MATT Pardoe gave another showing of his blossoming talent despite Worcestershire struggling with the bat at Edgbaston.

The 20-year-old was promoted to opening the batting for the New Road side in this LV= County Championship Division One derby match with Warwickshire.

His chance came as an MRI scan revealed captain Daryl Mitchell has a double tear to the intercostal muscles and is likely to be out for a month.

Pardoe, the left-handed aca-demy product who has been opening the batting for the seconds, struck his third Championship half-century.

However, despite Pardoe’s resistance — he fell shortly after the tea interval for 58 caught and bowled by Chris Metters — his team-mates could not kick on after the good start they had been given.

The Edgbaston pitch, which misbehaved terribly on the opening day of this clash, was not as unpredictable but the England and Wales Cricket Board, who sent a pitch inspector yesterday, will convene a pitch panel today and Warwickshire could face a points penalty.

That will be no consolation to Worcestershire as they closed on 228-9 after a mid-order collapse with on-loan wicketkeeper Ben Scott unbeaten on 30.

The County still require another five runs to avoid the follow-on.

Scott said: “The runs don’t reflect on how the wicket has played, that wicket could be a 70 all out really, it’s not a great wicket.

“There were a couple of Swansea tracks and few around the place that have been pretty average that I have played on, but you wouldn’t expect that from here would you?

“We went in with a frame of mind that the pitch was going to do a bit, the openers played very well, they looked to play it as normal, not go at anything wide.

“But that middle period losing wickets was tough. You have to look at the scoreboard think of the wickets falling, avoiding the follow-on and surviving to the end of the day’s play. So there are a few things going through your mind as well as dealing with what the ball is doing.”

Earlier in the day, Damien Wright went on to claim his third five-wicket haul for Worcestershire as the Bears were dismissed for 382 with Mohammad Yousaf adding only one to his overnight 108.

However, Worcestershire’s Australian all-rounder is still one short of 400 first-class victims after Jack Shantry claimed the final wicket of the Bears innings.