So often the man to save Worcestershire in their hour of need, Matthew Waite produced another sterling lower-order cameo to drag his side back into contention on day one of the Rothesay County Championship clash at Southport.
A composed and level-headed 77 from 131 balls helped the Pears out of a quandary at 107-6, after the loss of four wickets in half an hour after lunch had put the skids under the visitors.
Stroking nine boundaries in his near three-hour stay at the crease, Waite was involved in crucial partnerships with Tom Taylor, Beyers Swanepoel and George Drissell to keep the Lancashire bowlers at bay.
Waite said his side’s strength in depth and ability to bat all the way down their card proved its worth on the opening day.
“It ebbed and flowed quite a bit all day. Obviously, we had a great start thanks to Dan and Libs and went into lunch probably the happier of the two sides.
“We then lost those few quick wickets after the break, but I thought we fought back really well, bowled particularly well and were slightly unlucky not to get any rewards.
“One of our strengths is that we bat all the way down. Our batters keep coming, and we pride ourselves on that, and we try to contribute as far as we can.
“The last couple of weeks I have been a bit lean, so it was nice to be able to contribute today out in the middle.”
Teenage ace Dan Lategan had provided another reminder of his class when he chalked up a third fifty of the summer in a positive morning session for the visitors.
In the face of a brilliant George Balderson spell and with a certain Sir James Anderson doing his thing from the other end, the away side lost their way early in the afternoon, with the slide taking shades of the batting collapse from a week earlier that had cost Alan Richardson’s side the match against Durham.
Waite said the group did well to overcome those demons and showed great character to fight their way back into the match. “It isn’t easy coming back from the massive collapse against Durham, in a game where we were in the box seat for most of it. That can really affect you mentally, almost scar you, but we had a little wobble today and fought back from it really well.
“I think it actually changed when Tommy hit the six, they changed the ball, and from then it kind of worked in our favour a bit.
“From where we were, we will definitely take 270. I wouldn’t know what par is, as I have never played here before, but we will see what they get and go from there.
“We could have had a couple tonight, but that is cricket; we will come back tomorrow and set about it.”
