Head Coach Alan Richardson came away with mixed emotions after his side came within three-wickets of a remarkable win against Nottinghamshire on the final day of a gripping Rothesay County Championship fixture, with the Pears showing superb resolve to stay in the in the contest until the bitter end.
Scores of 182 and 160 across the two Worcestershire batting innings had looked to have left the home side light, with Notts requiring 136 to win a low-scoring game as they took the middle late on day three.
A resilient bowling performance, spearheaded by Ben Allison’s superb three wicket burst, took the hosts’ close, but the title-chasing Outlaws held-on to clinch a nerve jangling win.
Richardson, commended his side’s efforts after pushing their opponents all the way, in some challenging conditions and testing situations across another compelling four-days of red ball cricket.
“Ultimately, the thoughts now are very mixed.
“Obviously, one huge disappointment that we haven’t won the game of cricket, but also real pride of how we’ve fought throughout against the side that are gunning to try and win the championship.
“I thought we went toe to toe with them for long periods of time and gave them a real scare. Ultimately though, for the guys that are up there, they’re very disappointed that we haven’t managed to win a game.”
The Worcestershire seam quartet were undoubtedly the stand out performers, with Tom Taylor, Khurram Shahzad, Ben Allison and Matthew Waite all contributing during the relentless efforts of the home side across final innings of the match.
Khurram, caught the eye with an outstanding spell, returning figures of 13-6-14-1 to keep the Pears in the game, building pressure as he beat the bat with frequency.
Richardson, was full of praise for his bowlers, who he said couldn’t have done much more in a sizeable last innings dash for what at one stage had seemed an unfathomable victory.
“I think we’ve done really well throughout. I thought Khurram was outstanding and didn’t get the rewards that he deserved.
“Tommy, Benny and Matthew, as they have done throughout the year, have been really good. They’ve stuck to their task, they’ve been really disciplined with how they go about it and gave us a real sniff towards the end today.”
“That’s been very typical of how for the majority of the season we’ve performed and that’s really pleasing and still gives us some great heart going into the last two games. It would have been very easy for us to sort of just go through the motions, but this group’s definitely not about that.”
Reflecting on a topsy turvy contest that saw wickets fall in clusters throughout all four innings, Worcestershire showed a defiance and resolute nature that has been a staple of the side and underpinned the squad in what has been a very challenging year in Division One.
Gareth Roderick’s first innings partnership of 81 with Tom Taylor was followed up by a fifty-plus stand with Ethan Brookes in the second, that offered glimpses into how to occupy the crease in bowler friendly conditions, with both partnerships proving crucial in wider context of the game.
With the top-oder struggling for rhythm and opportunities limited against some high quality seam bowling courtesy of former Pears Josh Tongue and Dillon Pennington, Richardson felt his side were one more score of substance away from keeping themselves very much in the mix to win the match.
“It is difficult to tell, really. I hate going through batters and bowlers, because it’s a team effort. I think we probably needed a couple of partnerships with the bat. We had with a couple of which Gareth Rodrick, who played really well for both innings, was involved in, but we just needed to just keep sneaking up.
“I would have loved another 30/40, runs, but I’m sure Notts would be saying the same thing in the way that they batted in their first innings.
“We had little windows of opportunity and we just didn’t quite take those which has been frustrating throughout the season that it feels like we’ve competed really well and just not quite got over the line.
“For a lot of games, we’ve either been slightly ahead or at parity at halfway, and have not really been able to push home that advantage.
“A similar theme, I guess in this game, no matter how much fight we put up today, which was really encouraging, ultimately, it’d been lovely to have had another 30/40, runs to play with.”
