Vitality County Championship Division One, Kidderminster (day three)
Somerset 309-9 dec: Banton 92 & 5-1
Worcestershire 451-9 dec: Roderick 122, Libby 97, D’Oliveira 66; Ball 3-72
Somerset (4 pts) trail Worcestershire (7 pts) by 137 runs
Gareth Roderick’s first century of the season handed Worcestershire the ascendancy after Somerset’s England spinner Shoaib Bashir brought about a mini collapse on day three of the County Championship match at Kidderminster.
Roderick, who shared in a 194-run stand with opener Jake Libby (97), mixed determined defence with aggressive stroke-play in his 122 to help Worcestershire earn a first-innings lead of 142 after declaring on 451-9.
Jason Holder then dismissed Sean Dickson for a duck as Somerset closed on 5-1, having earlier looked to have boosted their own hopes of a victory push thanks to Bashir.
The 20-year-old, who has had a quiet start to the season, removed Libby and Kashif Ali in quick succession and asked questions of all the batters during a 28-over spell.
But it was Worcestershire who came out on top as captain Brett D’Oliveira (66) and Leach (43 not out) added to the good work of Libby and Roderick.
Play was able to get under way at 12:10 BST following heavy overnight rain for the loss of only 10 overs, with Worcestershire resuming on 107-1 and Libby and Roderick’s stand already worth 84.
Libby had looked set to reach three figures but the introduction of Bashir led to his downfall as he went to drive a delivery which turned and came back in and was bowled.
Bashir then trapped Kashif lbw for 17 and when Rob Jones was comprehensively bowled for a second-ball duck to give Migael Pretorius a deserved scalp, Worcestershire were 244-4.
Adam Hose raced to 39 before nicking Jake Ball (3-72) but Roderick stood firm and brought up his century before he too fell to Ball.
Holder went lbw to Lewis Gregory and Matthew Waite was bowled aiming a big hit off the same bowler but D’Oliveira, completing his first half-century of the summer, and Leach lifted the total past 400 and secured four batting bonus points, before Holder struck in the three overs Somerset faced before stumps.
