Josh Dell continued his run of consistent scores for Worcestershire in the Second Eleven Championship this season by top-scoring on day one against Derbyshire Seconds at Stourbridge.
Dell batted in a very composed manner in making 57 off 109 balls with one six and nine fours as the Seconds were bowled out for 223 in 80 overs.
Then spinner Ben Twohig picked up two wickets in his first over as Derbyshire closed on 57-3 from 22 overs.
Dell went to his half century during a burst of 4, 4, 6 against Derbyshire spinner Matt Critchley.
It was the second four down to long off which completed his fifty before he was eventually bowled by Critchley.
Dell has previous scores of 60, 46, 0 and 44 in the Championship this summer and now has 207 runs from five knocks at an average of 41.40.
Tom Fell also made a half century as he experienced some valuable time out in the middle ahead of the weekend Royal London One-Day Cup semi-final at New Road.
He batted for 101 minutes in making 51 off 72 deliveries with eight boundaries.
Worcestershire were put into a bat on a slow wicket and openers George Rhodes and Ollie Westbury batted through to lunch in making 68-0 off 35 overs.
But the game changed after the resumption with Rhodes (38) – caught behind – Westbury (30) – at mid wicket – and Alexei Kervezee (0) – at gulley – all falling with the total on 72, the latter two in the space of three balls to Tom Milnes.
Skipper Alex Hepburn (4) nicked through to the keeper at 83-4 but then Fell and Dell added 69 for the fifth wicket.
Zen Malik (18) helped Dell add a further 37 after Fell hit Critchley into the hands of short mid on.
But the last five wickets went down for 34 runs as Milnes finished with 4-38, Critchley 3-48 and Ben Cotton 2-36.
Pat Brown, who was part of the senior squad against Glamorgan at New Road struck an early blow for the Seconds in dismissing Ben Slater for nine with 26 on the board in the ninth over.
He was caught by Twohig at third slip.
Then with three overs remaining of the day, Twohig was brought into the attack and in his first over he had Charlie MacDonnell (6) caught behind by Joe Dodd and bowled nightwatchman Alfie Gleadall for a duck.
Worcestershire Seconds – first innings
GH Rhodes c HR Hosein b TP Milnes 38
OE Westbury c CM MacDonnell b BD Cotton 30
TC Fell c RP Hemmings b MJJ Critchley 51
AN Kervezee c CA Brodrick b TP Milnes 0
A Hepburn* c HR Hosein b BD Cotton 4
JJ Dell b MJJ Critchley 57
Z Ul-A Malik c CA Brodrick b TP Milnes 18
BJ Twohig c BD Cotton b TP Milnes 7
JMH Dodd+ c TA Wood b AF Gleadall 0
PR Brown b MJJ Critchley 4
AW Finch not out 0
Extras 14
Total (all out 223) in 80 overs
FOW: 72, 72, 72, 83, 152, 189, 197, 197. 208, 223
Bowling
TP Milnes 15-5-38-4
BD Cotton 13-4-36-2
RP Hemmings 16-5-43-0
AF Gleadall 12-3-30-1
S Connors 9-2-26-0
MJJ Critchley 15-3-48-3
——
Derbyshire Seconds – first innings
BT Slater c BJ Twohig b PR Brown 9
MA Jones not out 32
CM Macdonell c JMH Dodd b BJ Twohig 6
AF Gleadall b BJ Twohig 0
TA Wood not out 0
Extras 10
Total (for 3 wickets) 57 in 22 overs
FOW: 26, 55, 55
Bowling
PR Brown 6-3-11-1
AR Wilkinson 5-0-13-0
AW Finch 4-0-18-0
A Hepburn 5-1-7-0
BJ Twohig 2-2-0-2
