Pears openers run into form
Daryl Mitchell and Brett D’Oliveira ended a lean start to the County Championship season with centuries on a day of personal milestones as Worcestershire took charge of the Division Two match against Derbyshire at Derby.
The opening pair put on 243 in 54 overs with Mitchell, who made 120, completing 10,000 first-class runs for Worcestershire when he got to 87.
D’Oliveira scored 150 from 232 balls as the visitors closed day three on 323-3, a lead of 48, over Derbyshire, who needed a ninth-wicket stand of 45 between Tony Palladino (32) and Tom Taylor to get to 275 with skipper Joe Leach taking 4-50 from 23 overs.
They held up Worcestershire for 20 overs in the morning to steer Derbyshire to a second batting point which had looked unlikely when Leach struck twice in consecutive overs.
Ed Barnard wrapped up the innings when he had Taylor caught behind to give Ben Cox his 200th first-class catch.
The Pears faced a potentially tricky 20 minutes batting before lunch but there were few alarms as the openers closed in on Derbyshire’s total.
D’Oliveira drove and cut Taylor for four fours in five balls but he should have been caught on 42 at square leg by Ben Slater off Shiv Thakor who was comfortably the pick of Derbyshire’s attack.
Mitchell reached his landmark by driving Mendis through the covers for three just before tea and his 25th first-class century came off 128 balls before D’Oliveira completed his first in all cricket since last May from 160 balls.
