REPORT | Worcestershire follow on as Derbyshire bowlers seek innings victory

Mohammad Abbas and Shoaib Bashir both claimed their maiden Derbyshire wickets, as Worcestershire were forced to follow on and bat to save the game at The Central Co-op County Ground.

Bashir celebrated his first Derbyshire wicket following his winter move from Somerset, but was also responsible for an incident that cost the hosts five penalty runs.

The 22-year-old had figures of 1 for 27 from seven overs but it was Anuj Dal who took first innings bowling honours, claiming 3 for 22 as Worcestershire were dismissed for 312 with Dan Lategan scoring 89 and skipper Brett D’Oliveira 50.

Following on, Muhammad Abbas opened his Derbyshire account but Lategan again played well to be unbeaten on 43 from 87 balls at the close with the visitors 68 for 1, still 245 behind.

Worcestershire went into day three with a lot of work in front of them to try and save the game but Lategan and Adam Hose looked relatively comfortable despite several breaks in play.

After the ball was changed early into the session, there was a five minute hold up that ended with the award of penalty runs.

Lategan pulled Abbas out to deep square where Bashir shaped to throw the ball before Dal sent in the return.

After lengthy deliberations, the umpires decided Bashir was guilty of deception although it did not put off the batsmen who had already decided to go through for a second run.

Two rain delays followed before Lategan fell short of what would have been a deserved century when he was run out going for a second by Zak Chappell’s accurate return from inside the cover boundary.

The 19-year-old’s reaction summed up his disappointment but it had been an impressive innings in only his fourth first-class game.

After lunch was taken early following another shower, D’Oliveira and Hose took the score past 200 before two wickets in consecutive overs.

Hose was caught behind trying to cut a ball from Luis Reece that was too close to him and Gareth Roderick was lbw half forward to Ben Aitchison.

D’Oliveira and Ethan Brookes were building another partnership until Bashir struck in the first over of his third spell.

The spinner found some extra bounce which surprised D’Oliveira who edged to slip where Aitchison took a sharp catch.

Worcestershire then went into rapid decline against the second new ball with Brookes playing across the line at Martin Andersson before Anuj Dal took three wickets in five balls.

Matthew Waite dragged a pull into his middle stump, Adam Finch edged to first slip and Oliver Hannon-Dalby was bowled by one that came back to leave Worcestershire following on with 30 overs left in the day.

Lategan and Jake Libby negotiated 15 of them before Abbas drew Libby into playing at one that shaped away just enough to take the outside edge but that was the last success for Derbyshire before bad light ended play three overs early.

Derbyshire all-rounder Anuj Dal said: “It’s a long game and taking 20 wickets in championship cricket is difficult but we’ve got a proper attack and to be headed by Bassy (Muhammad Abbas) who showed his class in abundance.

“It shows how good a bowler he is and it gives the other bowlers so much energy knowing you’ve got a world-class seamer running in which spurs us on and hopefully we can dig deep and go for the win tomorrow.

“The wicket is still good to bat on so it’s going to be one of those where you keep balls in the right area as long as we can and we saw today that when we kept things quite and kept the run rate down chances came and wickets came so it’s about staying as patient as we can.”