Pears' bowlers bounce back
Worcestershire’s bowlers bounced back in style from their weekend semi-final mauling by dismissing Kent for 260 on day one of the County Championship Division Two promotion battle at New Road.
But then Kent responded with the ball despite a boundary-laced cameo from England all-rounder Moeen Ali (37) as the Pears closed on 95-3 with former Oswestry and Wellington man Joe Clarke 31 not out
The home side, who conceded 361 runs in the Royal London One-Day Cup clash with Surrey, may have feared the worse after Kent skipper Sam Northeast won the toss on a good pitch.
Skipper Joe Leach (3-42) and 19-year-old Josh Tongue (3-56) impressed with the ball as Kent were bowled out in 73.1 overs.
All of their batsmen except openers Daniel Bell-Drummond and Sean Dickson got into double figures but no-one went past 50.
As well as Leach and Tongue bowled, some of the shot selection of the Kent batsmen was questionable and their score was below-par.
Worcestershire assistant coach Matt Mason said: “With the ball we were fairly happy. We would have taken their score at the start of the day because it’s a good surface. It’s got some pace and some bounce.
“There was a little bit of suspect batting from them and some good bowling from us. At 140-7, I think you could argue that we would have wanted to finish things off a little bit sooner than we did.
“As time goes on in the game, the ball gets a bit softer, conditions get a bit easier for batting so I think the bowlers stuck to their task well.”
