (Waite) had a really good game, and since he’s joined us from Yorkshire, he’s had some big impacts for us in red and white ball cricket.
“In many different ways, he scored some runs quickly and, in this game, him and Ethan made their partnership that was really crucial to us.
“I think if you look at the wicket, if we hadn’t got ahead of the game and a little way past Gloucestershire, it would have been really difficult for us to try to win that game.
“So for us as a collective, I thought Brett and Adam almost had a 100-run partnership and for Ethan and Waitey to have that 116-stand that was massive for us.
“It took time out of the game, made it really difficult I think for Gloucestershire and I hope that they’d feel they had to work really hard for those wickets, and we showed a different kind of way of playing our cricket, which was really pleasing.”
