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Worcestershire skipper Brett D’Oliveira hit his second half-century of the match, while Jake Libby and Adam Hose all passed 50 as the battling Pears batted all day at Chelmsford to ensure Essex will be set a final-day challenge.
When bad light ended play 20 overs early on day three, the visitors had turned a 138-run first-innings deficit into a 165-run lead, closing on 308-8.
Vice-captain Libby led the recovery with 65 at the top of the order but it was an 80-run stand for the sixth wicket between D’Oliveira (51) and Hose (64) that gave Worcestershire hope of securing a third successive victory to move further clear of relegation trouble.
After Joe Leach and Gareth Roderick had fallen on a grey, overcast morning, Libby found good support from Kashif Ali (27) in a third-wicket stand of 55 before putting on a further 55 with Rob Jones (31).
From 130-3, they slumped to 136-5 as both Libby and Jones departed to leave Worcestershire still two runs short of making Essex bat again – but Hose and D’Oliveira dug in for a determined Pears side keen not to make an immediate return to Division Two, a year on from coming back up again for a record seventh time.
After losing D’Oliveira, Hose then put on 43 with Ethan Brookes before finally departing to a Simon Harmer ball that turned prodigiously and bowled him.
Harmer had a third wicket when Brookes was caught off a reverse-sweep and, with the floodlights on and the light deteriorating appreciably, Essex declined the option of taking the new ball when it was due after 80 overs.
But sticking with their spinners proved in vain when umpires David Millns and Steve O’Shaughnessey deemed it too dark to continue just an over later.
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