County Championship: Ben Duckett finds form but Pears make Notts struggle
- In the County Championship, Ben Duckett shines with a return to form, yet Nottinghamshire faces a tough battle against Worcestershire as the Pears dominate. Stay tuned for all the latest updates on this thrilling cricket clash.
fresh signee In their match against Nottinghamshire, Nathan Smith was outstanding both at bat and with the ball, giving promoted Worcestershire a strong chance to win for the first time since they returned to Division One of the County Championship.
The Kiwi all-rounder scored 58 runs to help his team, trailing by six wickets overnight, rally to 355 runs, a deficit of just 44 runs after the first innings.
After that, he grabbed an incredible four wickets in seven balls, causing Nottinghamshire to collapse and end up on 151-7 with a 195-run lead.
In the evening session, leg-spinner Calvin Harrison had earlier achieved a first-ever five-wicket haul for the home team, which was followed by Smith’s exciting counterattack.
Ben Duckett, the opening batsman for England, reached sixty-three before falling victim to Smith’s maiden three-wicket blow. In his subsequent over, Smith tore out Jack Haynes, the old boy of Pears, off stump.
Lyndon James managed to avoid a hat-trick, but Notts had already lost six wickets for only 19 runs, having been bowled out for 80 against Essex at home the previous week. This was after Ben Slater made a stunning short-leg catch off spinner Josh Baker and Harrison was bowled by Adam Finch without giving him a chance to score.
Brett D’Oliveira, the visiting captain, was leg before wicket (LBW) for 54 by slow left-armer Liam Patterson-White, after the visitors’ seventh-wicket partnership had reached 84.
However, Smith reached 50 from 103 balls when Baker handed Harrison his fourth wicket with a third return catch while being tricked in the flight.
Joe Leach, who narrowly avoided a run-out opportunity on one, had established a crucial ninth-wicket partnership of 68 with Smith, but Harrison’s removal of last man Finch left him stranded on 38.
Haseeb Hameed, the captain of Notts, skied Baker to point for forty when he batted again, and Smith then had Duckett caught at square leg flicking a ball off his hip.
One of Notts’ four former Pears, centurion Joe Clarke, was wonderfully caught by diving keeper Gareth Roderick in the first inning, while Smith also dismissed Matt Montgomery for a duck with a blow to the leg.
He brings his totals to 11-4-29-4 for the last day, when Nottinghamshire could be more eager than the other team to see if the predicted rain shows up.
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