At New Road, Ed Pollock and Gareth Roderick batted through substantial portions of the last day to prevent Derbyshire from claiming their first LV=Insurance County Championship victory of the year.
After being promoted to begin the innings alongside Jake Libby in only his second game, Roderick battled hard for five and a half hours to make 123.
In an out-of-character performance, Pollock scored 56 runs off 189 balls over the course of close to four hours by playing resolute defense rather than his usual free-flowing stroke play.
Only four wickets fell throughout the entire day, partly due to their efforts, which generally succeeded in fending off the Derbyshire attack.
Since taking over as the team’s keeper-batter last summer, Roderick has primarily batted in the middle of the order, as opposed to his eight seasons with Gloucestershire where he batted higher up the order.
For the home game against Leicestershire, he was moved up to number three, and a second innings knock of 59 that lasted for five hours helped the team win on a challenging ground.
He then started the last Championship game at Hove against Sussex, and prior to this lengthy knock, he was a member of three half-century partnerships with Libby.
This was a top-notch effort that mixed aggression with tough defense. Roderick has previously mentioned the necessity for him to convert promising starts into significant contributions.
In Championship and T20 cricket, Pollock has slipped into the middle order due to a lack of runs.
But in this instance, he put his head down from the first ball in support of Roderick and slowed down Derbyshire’s onslaught.
While soaking up time and deliveries was the main concern, it took him 120 balls before he slashed Leus du Plooy down to third man for his maiden boundary.
The losing streak for Derbyshire was extended to ten games, but they can still be quite proud of the performance they put on without its front line assault of Saranga Lakmal, Sam Conners, and Zak Chappell, while Ben Aitchison was injured and unable to bowl in the second innings.
Even before Roderick and Pollock’s resistance on the final day, Worcestershire had reached 105 for 1 on the first day but had been unable to go ahead for the duration of the match.
In the first innings, Derbyshire batted with greater effort and shown more control with the ball.
Against Worcestershire, they amassed their highest ever total thanks to three of their batters—du Plooy, Wayne Madsen, and Anuj Dal—each reaching three figures.
With the exception of the steadfast Joe Leach, the home team will be critical of its subpar bowling performance, shoddy fielding, and missed catches by Madsen, du Plooy, and Dal.
Ben Aitchison had earlier experienced hip and back issues, thus Worcestershire began the match on 70 for 2 against a Derbyshire assault that was lacking in bowlers.
Conor McKerr’s first delivery of the day was caught by Roderick, who smashed it through mid wicket for four runs.
Similar hit at Anuj Dal’s cost resulted in the keeper-batter’s eighth boundary, bringing his 69-ball half-century to an end.
Rehaan Edavalath, a rookie, struggled for 62 balls before driving hard at Nick Potts and picking up Wayne Madsen, who grabbed a slim opportunity at first slip. Edavalath made 15 runs during this time.
While Adam Hose only scored a single before trying to drive spinner Alex Thomson and getting bowled through the gate, Roderick continued to score easily.
When on two, Pollock successfully took off a bold demand for a legside catch by goalkeeper Brooke Guest off Luis Reece.
Roderick moved into the 90s by hitting Thomson for four, and on his 16th boundary (a steer to third man off Reece), he reached an impressive hundred from 155 balls.
With his free-flowing performance, Pollock played a bizarre inning in which he managed only five runs off the first 100 balls he faced.
But in the context of Worcestershire trying to stop Derbyshire’s push for win, it was a priceless effort.
In an effort to secure a decisive victory, Derbyshire rotated their bowlers and set creative and unconventional fielders.
After the Roderick-Pollock partnership lasted for 38 overs, they could finally rejoice when the latter, on 123, pushed forward to Thomson and was caught at short leg.
However, Matthew Waite (17 runs unbeaten from 97 balls), who joined Pollock in the middle, also demonstrated a tenacious line of defense.
After eight overs were delayed to rain, Pollock progressively picked up the pace and, needing just 181 more balls to reach his half-century, he drove Dal into the covers for his tenth four.
But on 56, he hit a shot that was out of character for the rest of his innings. He was caught by Dal while running back to cover after aiming a leg side punch at Reece.