County hold on to draw rain-hit clash (From Worcester News)

County hold on to draw rain-hit clash

7:00pm Sunday 29th August 2010 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(0)

TWO wickets from Northamptonshire captain Andrew Hall were not enough to secure victory against Worcestershire as yet more rain spoiled the final day of their LV= County Championship encounter at Wantage Road.

In an attempt to force a much-needed result, Worcestershire declared their first innings at 45-0 after 31 balls of buffet bowling from the hosts.

Northants forfeited their second innings, giving the visitors a target of 341 and they were teetering on 182-6 despite Moeen Ali’s 62 before heavy downpours saved them from defeat.

With Northants declaring on 385-9 at the close, the match looked destined to be a draw as Worcestershire were finally given a chance to bat.

The first part of the day saw a phoney war with the hosts using part-time bowlers, which allowed the away side to quickly plunder 45 before declaring with their captain Daryl Mitchell and David Wheeldon unbeaten on 31 and 12 respectively.

Northants forfeited their second innings, which meant Worcestershire had a victory target of 341 with 88 overs remaining.

Their chase started badly when Mitchell (3) was caught by Stephen Peters at third slip off the bowling of Jack Brooks in the fourth over.

Wheeldon (7) edged Lee Daggett to Hall at first slip to leave the visitors struggling on 21-2.

It went from bad to worse when Vikram Solanki, who on 27 was just threatening to get going, saw his off stump taken out by Elton Chigumbura.

But the fourth-wicket partnership of Ali and Holland international Alexei Kervezee revived their hopes either side of lunch with the pair adding 117 runs.

Both struck half-centuries with Ali reaching his first off 102 balls and Kervezee following suit off just 63 balls.

But Kervezee added just two more before smashing James Middlebrook to Peters at short mid-wicket.

Ali went in the following over when he edged Hall to wicketkeeper David Murphy to swing the match back the hosts’ way.

Hall trapped James Cameron lbw for a four-ball duck before heavy rain intervened and forced a draw.