Before Ethan Brookes struck a brilliant maiden Vitality County Championship century, Nick Gubbins tied his best in the first class but was unable to stop a commanding Hampshire advantage.
Hampshire amassed maximum batting points in their unlikely chase for the crown, and Gubbins sparkled to reach 201 before Mohammad Abbas went on the rampage to leave the visitors 61 for 5.
With scores of 132 and 94 respectively, Worcestershire’s Brookes and Gareth Roderick responded with a flurry of sweeps and excellent batting to put up 196 and ensure their side’s safety in Division One.
Hampshire ended the day with three wickets without loss, but Liam Dawson grabbed his fifth five-wicket haul of the summer to boast a 189-run lead in the first innings.
In Hampshire’s opening match of the day, Dawson and Gubbins broke the record longest fifth wicket partnership by defeating Jim Bailey and Neville Rogers’ 209 in 1946.
After the stand reached220, Dawson moved forward, swatted, and skied Tom Taylor to Adam Hose, starting a suspenseful 10-over spell in which Hampshire tried to reach 450 but kept losing wickets.
Gubbins maintained his dominance, hitting a strong blow over the leg side to register his second double-century of the innings in 315 balls.
However, the aggressiveness around him was exploited by Surrey loanee Amar Virdi, who recorded his first professional five-for since 2021.
After off-spinner Virdi turned one sharply to dismiss James Fuller, Felix Organ slogged to deep midwicket, and Kyle Abbott leg before going back, Tom Prest chipped to midwicket to give Taylor his fourth.
Abbas had to trim his legs to the boundary to reach 450 and a sixth batting point, and he did so by edging Gubbins to second slip, leaving him undefeated.
In response, Worcestershire produced one of Abbas’s leash-ball periods, which extended the wicket rush.
Before Kashif Ali attempted to cover his stumps but was trapped in first slip, Jake Libby was done between bat and pad to a ball that nipped in and took the top of the off stump.
After lunch, the Pakistani international added an Adam Hose leg before wicket to reduce Worcestershire 30 for 4. He then delivered another teaser, holding one outside off stump for Rob Jones to nick off.
Fletcha Middleton was moved from short leg to short mid off by Dawson in the first move of his haul, and Brett D’Oliveira gloved one to Middleton after some additional bounce.
After surviving the storm on his end, Roderick saw a bullish Brookes who was eager to score runs. For the second time in 52 balls, he reached fifty and rapidly outscored his top-order partner’s scoring rate.
Because Dawson and Felix Organ were used for the majority of the inning, Brookes had to resort to sweeping in order to score runs. Throughout his innings, he played 44 different iterations of the shot. Thirteen borders and seventy-one runs came from it.
In a match against Hampshire, he and the increasingly aggressive Roderick smashed a 124-year record for the sixth wicket for the Pears, ultimately finishing at 196. His century came in 128 balls, and it was well lauded both on and off the pitch.
Worcestershire’s three bowling points and a score of 250 meant that they would remain in Division One for another year. However, that optimism turned to a sticky collapse, as the final five wickets fell for a total of 16 runs.
Before Dawson took over, Roderick was leg before Organ, who recovered from a costly first few overs to only attempt sixes in front of jeers from the stands.
Before the innings finished with Joe Leach pouting at slip, Logan van Beek and Virdi were leg before wicket, and Brookes died by the sweep when he picked for deep square.
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The next greatest partnership, excluding Roderick and Brookes’ stand, was worth 31, and only D’Oliveira scored more than four runs. Middleton and Toby Albert, the Hampshire openers, did not allow them to score again after six overs.
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