‘Another frustrating four days’ as Yorkshire endure stalemate at New Road

Yorkshire’s victory push was thwarted by the host’s third wicket pair of Jake Libby and Gareth Roderick who shared an unbroken partnership of 110.

The home side began the day on 22-0 in their second innings and had been reduced to 49-2 – still 116 runs short of avoiding an innings defeat – when play was halted.

“There is nothing you can do about the weather but it is another frustrating four days where we’ve played some really good stuff,” said Yorkshire head coach Ottis Gibson.

“We feel like if we get four decent days that we’ve played well enough to have got a result.

“We’ve been working really hard towards trying to win games of cricket and unfortunately the weather has put paid to that again.

“We’ve had a good week. We are missing Shan (Masood) and Dawid Malan but it is great to see the youngsters stepping up and making really good contributions.”

The players were initially taken off for bad light but it was quickly followed by a torrential downpour and a three hour delay.

When play eventually resumed acting captain Libby and Roderick closed the door on any hopes the Tykes may have had of forcing a second Championship win of the season.

The third wicket pair added an unbroken 110 before the players shook hands at 5pm.

Libby, Worcestershire’s leading run-scorer this summer, took his tally for 2023 to 701 with an unbeaten 61 while Roderick finished undefeated on 34.

Yorkshire could take some consolation from being the better side for the majority of the game in all departments.

There were several outstanding individual performances with Finlay Bean scoring an excellent century and Ben Coad picking up five wickets in Worcestershire’s first innings as they were forced to follow on.

“Finlay Bean has played really well for us this year and has gone from strength after having a really good winter in the indoor school,” said Gibson.

“He has worked on a few things and it is good to see that hard work he is putting in paying off in terms of runs.

“He will only get better and has a lot going for him at the moment.

“Any team that has got Matthew Fisher and Ben Coad leading the attack will be a good bowling attack.

“Those two are working together really well. We don’t always have them but when we do, they make our attack much better.”

The momentum in this contest changed during the second half of the third day when the Worcestershire last wicket pair of Adam Finch and Ben Gibbon held up Yorkshire for 35.3 overs and added 63 runs.

Worcestershire will reflect on a performance in which they were below-par with the ball and in the field but, as has been the case in several recent games, dug in when their backs were against the wall.

The ultimate winner was the weather which resulted in the loss of more than 130 overs during the four days.

Worcestershire began the day on 22-0 from nine overs with Gibbon and Finch resuming their nightwatchmen roles after returning to the middle on Wednesday evening.

Only nine runs were added before Finch was run out following a mix-up with Gibbon who had turned Matthew Fisher to mid wicket.

Gibbon then pushed hard at Coad and was caught at first slip by George Hill but that was as good as it got for the visitors on the final day.

Roderick and Libby joined forces and shepherded Worcestershire through to 49-2 before a three hour break for rain.

When play eventually resumed Yorkshire toiled away in vain as Libby and Roderick stood firm.

Worcestershire head coach Alan Richardson said: “Was the weather the winner with so much time lost? I think so and Yorkshire will probably think that way because they had the upper hand for quite a bit of that game.

“Disappointing that we didn’t get a full four days in to see how the game would have been unfolded.

“Yorkshire played some really good cricket the first two days and put us under a lot of pressure so it was very difficult then for us to try and put that complete performance together.

“But what we did show was a lot of spirit and a lot of heart and fight to make sure we came out of the game with a good draw.

“When Adam (Finch) and Ben (Gibbon) got together, the game was very much going towards Yorkshire. They got the momentum.

“The fact those guys wrestled it back and put together a fantastic 10th wicket partnership, to strangle it away from them to give us a chance of a draw, was a fantastic effort.”