Seamers blow away Essex as Worcs take control

Tom Taylor was the pick of Worcestershire's impressive bowling attack

Rothesay County Championship Division One, Visit Worcestershire New Road (day two)

Worcestershire 358: Waite 73; Snater 4-78 & 58-5: Kashif 31; Harmer 2-8

Essex 157: Das 44; Taylor 3-23, Waite 3-34

Worcestershire (6 pts) lead Essex (3 pts) by 259 runs

Match scorecard

Worcestershire's seam bowlers produced their best performance of the season to blow away Essex's batters and put them in complete control on day two at Visit Worcestershire New Road.

In a clinical bowling display, wickets were shared amongst the pace bowlers, with Tom Taylor's 15-over spell of 3-23 the standout performance.

Robin Das top scored with resilient 44, but when he was dismissed by Matthew Waite, Essex were up against it, and were eventually bundled out for 157.

The home side navigated the final session to reach 58-5 at the close and put themselves firmly in the driving seat heading into day three.

After wrapping up the Worcestershire innings with just four added to the overnight score, Essex were immediately pegged in reply back as Ben Allison castled his brother, Charlie, without a run being scored.

Skipper, Tom Westley, could only make six before he was caught behind off Taylor, as the Worcestershire opening bowlers enjoyed early success in idyllic bowling conditions.

Dean Elgar and Das dug in, until the former South African opener succumbed to a sensational catch by Ethan Brookes, who at third slip, dived low to his left and held onto a blinding one-handed take to reduce the visitors to 46-3 as lunch approached.

In a similar vein to day one, the ball continued to dominate the bat for large parts of the morning session, with Taylor proving the most frugal of Worcestershire's bowlers.

Das continued to graft hard, rallying for his side with a watchful innings, latching onto any rare loose deliveries.

Matt Critchley then departed for 15, when he edged a rising ball behind into the gloves of Gareth Roderick, leaving Essex 75-4 and up against it.

The off-side fielders were kept busy in the early exchanges of the afternoon, with the ball unable to puncture in the infield, as Waite, Taylor and Singh bowled in tandem to build pressure and restrict their opponents scoring.

Michael Pepper became Taylor's third wicket of the innings when he fell cheaply and was followed soon after by Das when Waite found his outside edge.

Essex brought up their 100 in the 43rd over of the day, but by this point were in the face of a home side's bowling entourage on top of their game and pressing hard for their seventh wicket and beyond.

Brookes then joined the action to break the 19-run partnership for the seventh-wicket, before Singh was rewarded for a controlled spell, giving keeper Roderick his fourth catch of the day behind the stumps as Snater exited with his side still 211 runs adrift.

Thain was bowled and Porter caught behind three balls later, both off the bowling of Waite, bringing an end to an underwhelming batting display.

The Chelmsford-based side showed signs of a fightback when they removed Roderick and Nicholls in quick succession, before Libby was given out lbw for 10.

Simon Harmer dealt the home side a late double-blow when he trapped both Kashif Ali (31) and Ben Allison (0), but Rob Jones and Yadvinder Singh, batted through safely to stumps, with a 259-run lead and five wickets intact.

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