County Championship: Tom Westley & Dan Lawrence help Essex amass big score at Worcester

Dan Lawrence and Tom Westley shared a third-wicket stand of 130 to leave Worcestershire's bowlers pointless at New Road

Essex finally declared on 561-8 against Worcestershire after batting for the best part of two days on another lifeless track at New Road.

After resuming on 266-2, Westley, 75 overnight, went on to make 113, while fellow England batsman Dan Lawrence made 90, sharing a stand of 130.

Paul Walter (65), Simon Harmer (57 not out) and Ryan ten Doeschate (41) all weighed in with decent scores too.

The Pears then closed on 37-0, with Daryl Mitchell on 17 and Jake Libby 15.

Such was the slowness of the scoring, as illustrated by Alastair Cook's century on day one, Essex only just made it to three batting points.

The Pears, without skipper Joe Leach, did not manage a single bowling point, but bowled pretty economically, Ed Barnard, although wicketless, sending down 30 overs for just 59 runs.

Having gone past the 110-over cut-off at well under three an over on 300-2, Essex then did up the scoring rate a bit as the next 64 overs produced another 261.

That was exacerbated chiefly by Harmer's three fours and four sixes (including three in one over off Brett D'Oliveira) in his typically swashbuckling cameo off 51 balls.

But it helped Essex post their highest County Championship total for five years - as well as earning Westley a third century in his last four matches on this ground.

The Pears openers, former captain Mitchell and stand-in skipper Libby, then got through 16 overs before the close.

Starting with Sunday's final day against Nottinghamshire, when Haseeb Hameed and Ben Slater batted out the day, just eight wickets have now fallen in the last three days of cricket at New Road.

Worcestershire all-rounder Ed Barnard:

"We've had a few hard slogs this season. We went close to the 174 overs we bowled last week against Nottinghamshire and at Chelmsford in the first game.

"But the lads stuck at it really well. Everyone bowled well again. We kept the run rate down to three again which is our aim for the season.

"Dillon Pennington was excellent and deserved a bit more than he got. He bowled a really good spell this morning."

Essex skipper Tom Westley:

"We are very happy. It's not often you get 500 on the board so I would say we are in the box seats. But it's going to be a challenge getting 20 wickets because the pitch is very placid.

"Harmy probably knows that he has got a few overs to bowl but the wicket is pretty dead. It is going to be a monumental effort, but one that our group of lads are up to. We've done it many times in the past.

"All the guys batted brilliantly. Obviously 'Chef' set it up but the way the middle-lower order came in and got runs is very pleasing, especially after a couple of disappointing batting performances."