Worcestershire First Team Coach Alex Gidman praised an “exceptional” team performance in the innings and 18 runs win over Leicestershire at the Fischer County Ground.
Daryl Mitchell, Hamish Rutherford and Ben Cox hit centuries and Charlie Morris returned career best figures of 7-45 in the Specsavers County Championship match from which Worcestershire collected 24 points.
But many of the players chipped in with important contributions with bat and ball.
Gidman told BBC Hereford-Worcester’s Dave Bradley: “Really pleased with the lads. We had a good pre-season, did some stuff I was really pleased with and some stuff that we knew we were still short of .
“But to come here and produce a team performance like that was exceptional and credit to all of the lads. They all contributed in various ways.
“Still a good pitch on the last afternoon? That is why we had to enforce the follow on. I felt, or we felt, that had we batted again, I think batting for a draw for a day was bizarrely quite easy.
“We needed as much time as possible. It was an outstanding cricket wicket to be honest. I think 550 was a little bit too many and they probably didn’t get quite as many as they would have liked either. Somewhere in the middle was probably the par score for the wicket.
“But credit to Leicestershire and the groundsman. I thought it was an exceptional cricket wicket for this time of year.”
Gidman added: “Charlie Morris has bowled superbly. Mozza is all about looking forward now and he’s been brilliant for us in pre-season.
“He has probably been our most consistent bowler. He bowled really well on tour and he thoroughly deserves that.
“It is a result of a huge amount of hard work.
“All the lads contributed but all the lads are pleased for Charlie. He thoroughly deserves that.”
On the County’s batting display, Gidman said: “One of the things we were a little disappointed with was how we batted in pre-season. Everyone had a little go now and then but not many of them invested as much time as perhaps they would have liked in the middle.
“I was a little bit unsure as to what we were going to get from a batting point of view but that was outstanding, to get 550 and three hundreds.
“Hamish was a calming influence and Mitch’s influence and that calmness in terms of ‘been there, done it’ so to speak was really important to the whole group in that first day.
“I’m just delighted for all of them and it was an outstanding effort. “
