Lammonby steers Somerset to draw against Pears
Vitality County Championship Division One, Kidderminster (day four)
Somerset 309-9 dec: Banton 92 & 190-4: Lammonby 81*, Umeed 60
Worcestershire 451-9 dec: Roderick 122, Libby 97, D'Oliveira 66; Ball 3-72
Worcestershire (16 pts) drew with Somerset (13 pts)
Tom Lammonby continued his excellent start to the season and played a major role as Somerset earned a hard-fought County Championship draw at Kidderminster against newly promoted Worcestershire.
Lammonby dug in to score his third half-century of the season, in addition to his hundred against champions Surrey.
Receiving excellent support from Andy Umeed, who hit his best Somerset score of 60 in a decisive fourth-wicket partnership at Chester Road, Lammonby's unbeaten 81 lifted his run tally for the campaign past the 350 mark.
When the duo joined forces, Somerset were still 76 runs in arrears at 66-3 but they effectively blunted the Pears attack to bat throughout the afternoon session in adding 117 in 39 overs.
Lammonby enjoys facing Worcestershire, having become in 2020 Somerset's youngest player, at the age of 20, to carry his bat through an innings in a crucial four-day Bob Willis Trophy game at New Road.
This time his efforts helped sealed a fourth successive draw for Somerset and a third in four games for Worcestershire - as well as a home defeat by Durham - since gaining promotion.
Nightwatchman Jake Ball frustrated Worcestershire during the opening hour and also did the bulk of the scoring, as Renshaw weighed anchor.
But Adam Finch bowled Ball for 29 before home captain Brett D'Oliveira brought himself into the attack shortly before lunch and accounted for Renshaw, whose attempted to paddle sweep the leg-spinner earned a simple catch to Kashif Ali at short leg.
Lammonby completed a solid half-century from 126 balls and Umeed brought up his 50 - from 117 deliveries - before falling to a fine return one-handed reflex catch by Ben Gibbon as the visitors closed on 190-4.
Flood-hit Worcestershire end their two-match stay at their Chester Road second home for another year.
When the Pears next host next a Championship game on 25 May it will be back at New Road.
Before then Somerset host leaders Essex at Taunton next week.
Worcestershire now have 11 days off before facing Kent at Canterbury.
Worcestershire head coach Alan Richardson told BBC Hereford & Worcester:
“We take great heart from that performance. We put ourselves in a position to try and win and we are just a little bit frustrated we couldn’t quite get over the line.
“We identified after the Durham game that we were a bit scruffy with the ball, not quite as disciplined as we would have liked. We were better in this game and got our rewards.
“With the bat, we talks a lot about fostering partnerships to try and make sure we don’t lose wickets too much in clusters.
“Jake Libby and Gareth Roderick bowled batted magnificently, then Brett D’Oliveira and Joe Leach towards the end put us in a really good position.”
Somerset head coach Jason Kerr told BBC Radio Somerset:
“Coming into the final day, the first hour was going to be a challenging time and we had to get through this without any scares.
“Bally [Jake Ball] did his job overnight but also this morning very well and the guys played brilliantly throughout the day.
“We had some spells with the ball that were outstanding but we were not quite at our best collectively. We just have to be a little bit better.
“We are still searching for that first win because of a combination of the type of balls used, skills not quite being good enough and the surfaces, but we have been incredibly competitive.”
Report supplied by the ECB Reporters' Network.
