County Championship: Worcestershire set for big first-innings lead against Sussex

Cheteshwar Pujara has scored 6,713 runs in 95 Test matches for India

Worcestershire captain Brett D'Oliveira continued his prolific start to the 2022 campaign with an unbeaten 169 on day two of the County Championship match with Sussex at New Road.

Then his predecessor as captain, Joe Leach, picked up three wickets in seven balls late in the day to put Worcestershire in control as the visitors, despite an unbeaten 85 from Cheteshwar Pujara, closed on 169-5.

All-rounder D'Oliveira batted for seven and three quarter hours in total and was the bedrock of his side's 491 all out spanning 136.5 overs of this Division Two contest.

It means D'Oliveira is still to be dismissed this summer, with his three innings yielding 294 runs.

Leach then caused havoc late in the day with the wickets of Tom Clark, Mohammad Rizwan and Jamie Atkins in an inspired spell to leave Sussex still 322 in arrears.

D'Oliveira began the second day on 106 and continued in untroubled fashion to help his team secure four batting points.

He followed in the footsteps of grandfather Basil (1967 and 1968) and his father, Damian (1985) in scoring first-class centuries against Sussex.

For injury-hit Sussex, it was another chastening experience in the field after conceding scores of 534-9 declared and 505-8 declared against Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire in their opening two games.

To add to their woes, Tom Alsop suffered a severely bruised finger when fielding and was unable to take his place at number three in the order.

Worcestershire captain Brett D'Oliveira:

"I just hope it keeps going the way it is. It is just nice to contribute. I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel there was an extra responsibility but it's not something I'm carrying all on my shoulders. There are enough good players in that dressing room who can take the weight of that.

"They bowled well in periods and it was about getting through those tricky periods and, when the back-up bowlers came on and didn't quite hit their lengths, it was about taking care of that really.

"Joe Leach is playing with a lot of confidence at the minute. Giving up the captaincy has been great for him and he can go out there and play his cricket and that's exactly what we want."

Report supplied by the ECB reporters' Network.