Despite some stellar work from the tailenders with the bat in hand, Worcestershire were unable to claw back the deficit in an away defeat to leaders Surrey.

Despite Nathan Smith smashing his third half-century in his last five matches, scoring his highest score to date with 60 runs for the Pears, the visitors struggled at the Kia Oval as Dan Worrall collected a 10-wicket haul for the match.

Ben Gibbon was also impressive, celebrating his maiden first class fifty, striking 46 balls and hitting three sixes in an over from Dan Lawrence.

 

 

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Worcestershire faced a challenging 513 target, which they fell short of reaching despite a valiant final stand of 231.

This was an encouraging comeback after a precarious start which saw them 102-8 early in the day, after Worral took three wickets, who replicated the form that resulted in his impressive 6-22 tally in the first innings.

Worcestershire ultimately succumbed to a high-quality Surrey attack, which maintained pressure throughout.

The team is now setting their sights on bouncing back in their next match against Nottinghamshire, which will take place at New Road on Friday (May 24).

Pears head coach Alan Richardson said: "We had a couple of windows of opportunity, especially during the first day when we could have been slightly ahead of the game or on parity."

He added: "If we had held onto Dan Lawrence they would have been 200 ahead, five wickets down, and you never know what would have happened from there.

"We should take great heart from the fact we had those opportunities but also there is a lot of learning to be done and the boys in the changing room will be frustrated and disappointed."

Despite the loss, Richardson assured that the team was not disheartened.

He said: "The boys in there are competitors and they want to win games of cricket and get very disappointed when they lose.

“This one was a real tough game and the second day made it very difficult for us to get any stranglehold in it."

Richardson concluded: “One performance doesn’t define our season but we will learn from playing these good sides.”