Worcestershire CCC wicket-keeper Ben Cox had a day to remember against Derbyshire at Kidderminster.
He celebrated the 300th first class dismissal of his career and then added an unbroken 108 for the sixth wicket with Callum Ferguson in the County’s second innings.
Cox ended unbeaten on 44 and Ferguson 71 and Worcestershire will resume tomorrow on 156-5 in pursuit of a 373 target in the Specsavers County Championship fixture.
The 27-year-old said: “The first day was a strange day of cricket. We felt the pitch played better than those scores (of 108 and 113).
“I know we found ourselves in a bit of trouble at the back end of today (at 48-5) but we’ve given ourselves a chance going into the last day.
“I know there is still 220 (to chase) on the board but it just shows if we get a partnership together we can potentially, here of all places, chase this down.
“From speaking to the umpires and trying to get feedback while out there, they got the ball to move off the straight in the air and got the ball to nip. They’ve bowled well to get five wickets.
“When myself and Callum got past the hard ball, it just shows you can bat for long periods on there.
“I know we’ve got the new ball earlyish (after 13 overs) tomorrow but if we can get to that, and through that, with wickets in hand then there is no reason why we can’t try and build another partnership like that again.
“We’ve got batting to come. We’ve got Dolly (Brett D’Oliveira), who got a hundred last week, and Leachy (Joe Leach) has got first class hundreds.
“I know it could have been 270 and not 370 but we’ve got confidence here that this is a good pitch and we can chase down some big scores.
“In any chase, you bat sessions. We’ve got to take it deep. They’ve bowled 60 odd overs now. We’ve got to try and get them through a spell in the morning, then come back for another spell, get these guys tired, get some overs in their legs and that’s when we can start to look to push a button if we get to that stage.
“But for the time being, it’s a case of myself and Fergie batting as long as we can and just seeing where we are at.”
Ferguson looked in fine form and Cox said: “He has been playing well for weeks now. In the last few weeks, guys have been bowling well against us and guys are in good form and seeing it well and sometimes when you are in good form, you nick them, and when you are out of form, you don’t see them as well and you miss them.
“Fergie has had some good balls in the last few weeks and it’s nice for him to spend some time at the crease. He is 70 odd not out now and tomorrow it would be nice for him to keep ticking along and get three figures for us and hopefully set a base.
“We are here to win this game of cricket. Tomorrow we are turning up to win a game of cricket and Fergie has given us a great chance to set something up tomorrow.”
On his 300th dismissal, Cox said: “It took a while to get there but I was patient all day the day before. It just didn’t seem to come my way.
“It is a nice achievement. Even the umpire Russell (Warren) said ‘you’re a bit young for 300 dismissals!’ but it’s an achievement nonetheless. It’s part of my job.”
Cox went flying away to his left to catch Fynn Hudson-Prentice off Ed Barnard from the second ball of the day and said modestly: “I probably made it look better than it was.
“It came really slow. I did have a bit of a panic on at first because I thought it was coming quickly and it took a lot of pace off the glove.”
