Trescothick turns screw on Worcestershire

Worcestershire 488 and 4 for 0 v Somerset 591 for 9 dec
Scorecard

Marcus Trescothick's fifth career double hundred enabled Somerset to take a stranglehold in their County Championship clash with Worcestershire at New Road. With Trescothick's 203 in nearly six and a half hours underpinned by four individual half-centuries, the west-country side clearly had thoughts on burying Worcestershire under an avalanche of runs.

Trescothick's opening stand of 207 with Arul Suppiah (88) set the stage for remorseless progress to 591 for 9 declared - a lead of 103 and their highest-ever score against Worcestershire. The one tiny flaw was that they missed a fifth batting bonus point by 28 runs but they go into the final day sniffing a chance of victory with the home side on 4 without loss after two overs.

Somerset's powerful position developed as Nick Compton (95) completed 1,000 runs in a season for the second time. The former Middlesex batsman put on 151 with Trescothick and 97 with James Hildreth (67) before Craig Kieswetter rammed home their advantage in a post-tea charge to 68 from 73 balls.

Worcestershire initially pinned their hopes on Saeed Ajmal getting the ball to turn and, although a profitable final spell gave him figures of 5 for 150 in 51 overs, it was mostly a day of toil. Yet it began well for the Pakistan offspinner with a misjudgment by Suppiah in playing no shot to a ball that did spin sharply. With his off stump taken out of the ground, the opener missed a first championship century of the season after batting for nearly four hours.

Trescothick, though, had no intention of passing up the milestones that came his way. Unbeaten on 106 overnight, he went beyond 150 for the 22nd time and then onto his double hundred after facing 293 balls. With most of his 30 boundaries crunched from the full face of the bat, it came as a surprise in mid-afternoon when a six-and-a-half-hour masterclass ended with a catch at mid-off by Alexei Kervezee.

This wicket went to left-arm seamer Jack Shantry and in the next over Worcestershire claimed their only bowling point when Chris Jones played forward to Ajmal and edged to Vikram Solanki at second slip. Hildreth upped the tempo in reaching 50 in 62 balls but the more conservative Compton hit only seven fours in 240 minutes before he was taken at slip off the second spinner, Moeen Ali.

Hildreth's departure, drilling a catch to short midwicket off ex-Somerset allrounder Gareth Andrew, only turned up the heat on Worcestershire as Kieswetter hit six fours and a six until he became Ajmal's fifth victim with another catch at slip.