5.02pm – Match drawn. The players shake hands with Worcestershire on 142-2 in their second innings. Libby 61 and Roderick 34. We take 12 points from our fifth draw in eight games to Worcester’s eight points. We face Sussex at Headingley from Wednesday.
4.47pm – Oh no. Lyth has Roderick caught at slip by Hill for 29, but it’s a no ball. Worcestershire 127-2 in the 42nd over.
4.34pm – Early stages of the evening, and Libby has reached his fifty off 75 balls. They have moved to 118-2 in the 38th over.
4.13pm – Tea Report. The LV= Insurance County Championship match between Yorkshire and Worcestershire at New Road is drifting towards a rainy draw.
Only 25 overs of play have been possible on day four, with Worcestershire advancing from 22-0 overnight in their second innings – a deficit of 143 – to reach tea at 115-2 after 37 overs.
Both wickets to fall went in the morning, Adam Finch run out and Ben Gibbon caught at first slip off Ben Coad to leave the score at 32-2.
Jake Libby and Gareth Roderick have since batted unbroken against seam and spin to leave Yorkshire contemplating a fifth draw from eight games, claiming 12 points from this fixture. Libby will begin the evening, with 26 overs remaining, on 47 and Roderick 27.
3.56pm – Worcestershire have reached 100-2 in the 33rd over. They trail by 65. We have just over 10 minutes until tea.
3.33pm – Roderick and Libby have shared 50 for the third wicket, taking their side to 82-2, a deficit of 83.
3.22pm – The rain has disappeared, and the umpires and players are on their way back out to the middle. Four more overs have been lost. 37.2 overs remaining, and Worcestershire are 75-2.
3.13pm – Rain has stopped play with Worcestershire 75-2 in the 26th over. Libby 25 and Roderick 17.
3.08pm – Worcestershire have advanced to 68-2 in the 25th over, with Roderick on 16 and Libby 19. Matthew Revis has come into the attack to replace Fisher.
2.45pm – And away we go. Play has resumed, with Ben Coad bowling to Gareth Roderick. Worcestershire are 49-2, 116 runs behind. We have a minimum of 48.3 overs remaining in the match.
2.25pm – Play due to resume at 2.45pm, with 48.3 overs remaining.
2.07pm – Matthew Fisher completes the run out of Adam Finch this morning. Photo. John Heald.
1.40pm – There will be a further inspection at 2.15pm. There’s a wet patch at around backward point in front of the pavilion that the umpires seemed concerned about. Don’t expect it to prevent play, just delay it a bit further.
1.12pm – It’s stopped raining here at New Road, and the mopping up process is underway.
12.16pm – It’s not just Dan Moriarty and Vinny the Viking who have significant interest at Vitality Blast Finals Day at Edgbaston on Saturday from a Yorkshire point of view.
Ben Wickett, a member of Yorkshire’s media team, will be keeping a close eye on events in Birmingham given he is currently placed second in the world in the online Cricket Draft’s fantasy Blast competition.
Sticky Wickett are 200 points off top spot in a competition involving almost 5,000 entrants: “It’s the highest I’ve been all tournament,” said Ben. “So things are going pretty well.”
Finishing top is very realistic given he claimed 700 points across the four quarter-finals and while we’re not going to give away any team secrets, he is hoping Somerset do the business.
He could include Surrey spinner Moriarty if he wanted, the left-arm Yorkshire loanee who played for his parent county in last week’s quarter-final win over Lancashire. It was his first appearance of the competition, and he claimed the wicket of England white ball captain Jos Buttler.
Vinny, meanwhile, is hoping to go one better than last year’s second-placed finish in the Mascot Race, losing out to Gloucestershire’s Alfred Gorilla.
“At least I beat Lanky the Giraffe last year,” he said. “Anything else is a bonus! That’s the way I view it.
“Can that lad Wickett gain extra points for sticking a Viking in his fantasy team? He’d be a certain winner if so.”
12.15pm – Lunch Report. Heavy rain has halted Yorkshire’s pursuit of victory over Worcestershire on day four at New Road.
Worcestershire, trailing by 143 overnight in their second innings, advanced from 22-0 to 49-2 before rain surprisingly hit the ground just before midday.
Adam Finch was run out following a mix-up with Ben Gibbon before Ben Coad had Gibbon caught at first slip shortly afterwards.
Gareth Roderick was dropped on eight by Hill at slip off Fisher shortly before the rain arrived. Worcestershire trail by 116 with 86.3 overs remaining in the day. We will not see that many overs due to the ongoing delay. Lunch will be taken at 12.30pm.
11.55am – It’s raining pretty hard now. Completely unexpected this, and we could be in for a decent sized delay.
11.41am – Bad Light has stopped play, though it’s actually raining as well. Worcestershire 49-2 in the 19th over.
11.38am – Worcestershire have moved to 48-2 in the 18th over, a deficit of 117. Roderick 12 and Libby 3. Roderick has just pulled Fisher for four having been dropped in the slips a couple of balls earlier on.
11.20am – Just looking back at the run out, James Wharton should take significant credit for the dismissal as well. Steketee’s throw missed the non-striker’s stumps and Fisher failed to grab it as he tried to get back to the stumps from his follow through. But Wharton, backing up, sticks a leg out to stop the ball going for overthrows and Fisher manages to grab it and whip the bails off. If cricket did assists!
11.18am – WICKET! Gibbon caught at first slip by Hill off Coad, 15. Worcestershire are 32-2 after 13 overs. Now the regular home openers, Libby and Roderick, are together. They trail by 133.
11.10am – WICKET! A mix-up with striker Gibbon sees Finch run out at non-striker’s end following a throw from Steketee at mid-wicket. Bowler Fisher completes the run out. It’s 31-1 in the 12th over.
11am – Play has started, with Fisher bowling to Finch. Five runs, including a boundary for Finch through mid-wicket, have come off the first two balls of the day. It’s 27-0, with Worcestershire trailing by 138.
10.43am – It’s pretty warm now at New Road. The early stages of this day are going to be crucial. Yorkshire can’t afford for tail-enders Gibbon and Finch to hang around for very long.
9.25am – Good morning from New Road, where the sun is shining ahead of day four. It’s as nice a weather as we’ve had. There is confidence that the rain won’t disrupt us today, so we should have the full 96 overs available.
Yorkshire have played the better cricket throughout this disrupted fixture, but Worcestershire did fight back yesterday afternoon and evening thanks to their last-wicket pair Ben Gibbon and Adam Finch, who batted for 45 across two innings, the end of the first and the start of the second, to eat up valuable time in the game.
The pair couldn’t avoid the follow-on, but they have certainly given their side a significant leg up in their bid to save the game.
Ben Coad, on the back of his fabulous five-for, remained confident last night about Yorkshire’s chances of a second win today, with the pitch still doing a bit. There’s not a great deal of turn on offer. but Dan Moriarty could still have a part to play at some point later on, once the Kookaburra gets softer.
If you want to recap on the action from yesterday, you can do via our Match Report and reaction piece with Coad. The links are below.
The live stream is available via the Match Centre tab at the top of the page. We’re all set to get going at 11am. Enjoy the day.
