Defiant Jaques guides Worcestershire through Singh’s spin
Published 28 July 2007
A fantastic effort from Harbhajan Singh to take all five wickets that fell today, was not enough as Worcestershire’s batsmen, lead by Phil Jaques dug in to make sure that the LV County Championship match at Guildford ended in a draw.
Stephen Moore and Jaques resumed play for Worcestershire this morning with at the tough task of batting out the day to save the game and gain valuable points for a draw. Starting on 46 for no wicket and still 106 runs behind Surrey’s first innings total the pair had to ensure that they got through the first hour without any loss.
They did this in fine style utilising the left/right hand combination. Moore played fluently whilst Jaques who had played some attacking strokes yesterday evening dropped anchor. Their partnership was just six short of 100, when Singh had the right-handed Moore, well caught by Richard Clinton for 55.
With an end open, Mark Butcher really attacked his opposition with men surrounding the bat whilst Singh and Chris Schofield operated in tandem. The pressure was too much for Vikram Solanki, who became Singh’s second wicket when Rikki Clarke picked up a brilliant reaction catch at slip.
With two wickets in relatively quick succession, Surrey would have been hoping that they would run through the Worcestershire middle order, however this was not to be the case as Jaques’ resilience was well supported by Ben Smith. The pair put on a partnership of 112, with Smith the aggressor, scoring 66 before becoming Singh’s third wicket, caught.
Time was starting to run out for the Brown Caps as Jaques carried on in an almost metronomic fashion. Smith’s replacement, Graeme Hick could not withstand the pressure of the men around the bat, as he fell cheaply, once again to Surrey’s overseas spinner.
When Jaques passed his century, he had taken his side to safety and as such it mattered not when he became Surrey and Singh’s fifth scalp caught behind. It was left up to Steve Davies and Gareth Batty to provide the last stretch of resistence before both captains agreed that no result other than a draw could be taken from the match.
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