Tom Fell beats career best score as Worcestershire put pressure on Middlesex
ByPA Sport
Updated 23/09/2015 at 17:21 GMT
Worcestershire's Tom Fell set a career-best score against Middlesex as the visitors came under pressure at New Road in their bid to hold on to the runners-up spot in LV= County Championship Division One.
Tom Fell was in fine form for Worcestershire
Image credit: PA Sport
Worcestershire's Tom Fell set a career-best score against Middlesex as the visitors came under pressure at New Road in their bid to hold on to the runners-up spot in LV= County Championship Division One.
With Tom Kohler-Cadmore only three runs short of a maiden hundred, Worcestershire had reached 329 for three, a lead of 231 when bad light ended the second day only 13 balls after tea.
Having scored 143 in the previous meeting of these sides at Uxbridge in June, Fell not only advanced his highest career score to 167 not out but became the youngest player to reach 1,000 runs in Division One this season.
Other than taking two wickets inside the first hour, it was a day of toil for Middlesex's bowlers as the two 21-year-olds put relegated Worcestershire on course for a successful send-off to Division Two.
Batting with composure, style and only the occasional false stroke, they put on an unbroken 219 in 59 overs, comfortably the county's highest partnership in a season where they have often competed well but were able to win no more than two games.
Fell and Kohler-Cadmore work well together and it showed in the way they dominated a strong, if slightly off-key, seam attack through an afternoon session of 131 runs in 35 overs. This included half-an-hour with Tim Murtagh and Toby Roland-Jones using the second new ball.
The fourth-wicket partners both scored half-centuries in last week's defeat at Durham, where Kohler-Cadmore regained his first-team place when Alex Gidman broke a finger in fielding practice the day before the game.
After routing Middlesex for 98 on the opening day, Worcestershire were already in a promising position when resuming at 79 for one but first they had to deal with a double setback as the visitors secured their first bowling bonus point.
Brett D'Oliveira (38) looked dejected when he toe-ended a pull off Neil Dexter to mid-on and Murtagh was rewarded at the end of one of the more eventful overs.
Joe Clarke put Worcestershire ahead with a four through the covers and a similar shot by Fell completed his half-century. In all they took 14 runs from four balls before Clarke, on 12, was superbly caught by Ollie Rayner, diving to his right at second slip.
Fell reached his third century of the season from 167 balls with a push for one off Roland-Jones and set a new career-best score from a top edge, one of 25 fours to go with a pull for six off James Harris. Kohler-Cadmore has hit 11 boundaries so far.
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