Friday, June 28th, 2019

SECONDS COLLECT TEN POINTS FROM DRAWN ENCOUNTER AT HALESOWEN

Worcestershire Seconds had to be content with a draw after being set a 208 target in 39 overs in the Championship match with Derbyshire at Halesowen.

The home side ended proceedings with their total on 63-4 from 18 overs with the two sides shaking hands at 5.10pm with Alex Milton unbeaten on 27.

Worcestershire collected 10 points and Derbyshire nine from a fixture which saw the first day at Somers Park washed out.

Derbyshire resumed on 31-1 in their second innings after 21 wickets fell yesterday – still 11 runs in arrears.

They quickly lost two more wickets with Irfan Karim (24) caught behind off Matt Davis and Hamidullah Qadri run out by Nick Hammond’s throw from deep extra cover to Dillon Pennington after being sent back.

Derbyshire were then 53-3 but Thomas Wood ensured they posted a competitive total despite wickets falling at regular intervals.

Ak Dal (11) nicked Charlie Morris to Josh Dell at second slip and Josh Breed ended a partnership of 52 between Anoop Chima (18) and Wood by trapping the former lbw.

Breed also ended Wood’s resistance after making 68 off 133 balls with Tom Fell pouching the chance at first slip at 184-6.

Nils Priestley (34) was caught at cover by Mahaaz Ahmed to give Breed another scalp and Mark Watt (6) was run out by Dell’s direct throw from the first slip region.

The last two wickets went down in the space of three runs with Connor Marshall (15) caught at deep fine leg by Pennington off Breed and Daryn Smit (25) bowled by Yarvinder Singh.

Breed finished with figures of 16-0-71-4, Davis 10-1-43-2, Singh 4.5-2-21-1, Morris 15-4-47-1, Pennington 10-2-21-0 and Ahmed 8-0-38-0.

When Worcestershire began their second innings they lost a flurry of early wickets to Harare born paceman Dustin Melton.

Fell (10) was caught behind by Chima who took over behind the stumps from Smit and Dell (8) was taken at second slip – by Smit.

Ollie Westbury (0) was bowled and Jack Haynes (5) also fell to the Smit-Melton combination before the game came to its conclusion.

Melton ended with figures of 5-3-8-4 and Milton struck five fours in his unbeaten 27 from 31 balls.