Worcestershire secure second place in Division Two, behind champions Durham to be promoted back to Division One; watch the ICC Cricket World Cup live in full on Sky Sports between October 5 and November 19
Wednesday 27 September 2023 16:43, UK
Worcestershire have been promoted back to Division One of the LV= Insurance County Championship.
They secured second place in Division Two, behind champions Durham, by reaching 300 for a second batting bonus point during the early stages of a weather-interrupted second day against Yorkshire at Headingley.
Worcestershire started this fixture needing a maximum of two points to seal top-flight cricket for 2024 and extinguish Leicestershire's slim chance of overhauling them. They were 280 for five overnight.
While captain Brett D'Oliveira was their star man, moving from 90 overnight to complete a superb 103, he fell lbw to Matt Milnes to leave the score 299 for six and left it to Josh Baker to hit the landmark runs before they were bowled out for 389.
The Pears were stuck on 299 for 10 balls before Baker pushed Milnes through the covers for two at 10.55am - 25 minutes into day two - sparking celebrations on the players' balcony from his team-mates and coaches.
Only 29 overs were bowled, and Yorkshire were 24 without loss in their reply when bad light stopped play just before 1.30pm. Rain followed, and umpires Steve O'Shaughnessy and Surendiran Shanmugam called play off just before 3pm.
Barring any last-minute points deductions for slow over-rates or disciplinary issues, Worcestershire will be playing Division One cricket next summer for the first time since 2018.
On-loan Essex seamer Ben Allison contributed a crucial career-best 75 off 118 balls and shared in stands of 77 for the sixth wicket with D'Oliveira and 79 for the eighth with Joe Leach as the visitors fell just short of 400.
Dom Bess impressed with three for 55 from 21 overs of off-spin for Yorkshire, claiming two of those wickets on day two.
New-ball seamer Milnes also struck twice and Matthew Revis once.
The day's first act was for D'Oliveira to move from 90 overnight to a superb century off 199 balls.
It was the captain's first hundred for his county since June last year, but he was denied the fairy tale of hitting the promotion-clinching runs when struck on the back pad by Milnes.
That allowed left-arm spinner Baker to be the man, but he miscued the very next ball to mid-on off Milnes as Worcestershire slipped to 301 for seven in the 86th over.
Further success came for Bess after Allison had reached his fifty off 87 balls. He uprooted Allison's off-stump with a yorker - 380 for eight in the 100th - before wrapping up the innings by getting Leach caught at short fine-leg following a top-edged slog sweep.
Just a couple of balls earlier, Leach had hoisted him over long-on for six in a belligerent 36.
Sandwiched in between the two Bess wickets, Revis had Ben Gibbon caught behind.
While the first half of the morning was played under sunny skies, the clouds rolled in for the second and Yorkshire started their reply under the floodlights inside the session's final half-hour.
They started confidently through Adam Lyth and Fin Bean - both are within 50 runs of 1,000 for the season in the Championship - but were denied the chance to push on because of the weather.
