Worcestershire’s relegation was confirmed on day three of their County Championship clash with Durham despite centuries from Gareth Roderick and Ethan Brookes.<\/p>\n
The visitors, whose fate was sealed after failing to pick up a third batting point, continued to frustrate a Durham side desperately seeking points to avoid the same fate.<\/p>\n
Roderick picked up his 12th first-class century on a docile pitch after the morning session was washed out, and despite a first Durham wicket for Afghan leg spinner Shafiquallah Ghafari, they continued to pile on the runs throughout the day.<\/p>\n
Brookes joined Roderick in the middle and he picked up his fifty, while Roderick passed 150, but a double-wicket burst from Sam Conners halted the Pears’ momentum.<\/p>\n
However, Brookes continued the onslaught and notched up three figures as the Pears finished on 591-9 at the close.<\/p>\n
Rain meant that play did not start until 13:20 BST with 70 overs in the day, and Roderick, unbeaten on 95, and nightwatcher Ben Gibbon resumed Worcestershire’s innings.<\/p>\n
Gibbon continued his good work from day two as he frustrated the Durham bowlers, and Roderick finally got his first century of the season, coming off 180 deliveries.<\/p>\n
Conners almost got the breakthrough as Gibbon edged one on 28, but Emilio Gay could not hold on to the catch at second slip.<\/p>\n
Ghafari got his first-ever Durham wicket as he got Gibbon lbw for 33, but it was too late for a second bowling point for the hosts.<\/p>\n
Roderick and Brookes then guided their side to 400, however, Raine nearly had Brookes caught behind, but Ollie Robinson could not take a diving catch.<\/p>\n
The solid Roderick continued to frustrate the home side as he played a lovely dab off Will Rhodes to third region for four just before tea.<\/p>\n
After the resumption, Roderick slammed a Matthew Potts delivery through the covers for four, while Brookes produced a carbon copy in the same over.<\/p>\n
The Pears keeper continued his vigil in the middle by punishing a Rhodes delivery, but he offered a rare opportunity as Rhodes could not hold on to a caught and bowled opportunity. <\/p>\n
Milestones then followed for the visitors as Brookes passed fifty from 86 balls, while Roderick picked up his 150 from 276 balls.<\/p>\n
Brookes was dropped a second time, as he edged a Ghafari ball on 57, and Brookes made him pay as he picked up the first six of the game with a hit down the ground.<\/p>\n
Roderick finally fell for 151, as Conners got him lbw, and he followed that up with the wicket of Matthew Waite for a three-ball duck.<\/p>\n
Brookes continued to pick up runs as he played a wonderful sweep shot for four off the bowling of Ghafari and took his side to 500 later in the over.<\/p>\n
Tom Taylor got another life as he miscued one when he was on 15, but Gay failed to cling on to it.<\/p>\n
Brookes then picked up his second ton of the campaign from 130 balls, and Taylor smashed one down the ground for four one ball later.<\/p>\n
Brookes departed for 100 as he was bowled by Potts after going for a big shot, but he completely missed it, however, Taylor got to fifty from 54 balls.<\/p>\n
Final pair Ben Allison and Taylor took Worcestershire to close and will resume unbeaten on 10 and 66 respectively in the morning.<\/p>\n
Report supplied by ECB Reporters’ Network, supported by Rothesay<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Worcestershire’s relegation was confirmed on day three of their County Championship clash with Durham despite centuries from Gareth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145017,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-145016","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-cricket","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}