WORCESTER (second day of four): Essex, with three firstinnings wickets in hand, are 177 runs behind Worcestershire
IN CONTRAST to Essex’s attack, which had leaked 65 boundaries on the first day, Worcestershire bowled very well on a good pitch to restrict their fellow promotion pretenders yesterday. Essex battled hard, none more so than Ronnie Irani, whose 66 took nearly 3½ hours, but they faced the prospect of a significant first-innings deficit or even being forced to follow on.
Heavy cloud cover certainly helped them, but Worcestershire swung the ball before lunch, producing the best session of sustained good bowling that Barry Dudleston, the umpire, said he had seen all season. Essex did well to lose only two wickets in the morning, even though they played and missed with remarkable frequency, notably against the impressive Nadeem Malik.
Varun Chopra was the chief recipient of this good fortune, but he still demonstrated what a good temperament he has by soldiering on as if nothing had happened. When, however, Andy Flower was bowled by a useful inswinger and Chopra finally edged to first slip, Essex found themselves a wobbly 129 for four.
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The combative Irani, passing 1,000 runs in a season for the seventh time, and James Foster, whose accomplished 80 from 126 balls was his sixth fifty of the campaign, capitalised on easier batting conditions to add 137 in 39 overs. The soft dismissal of both in successive overs, nevertheless, left the tail exposed to the second new ball.