Assistant Coach Matt Mason says Worcestershire are “right in the box seats” to push for a third successive victory in the Specsavers County Championship after a “fantastic” third day against Leicestershire at New Road.
Worcestershire advanced their score from an overnight 270-4 to 493 – with Ben Cox (77) the leading contributor today – in reply to Leicestershire’s 404.
Then a deadly new ball spell from Josh Tongue and skipper Joe Leach reduced Leicestershire to 10-4 and, after Ravichandran Ashwin chipped in with two wickets, they closed on 111-7 – a lead of 22.
Mason said: “A fantastic day. First and foremost I think the effort with the bat….when a team hits you for 400, to then get nearly 500 yourselves is a fantastic effort.
“I think the tempo of our batting, the contributions all down the order, especially Ben Cox, just finished it off nicely for us.
“Our run rate was four an over and that is real positive intent from us and also the form our batsmen are in.They are just full of confidence at the moment.
“They’ve got a lovely tempo to their batting and the way they go about things and that carries on.
“We knew this morning the likes of Coxy and Co are naturally fast scoring players anyway and that proved to be the case and we put them under real pressure.”
Mason added: “We even thought a small lead from a psycological point of view would put these guys under pressure especially when you have got someone like Ashwin in your team.
“I think their batsmen came out feeling a little bit tired and we made them pay.
“That little burst with the new ball from Tonguey (Josh Tongue) and Leachy (Joe Leach) was just a fabulous start and now we are right in the box seats.”
