Great Scott is County's batting saviour (From Worcester News)

Great Scott is County's batting saviour

7:21pm Wednesday 18th July 2012 in Match Reports

BEN Scott’s determined century ensured Worcestershire emerged satisfied from the first day of the LV= County Championship Division One encounter at a sunny Old Trafford.

After looking fragile at 93-6 at one stage, Worcestershire rallied to reach 291, with Scott the last man out for a 170-ball 106. Lancashire were 13-0 in reply at the close.

Worcestershire’s total represented a substantial recovery for the New Road side, who were deep in trouble when Scott joined with Matt Pardoe in a resourceful seventh-wicket stand of 127 runs in 41 overs.

Both batsmen made season’s best Championship scores and the partnership was only broken when Steven Croft misfielded but recovered quickly to run out Pardoe for 55.

Shaaiq Choudhry fell lbw to Glen Chapple for two, but Scott, who had made just 45 runs in 11 Championship innings prior to this match, continued on and reached his first hundred for Worcestershire with a single off Chapple.

Richard Jones was lbw to Tom Smith’s fourth ball of the day for 15, before Scott was caught by Chapple off Simon Kerrigan, leaving the spinner with figures of 4-117.

Wicketkeeper-batsman Scott hit 11 fours from 163 balls in reaching three figures on a Manchester wicket which offered the spinners plenty of help.

After losing the toss and being asked to field first, Chapple introduced slow left-armer Kerrigan into the attack in the 12th over and the spinner soon had Mitchell caught by Smith in the gully for 12.

Croft trapped Phil Hughes lbw just before the interval and added the scalps of Moeen Ali and Vikram Solanki afterwards.

Croft then pouched sharp catches off successive Kerrigan deliveries to get rid of James Cameron and Gareth Andrew, but the arrival of Scott to join Pardoe halted the visitors’ slide.