County Championship: Essex's Jamie Porter stars against Worcestershire

Jamie Porter now has 48 Championship wickets this season at an average of 25.39

Essex paceman Jamie Porter claimed a career-best 7-41 as Essex pushed Worcestershire closer to relegation on day one at Chelmsford.

The T20 Blast winners were brought down to earth as they were hustled out for 94, their lowest score of the season.

Porter's first five wickets took him only 4.4 overs as his consistent line and length brought swift rewards.

Murali Vijay (85) and Tom Westley (55) then led Essex to 252-5 in reply at stumps, a lead of 158.

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Worcestershire began the match on 96 points, 30 behind sixth-placed Yorkshire - and with a maximum of 144 to aim for, if they could end the season with two maximum-points wins.

Their failure to secure any batting points was a major blow to their chances and, with Porter exploiting the pitch superbly, they could certainly not afford the run-out of Ollie Westbury after he and partner Joe Clarke ended up at the same end.

Porter's throw to the other end was poor, with keeper Adam Wheater unable to gather it cleanly, but the two Worcestershire batsmen had already accepted that one of them would have to go.

Essex were 138-1 but the dismissal of Vijay, bowled by Josh Tongue with the final ball before tea, gave the away dressing room a lift and they picked up three more wickets in the final session.

There was one small crumb of comfort for Worcestershire in that Yorkshire failed to earn any batting points either in their home match against Hampshire.

Essex captain Ryan ten Doeschate:

"The bowling probably hasn't been up to the levels the guys have set themselves recently, but Ports got it right from the first ball and made the most of some useful conditions.

"I don't think Jamie would mind me say that he hasn't bowled that well in the last couple of weeks but he was back to his best.

"He has now gone past 50 wickets and he's only played eight games so that is a good return.

"He isn't feeling particularly well. He has some food poisoning. But he made the strikes early which helps a lot when you aren't feeling too well."

Pears stand-in skipper Daryl Mitchell told BBC Hereford & Worcester:

"We were pretty unanimous about batting first. We spoke to the coaches and thought it was going to spin. In hindsight, it is probably not the wisest decision we've ever made.

"We always thought it was going to be a tough opening hour. But, as days go, I don't think they come much worse than that. We are currently miles behind but we have to show some fight and fight our way out of it.

"We don't like to make excuses and we wouldn't want to blame the Blast. If anything, on the back of that, you'd think we'd be on a high and that would lift us.

"There were balls we possibly could have kept out and the run-out didn't help either. We certainly could have played better. But credit to Essex. They bowled well."