Worcestershire 210 for 5 (Hose 52, D'Oliveira 52) trail Gloucestershire 289 (Hammond 139*, Swanepoel 5-65) by 79 runs
A fourth-wicket partnership worth just shy of 100 runs between Worcestershire batters Brett D'Oliveira and Adam Hose has left their Rothesay County Championship Division Two match against Gloucestershire intriguingly poised at the close on day two at Visit Worcestershire New Road.
Captain D'Oliveira (52 from 149 balls) and Hose (52 from 121 balls) put on 98 together to stabilise Worcestershire's innings after they had been reduced to 87 for 3 in reply to Gloucestershire's first innings total of 289, held together by Miles Hammond's 139 not out.
Worcestershire swiftly set about mopping up the Gloucestershire tail and restricting their visitors to as low a total as was possible in the morning, led by overseas seamer Beyers Swanepoel. Tom Taylor removed Daaryoush Ahmed with a fuller, inswinging delivery which prompted the finger following an emphatic lbw appeal, before Swanepoel trapped Will Williams with a length ball which nipped back and kept low.
The South African then sealed his five-wicket haul when he lured Luke Charlesworth into lashing at a wide ball which Ethan Brookes at second slip gratefully claimed.
That was much to the displeasure of the head-shaking Hammond who, helpless at the non-striker's end, ended the innings unbeaten and having clearly considered that there were more runs to be had. Gloucestershire had added 31 to their overnight score for the cost of the three remaining wickets, an outcome which appeared to hearten Worcestershire in their own pursuit of runs.
Dan Lategan and Jake Libby put on 65 for the first wicket, before Lategan was adjudged to have been leg before from the bowling of Williams. The Gloucestershire quick followed his first strike up with another breakthrough in his very next over when also nailing Libby in front, with a ball which kept low.
Having made inroads, Gloucestershire reduced Worcestershire to 87 for 3 when the impressive Ahmed - whose figures read 12-3-23-1 at the close of play - caused Gareth Roderick to chop onto his own stumps.
Worcestershire, whose batting has suffered in various forms this season, required grit from the middle order - and it was delivered by Hose and D'Oliveira. The pair put on a stoic partnership which lasted 221 deliveries, a crucial stand in the context of the match which was concocted with patience, discipline and concentration.
Hose claimed his fourth first-class half century of the season from 116 deliveries before - and just as the duo might have been thinking about Worcestershire's overnight total - he was castled by Charlesworth when attempting to pull through the line.
Brookes, the next man in, failed to get off the mark from any of the first 18 deliveries he faced, before the allrounder clipped the 19th away without much fuss to the backward square leg boundary. He will return to the crease on Sunday, but his skipper will not.
For the otherwise imperturbable D'Oliveira perished in the penultimate over of the day when he edged Graeme van Buuren to opposing captain Cameron Bancroft at first slip, a wicket which may just have swung this game back towards the direction of Gloucestershire.
