Dillon Pennington says a change of length paid dividends as his two wickets helped Worcestershire take the honours on day one of the LV=Insurance County Championship fixture with Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge.
The England Under-19 paceman dismissed Ben Slater and former Worcestershire team-mate Joe Clarke with fine deliveries as Nottinghamshire closed a rain-hit day on 51-3.
It doubled the wicket tally of Pennington’s three previous appearances this summer, and he has worked hard in between matches with Head Coach Alex Gidman and Bowling Coach Alan Richardson to improve certain aspects of his bowling.
He said: “It was good to get the two wickets. Quite a relief as well. I haven’t had the rewards I want or the team need as we have gone on, so it was nice to get that couple of wickets and put the team in an OK position ready for tomorrow.
“Looking at a few areas, I don’t think I’ve hit my length as well as I should have in the previous three games.
“That doesn’t mean I bowled poorly but, to get the wickets, you need to put the ball in the right areas consistently, and I’ve probably not done that as well as I should have.
“I came into this game looking to hit a fuller length consistently, and hopefully, I will get my rewards.
“I’ve had a couple of 12th man trips now, and during those done a lot of work with Alex and Alan, and that’s the area we zoomed in on to improve, and hopefully in the future, I’ll look to do that a lot more.”
Pennington was pleased with his double breakthrough and frustrated at the play’s stop-start nature because of the weather intervening.
He said: “I’d been feeling quite good with the ball early in the day, so I was itching to get out there.
“Then the end of the day summed it up really with the wet patch (on the wicket).
“It would have been nice to have a little run at it, I suppose. It was on-off for quite a while, and it’s always tough coming back as a bowler, but I can’t imagine what it is like as a batsman.
“I think if you put the ball in the right areas on there, you are going to get your rewards, so hopefully tomorrow we will get a bit of a longer spell as a unit and be able to get the rewards we deserve.
“If you put the ball on that fuller length, in a good area a lot, you are going to get your rewards.
“There is a fair bit of nip and some swing, so we are aiming for a cheap bowl out tomorrow and then looking to put some runs on the board and put them under some pressure.”
Alzarri Joseph claimed the other wicket with excellent delivery to dismiss Haseeb Hameed.
Pennington said: “He was pretty cold out there and, like me, having to bowl one over and then go off.
“But he bowled well and looked like the Alzarri we have watched in Test cricket.
He bowled quick with a heavy ball, and I think he will get his rewards tomorrow.”
