EVERGREEN opener Daryl Mitchell took to the field for the 200th time in his first class career in the current match with Derbyshire, 14 years on from his debut.
In an unexpected twist, the 35-year’s 200th appearance will be at the same venue as his first as Kidderminster is still playing host to the Pears while New Road recovers from last month’s flood.
Mitchell made his first class debut for the county batting at number six against Loughborough University in May 2005.
The long-serving batsman has opened the batting for the vast majority of his 200 games and his average of 40.11 is testimony to his superb consistency in one of the most difficult and testing jobs in cricket.
To date he has amassed 12,836 first class runs with 36 hundreds and 50 half centuries.
Mitchell has been the rock on which many an established attack has floundered as he has followed the likes of Don Kenyon, Glenn Turner and Tim Curtis in shining in the opener’s role at Blackfinch New Road.
The 35-year-old is poised to clock up his 196th appearance in a Worcestershire shirt with his other four appearances made up of three for Mountaineers in Zimbabwe and one for the MCC in the Champion County match in 2015.
The Worcestershire side when Mitchell made his debut in 2005 was: Stephen Peters (c), Stephen Moore, Ben Smith, Zander de Bruyn, Steven Davies – also making his first class debut – Mitchell, James Pipe (w), Ray Price, Shaftab Khalid, Nadeem Malik and Stuart Wedge.
Mitchell made five and 12 on his debut as Worcestershire lost to the university students by eight wickets.
His 200th game saw him fall for 13 in a first innings which saw Worcestershire bowled out for a paltry 113 just hours after they dismissed Derbyshire for 108 as 20 wickets fell on the opening day of the Championship clash.