WORCESTERSHIRE went into the second day of their rain affected Benson and Hedges Cup semi-final at Chelmsford praying for a miracle to prevent Essex from enjoying another big day out at Lord's.

The home side were standing on the threshold of their seventh B&H final with the County staring defeat full in the face following a day of doom and gloom throughout after play eventually got under way under leaden skies four hours late.

Their top four batsmen, including the prize scalp of Graeme Hick for a first ball duck, were all back in the pavilion with only 26 on the board in response to the Essex score of 262 for nine before bad light halted play at 7.18pm last night.

Worcestershire, whose initial task was to eclipse their record B&H Cup all-time low of 70 recorded in the zonal defeat against Gloucester in April, were facing an almost hopeless task of scoring another 237 for victory from the remaining 38 overs with only six wickets left.

Essex skipper and all-rounder Ronnie Irani was the man chiefly responsible for the damage. He rattled three sixes and four fours in a top score of 57 off only 56 balls.

Irani then grabbed the wickets of Anurag Singh, leg before for a duck, Hick, caught next ball off a poor shot by Graham Napier at point and Ben Smith lbw for one to finish the day with excellent figures of three for 19 from six overs.

The impressive Ashley Cowan, who bowled four maidens in his six overs, also weighed in with the wicket of Vikram Solanki, leg before for 14, to reduce Worcester to 15 for four in the ninth over. David Leatherdale, five not out, and Gareth Batty, still there with six, steadied the ship before the close.

With pace ace Allan Donald happily back in the country early in the morning after jetting home to South Africa for the funeral of his former Test captain Hanse Cronje, the signs were very encouraging for Worcester after Hick won the toss and elected to bowl first on a greenish wicket.

But the anticipated clatter of Essex wickets wickets failed to materialise as England Test skipper Nasser Hussain, 35, Darren Robinson, 46, Irani and overseas star Andy Flower, 45, put all the Worcester bowlers to the sword.

Only Kabir Ali, four for 34, and the hapless Alamgir Sheriyar, two for 70, enjoyed any success as the visitors desperately toiled to keep the runs down.

The Essex batsmen were scoring so freely at one stage a total in the region of 300 looked very much on the cards until Ali, aided by three superb run outs and the dismissal of Irani and Aftab Habib in successive balls, sparked a late crisis which saw the last five Essex wickets fall in the final six overs for only 31 runs.