WORCESTERSHIRE head coach Alex Gidman believes his side are "right in the mix" after the hard fought draw in the LV=Insurance County Championship match at Durham.

The Pears collected 13 points after amassing 550 all out in reply to Durham’s 642-7 declared in batter-friendly conditions.

They have won two, lost one and drawn four of their opening seven games to be in the hunt to try and secure one of the top two spots by the end of September.

"We’ve come here (Durham) as the away team, played what is in front of us, and I’m really delighted with the way our players played and the points we’ve got," said Gidman.

"I don’t think we could have got more out of the game, but we’ve come away to a tough place to play cricket and are driving back down the M1 with some really good points, and it keeps our campaign very, very much alive.

"You certainly can’t win it in the first few games, but you can certainly make it extremely hard for yourselves to be in it, but we’ve got through the first half, and we’ve only lost one game.

"It sounds a negative thing to say, but you can’t lose matches. We’ve drawn some games where we had no other real option in terms of results, and we’ve won a couple of games, so we are right in the mix.

"Really, really pleased with where we are halfway through the campaign and really excited about the next few games."

Worcestershire are in fifth in Division Two but are just one point behind both fourth placed Derbyshire and third placed Glamorgan.

But having watched Durham post a monster first innings of 642, it could have been much worse for The Pears.

But Brett D'Oliveira and Ed Barnard's centuries, coupled with the fine last wicket partnership between Dillon Pennington and Gareth Roderick ensured Worcestershire secured points.

Gidman was keen to highlight, in particular, the performance of wicketkeeper Roderick, who was starting his first game of the season.

"When we signed Gareth, it was obviously as a batter, but we also knew he would be that back-up keeper if and when we ever needed him," added Gidman.

"We needed it from a keeping perspective this game, and it doesn’t surprise me that he was extremely tidy and did his job very well.

"I thought he then showed really good experience with the bat, getting through that tricky half-hour on the third evening and then guiding us past the follow on today, which was really important.

"By his own admittance, he has struggled a little bit since he has been with us.

"But the last few games he has played, albeit, with some of them at the back end of last season, he has made some very valuable contributions and done a really important job for us in this game."