6:00am Friday 10th July 2009
By Michael Reeves
ENGLAND Lions ace Stephen Moore is confident Worcestershire can survive the drop in LV County Championship Division One.
The 28-year-old returns to county action today at Lancashire (11am) after spending last week with the Lions.
Opener Moore hit his maiden century of the campaign against Australia in the match at New Road and returns to Steve Rhodes’ side full of confidence.
“Can we stay up? Yes, absolutely,” Moore said defiantly. “We have to get on a winning run and that starts at Lancashire.
“We have to start standing with our chests out and making life tough for the opposition.
“We did that to an extent at Durham and now we have to do it for the full four days.”
Worcestershire have yet to win a match in the championship this term and have only avoided defeat twice — against Yorkshire both times.
Now, with a stronger squad to choose from, the County know displays need to improve vastly.
Worcestershire have yet to go into a second innings this season with any sort of lead.
The County have only secured full batting bonus points twice and missed out on batting points altogether on three occasions.
It is not just the batting causing problems as Worcestershire have only attained maximum bowling points three times.
“There is a lot of hard work ahead for us at Worcester,” Moore said. “I’m focused on trying to be a big part of that and making sure that we finish the season strongly.
“We are all going to be working hard. Kabir Ali got six wickets last week and young Alexei Kervezee came in and got 60 which was fantastic.
“There is a lot of talent there and we just need to gel as a team, get some consistency and momentum and make sure that we perform as a team for the rest of the season.”
Worcestershire make four changes to the side that fell to a five-wicket defeat at Durham.
Moore will be joined by fellow Lions Steve Davies and skipper Vikram Solanki as they take the places of youngsters Kervezee, Dave Wheeldon and Josh Knappett.
Gareth Andrew makes his second championship appearance of the campaign as he comes in for rested leading wicket-taker Chris Whelan.
Spinner Ian Fisher is missing due to a broken finger.
Lancashire are without their England stars Andrew Flintoff and James Anderson but Lions seamer Sajid Mahmood returns.
The Old Trafford side are looking to bounce back from their Friends Provident Trophy semi-final defeat to Hampshire.
Worcestershire: Moore, Mitchell, Solanki, Smith, Moeen, Davies, Noffke, Batty, Kabir, Andrew, Mason.
Lancashire (from): Horton, Loye, Laxman, du Plessis, Chilton, Croft, Sutton, Chapple, Hogg, Mahmood, Newby, Keedy.
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