[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

County Championship, Division Two

vs Sussex

County Ground, Hove

Day One

Morning: The Pears won the toss and put Sussex in to bat on a muggy, cloudy Sunday in mid-June with thunderstorms breaking the early summer heatwave up and down the country. Worcestershire needed a boost after losing a third T20 game on the trot in Yorkshire on Friday, and the bowling-friendly conditions were at least partly reminiscent of our more customary autumn visits to Hove in recent seasons; so too was the form of Joe Leach, angling one in to have Tom Clark caught at fourth slip for 5 pushing forward in the opening over, then having Tom Haines caught behind for 9 with a marvellous length ball on off-stump. It became a hat-trick of Toms for Leach when Alsop edged to second slip, leaving Sussex 47-3, but no further wickets fell in the session to leave honours more or less even at lunch on 81-3.

Afternoon: The threatening Sussex rebuild carried them into three figures before a short wide one from Adam Finch tempted James Coles into an uppercut in search of his half-century, only to be caught at third man for 48. With the door open, Leach was once again the edgelord who had Daniel Ibrahim caught at second slip for a duck, and the dangerous Fynn Hudson-Prentice supplied the big man with his five-fer as he nicked behind for 8, the initial low one-handed catch looking for all the world like it had been shelled, only to fall safely into the keeper's gloves millimetres from the turf. The scoreboard read 142-6, and it all seemed deceptively easy, because of course, Worcestershire have been here countless times before, and not just in Hove. Oli Carter fell to Matthew Waite for 76 when he cut straight to backward point on the stroke of tea, which was taken on 205-7, but there were already signs that Worcs were starting to leak runs from the old ball.

Evening: And so it proved, as the earlier pressure the bowlers had been able to exert just slipped into the ether. Usama Mir, making his County Championship debut after an almost inevitable return to Worcestershire, picked up his maiden wicket with Nathan McAndrew caught at mid-on for 65, but 85 runs were then added for the ninth wicket before Leach had Henry Shipley caught in the same fashion for 41. With eight overs remaining, bad light intervened, and Sussex were 338-9 at close; perhaps an even day on paper, but one which finished with the hosts entirely in the ascendant.