If it hadn’t rained, everything would have been different…if it hadn’t rained
What musician Ryan Long wrote in 2003, Brett D’Oliveira’s men and Worcestershire supporters felt bitterly not just last week in Hove but also in Cardiff the week before.
Rain thwarted Worcestershire’s hopes of forcing final day wins against Sussex and Glamorgan despite healthy leads and all but ended the fifth-placed side’s promotion chances. They first witnessed the prospect of an innings win over Glamorgan suffer followed by a 238-run lead prove ungainly as 84 overs were lost to the weather.
“The most important thing is how we perform, whether we give ourselves a chance of winning games, and everyone is aware of some of the positions we have got into this year,” Worcestershire Head Coach, Alex Gidman, said as much.
“We haven’t quite managed to get some of those over the line, through weather or performance, but all 12 games have been very competitive.”
Joe Leach will miss the fixture as he attends his second child’s birth. Matthew Waite has been loaned from Yorkshire before his permanent switch to the club on a three-year deal next season onwards.
Meanwhile, their visitors this week, Nottinghamshire, already have their sights on the Division Two title with 22 points sufficing to clinch the silverware as they sit 27 points clear of second-placed Middlesex.
“It is a carrot that is dangling,” is how Dane Paterson described it before quickly adding: “But we don’t want to think too far ahead – that is our mindset.”
They have placed their faith in the same squad that trounced Leicestershire at home by 241 runs nearly two weeks ago despite the absence of their leading run-scorer Ben Duckett, who is away on national duty in Pakistan.
Key Players:
Jake Libby batted for nearly seven hours against Sussex to register his highest first-class score – 215 and Worcestershire will hope for a similar vigil against his former county.
Paterson, who picked 10 wickets the last time these two sides met at Trent Bridge, has become the fastest to 100 First-Class wickets for the county since Franklyn Stephenson in 1988, taking just 22 matches to reach the landmark and is only a wicket away from his 50th for second season running.
Squads:
Worcestershire: Brett D’Oliveira (c), Ed Pollock, Jake Libby, Azhar Ali, Jack Haynes, Ed Barnard, Gareth Roderick, Matthew Waite, Josh Tongue, Dillon Pennington, Ben Gibbon, Ben Cox, Adam Finch
Nottinghamshire: Steven Mullaney (c), Jake Ball, Joe Clarke, Luke Fletcher, Haseeb Hameed, Brett Hutton, Lyndon James, Matthew Montgomery, Tom Moores, Dane Paterson, Liam Patterson-White, Ben Slater
Weather: While it is expected to remain dry for the first three days, the two sides might want to rush the proceedings with rain forecast on the final day. Can Worcestershire catch a break?
Ground: New Road, Worcester
Date: 20th-23rd September 2022
Time: 10:30am
