Battling Pears beat Essex for third straight win

Brett D'Oliveira's two pieces of stunning fielding in three balls turned the game at Chelmsford

Vitality County Championship Division One, Cloud County Ground, Chelmsford (day four)

Worcestershire 266: D'Oliveira 68, Taylor 62*; Porter 5-52, Harmer 3-103 & 321: Libby 65, Hose 64, D'Oliveira 51; Cook 4-23, Harmer 3-110

Essex 404: Pepper 112*, Westley 68, Snater 53; Virdi 3-126, Brookes 3-34, Van Beek 2-83 & 140: Das 32; Van Beek 4-26, Taylor 2-35, Virdi 2-66

Worcestershire (20 pts) beat Essex (7 pts) by 43 runs

Match scorecard

Worcestershire pulled off one of their most memorable County Championship comeback wins as they beat Essex by 43 runs.

Having been 10-4 inside the first half-hour on day one at Chelmsford, the battling Pears fought back to stay in the game.

After setting Essex 184 to win, they then bowled out their hosts for just 140 on the final afternoon for a third straight win, aided by on-loan pair Logan van Beek and Amar Virdi, who took 11 wickets between them in the match.

But it was two sharp pieces of fielding by Pears skipper Brett D’Oliveira that turned the tide as, inside three balls of a Van Beek over, he ran out Robin Das with a finger-tip at the non-striker's end from short mid on, then brilliantly snaked an arm to catch Jordan Cox.

It significantly eases the Pears' fears of going back down to Division Two after being promoted for a record seventh time last September - but seriously damages Essex’s outside hopes of catching Surrey at the other end of the table.

The Pears climb above neighbours Warwickshire into fifth, 28 points clear of danger and now just 15 points behind Essex, who have dropped to fourth.

At the start of the day, Sam Cook wrapped up the Worcestershire innings in 20 minutes with the new ball to return figures of 4-23, as he had Tom Taylor caught behind before inducing a leading edge from Virdi for a tumbling caught and bowled.

Virdi, having his first bowl in red-ball cricket since 2022, then bowled unchanged throughout the second innings, sending down 23 overs, tying up a succession of Essex batsmen to finish with 2-66, while fellow loan signing Van Beek chipped in with 4-26.

Joe Leach, bowling round the wicket, first accounted for left-handed ex-South Africa Test opener Dean Elgar, before Tom Westley edged a Taylor outswinger that took the outside edge. Then came the double twist.

Cox drove on the leg side, and D’Oliveira stuck out his left hand to divert the ball on to the stumps with Das out of his crease.

Cox then played an almost identical shot two balls later, this time slightly off the ground, and D’Oliveira reached out his right hand to hang on.

Matt Critchley hit Virdi for four from the first ball after lunch then turned the next ball straight to leg slip and Paul Walter slashed wildly at Van Beek outside off-stump and was caught behind.

Michael Pepper and Simon Harmer gave Essex hope in a stand of 40 for the seventh wicket.

But Harmer was beaten for pace to bring in the injured Shane Snater with Elgar as his runner. They lasted three overs before Virdi trapped Pepper lbw for 22 and Snater followed to a catch behind off Van Beek and it was all over when Cook hoicked the Dutch international to the square-leg boundary.

Essex director of cricket Anthony McGrath told BBC Radio Essex:

“It’s an opportunity missed for us, given the context of where we are in the season.

“We were really good for two days having lost the toss on a good surface.

“To get a lead of 130-140 after two days, we would normally drive that advantage home. But we were really sloppy. We dropped loads of chances, which is very unlike us. If we had held on to them, obviously, we’d have been chasing fewer runs.

“It shows the importance of really forcing home your advantage when you have it and it’s unlike us not to do that.

"We have to reflect on what happened, but I don’t want to be too critical because nine times out of 10 we’d have gone on and won.”

Worcestershire captain Brett D’Oliveira told BBC Hereford & Worcester:

“I’d like to say it was absolute tactical genius, but that’s definitely not the case. That’s cricket. It just felt that everything went our way and that comes from years of hard work. Thankfully we reaped the benefit.

“As a captain sometimes you have to have a gut feeling and go with that feeling and thankfully it came off. !f you get two wickets in any over when you’re trying to bowl a team out it goes a long way in turning the game. It came at the perfect moment.

"That was one of the best games I’ve played in. I can’t think of a better four-day win. We were behind the eight-ball straight away at 10-4. But the character and strength of that group have shown over the last 12-18 months has been incredible.”

“Logan will openly admit he is rusty in terms of full fitness, but he is very optimistic and believes in his own ability. He was a crucial partnership-breaker all the way through - and Amar was important for us, too, just for the sheer volume of overs he bowled and never once did I hear a complaint from him.

“I haven’t looked at the table, and probably won’t. All we can do is focus on what we do. If you start trying to think too far ahead it can catch you up. We’ve got a huge game in a couple of weeks’ time, Warwickshire at home - something every person in that dressing room is looking forward to now."