Pears face up uphill battle as Surrey dominate
Leaders Surrey remain on course to win their fifth Vitality County Championship match of the season despite prolonged resistance from Worcestershire’s Gareth Roderick and Kashif Ali on day three at New Road.
Surrey achieved the first objective before lunch in claiming the final three Worcestershire first innings wickets and enforcing the follow on with a lead of 278 despite resistance from top scorer Jake Libby, Ben Allison and Adam Finch.
Opener Roderick and Kashif then dug in to add 135 from 34 overs in relatively untroubled fashion for the second wicket.
But three wickets then fell in three overs to turn the game firmly back in Surrey’s favour in the final session of the day.
Jordan Clark was the chief thorn in Worcestershire’s side with three wickets as they closed still needing 71 to make Surrey bat again.
England spin coach, Jeetan Patel, was at New Road and put Shoaib Bashir, on loan to Worcestershire from Somerset, and Dan Lawrence through their paces before the start of play. He saw Lawrence quickly strike for a third time in the innings after only nine runs had been added to the overnight 147 for seven.
