Battling Pears beat Essex for third straight win
Vitality County Championship Division One, Cloud County Ground, Chelmsford (day four)
Worcestershire 266: D'Oliveira 68; Porter 5-52 & 321: Libby 65; Cook 4-23
Essex 404: Pepper 112* & 140: Das 32; Van Beek 4-26
Worcestershire (20 pts) beat Essex (7 pts) by 43 runs
Worcestershire pulled off one of their most memorable County Championship comeback wins as they beat Essex by 43 runs.
Having been 10-4 inside the first half-hour on day one at Chelmsford, the battling Pears hit back to stay in the game before bowling out Essex for just 140 chasing 184 on the final afternoon for a third straight win, aided by on-loan pair Logan van Beek and Amar Virdi.
But it was two sharp pieces of fielding by Pears skipper Brett D’Oliveira that turned the tables as, inside three balls of a Van Beek over, he ran out Robin Das with a finger-tip at the non-striker's end from short mid on, then brilliantly snaked an arm to catch Jordan Cox.
It significantly eases the Pears' fears of going back down to Division Two after being promoted for a record seventh time last September - but seriously damages Essex’s outside hopes of catching Surrey at the other end of the table.
The Pears climb above neighbours Warwickshire into fifth, just 15 points behind Essex, who have dropped to fourth.
At the start of the day, Sam Cook wrapped up the Worcestershire innings in 20 minutes with the new ball to return figures of 4-23, as he had Tom Taylor caught behind before inducing a leading edge from Virdi for a tumbling caught and bowled.
Virdi, having his first bowl in red-ball cricket since 2022, then bowled unchanged throughout the second innings, sending down 23 overs, tying up a succession of Essex batsmen to finish with 2-66, while fellow loan signing Van Beek chipped in with 4-26.
Joe Leach, bowling round the wicket, first accounted for left-handed ex-South Africa Test opener Dean Elgar, before Tom Westley edged a Taylor outswinger that took the outside edge. Then came the double twist.
Cox drove on the leg side, and D’Oliveira stuck out his left hand to divert the ball on to the stumps with Das out of his crease.
Cox then played an almost identical shot two balls later, this time slightly off the ground, and D’Oliveira reached out his right hand to hang on.
Matt Critchley hit Virdi for four from the first ball after lunch then turned the next ball straight to leg slip and Paul Walter slashed wildly at Van Beek outside off-stump and was caught behind.
Michael Pepper and Simon Harmer gave Essex hope in a stand of 40 for the seventh wicket.
But Harmer was beaten for pace to bring in the injured Shane Snater with Elgar as his runner. They lasted three overs before Virdi trapped Pepper lbw for 22 and Snater followed to a catch behind off Van Beek and it was all over when Cook hoicked the Dutch international to the square-leg boundary.