County Championship: Worcestershire's Joe Leach takes 6-73 against Sussex

Joe Leach now has 31 wickets in this season's County Championship

Tailenders Jack Carson and Henry Shipley helped Sussex mount a respectable score after an early stumble on the opening day of their County Championship match against Worcestershire.

Sussex recovered from 142-6 to reach 338-9 at stumps thanks to some late-order hitting from, first Nathan McAndrew and then Carson and debutant Shipley, the latter two putting on 85 for the ninth wicket - the biggest stand of the innings.

Worcestershire's Joe Leach finished the day with figures of 6-73, and at tea, when Sussex - who gave spectators free admission on Sunday - were 205-7, honours looked appropriately even for the second and third-placed counties in Division Two.

The first session brought some old-fashioned county cricket, with Sussex reaching lunch on 81-3 from 30 overs at a run-rate of 2.70.

Worcestershire had chosen to bowl on a humid, sticky morning. It was a very testing two hours and the visiting fast bowlers made the batters play at almost every delivery.

The best of them was Leach, who bowled with thoughtful aggression, wide on the crease and close to the stumps, and he broke through with the last ball of the opening over, which Tom Clark edged to Jake Libby at fourth slip.

His fellow opener, Tom Haines, battled for just under an hour for his nine runs before he edged Leach to wicketkeeper Gareth Roderick.

Tom Alsop dug in as obdurately as Haines but his innings of 71 minutes and 56 deliveries ended on 19, when he got one from Leach which straightened off the pitch for Jack Haynes to take the edge at second slip.

The Sussex batters looked a little more confident in the last few overs before the interval - after Leach had left the attack - and they carried that impetus into the afternoon session.

James Coles and Oli Carter struck a flurry of boundaries but then the impressive and fluent Coles fell to a soft dismissal, with an uppercut off Adam Finch to Leach at third man.

One run later, Danial Ibrahim edged to second slip for a seven-ball duck and Sussex were 120-5

Fynn Hudson-Prentice was next to go when he edged to Roderick, who dropped the catch but then caught it at the second attempt just before the ball hit the ground.

There was a hesitation and a meeting of umpires before the batter departed and Leach had his 17th five-wicket haul.

Carter and McAndrew decided to counter-attack their way out of trouble and this approach brought 59 runs in 14 overs before Carter hit a short one from Matthew Waite to backward point to finish with 11 fours from a 132-ball 76.

Meanwhile, McAndrew went on to hit 65 from 68 balls, with a dozen fours.

But it was the partnership that followed that forced Worcestershire to take the new ball without Finch, who was taken out of the attack after running on the pitch.

Carson made an unbeaten 60 but the real bonus for the hosts was the effort from New Zealander Shipley, making his first-class debut for the county.

Shipley was brought in to bolster the county's fast-bowling options but struck a fluent 41 - with six fours and a maximum.

He finally gave the heroic Leach his sixth wicket, making him the highest wicket-taker in the division before bad light drove the players from the field with eight overs remaining.

Report supplied by ECB Reporters' Network.