D'Oliveira misses ton but Pears in control of Kent

Home skipper Brett D'Oliveira's 97 was his top score of a season plagued by a shoulder injury

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

Kent 171: Muyeye 56; Leach 6-52 & 104-2: Muyeye 80*

Worcestershire 447: D'Oliveira 97, Roderick 63, Brookes 50, Jones 49, Finch 43; Jordan 5-97

Kent (3 pts) trail Worcestershire (7 pts) by 172 runs

Match scorecard

Worcestershire captain Brett D’Oliveira made a triumphant return after injury as his side strengthened their grip on the County Championship Division One bottom two encounter with Kent.

D’Oliveira struck 97 off 90 balls as Worcestershire totalled 447 to establish a first-innings advantage of 276.

It was his first knock since missing the entire One-Day Cup campaign to have extensive rehab on a shoulder problem which has troubled him for 12 months.

Coming in at 201-4, he batted with great freedom on a pitch offering assistance to the seamers.

He received excellent support in two partnerships both worth 85 runs in 16 overs, initially from Adam Hose (39) and then Ethan Brookes (50).

Both also played fluently as Brookes scored his maiden half-century for Worcestershire, to follow 49 earlier from Rob Jones, who had batted with great application during the early part of the day to help lay the foundations.

Number 10 Adam Finch then hit a career-best 43 but Worcestershire missed out on maximum batting points when he was bowled by West Indies fast bowler Akeem Jordan, who swapped Birmingham League cricket with West Bromwich Dartmouth to finish with 5-97 on his debut.

First-innings half-centurion Tawanda Muyeye then struck an aggressive unbeaten 80 from 84 balls in reply for Kent to leave them on 104-2 - 172 in arrears with eight wickets in hand heading into the third day.

Report supplied by the ECB Reporters Network