County Championship: Gareth Roderick & Ed Pollock save game as Pears draw with Derbyshire

Gareth Roderick‘s third century for Worcestershire was his first this season

Derbyshire remain without a County Championship win this season after being denied by Worcestershire at New Road.

Despite outplaying the Pears for most of the four days, the weakened Derbyshire bowling attack could only take four final-day wickets.

Pears opener Gareth Roderick led the way with an excellent 123, while Ed Pollock knuckled down to make a painstaking 56 as Worcestershire, with the help of the weather, forced a draw.

After resuming on 70-2, overnight partners Roderick and Rehaan Edavalath were untroubled for the first half hour.

But debutant Edavalath was first to go when he drove hard and edged Nick Potts to Wayne Madsen low at first slip.

Adam Hose then drove at spinner Alex Thomson and was bowled through the gate.

Derbyshire resorted to an Umbrella field to try and winkle out the unusually obdurate Ed Pollock

Roderick was then joined by Pollock and although he continued to score fairly freely, his left-handed partner simply weighed anchor.

In a heartening show of mental strength and discipline that even he probably did not know he had, he scored just six runs off his first 100 balls.

Pollock quickened up once Roderick was out after popping up a catch to short-leg off Thomson. But, when he finally reached the seventh red-ball fifty of his cricket career - and 16th in all forms of cricket - it was still comfortably the slowest, at 181 balls.

But, as with centurion Roderick, who has clearly taken to his new role as opener, it was a match-saving knock.

Roderick looked mortified when he top edged to mid-on off Luis Reece with 11 overs left and Anju Dal took a superb tumbling catch running backwards as he ball dropped over his shoulder.

Having benefited from time off the field for bad light, though, Matthew Waite and Joe Leach saw it out.

The Pears, who stay fourth in Division Two, now face their final T20 group games - including a trip to Derby on Sunday - and a possible quarter-final before they host Yorkshire in the Championship on 10 July.

The next Championship game for Derbyshire, who can also still make the last eight in the T20, is at Hove, against Sussex, starting the same day.