Colchester (first day of four, Essex won toss)

Essex 269 for nine (RN ten Doeschate 87 not out, Kabir Ali 5-77) v Worcestershire

Lunch

Just as the players were coming out at 11am there was a massive deluge that prevented any play before lunch, which was taken early at 12.30pm. Proceedings got under way at 1.10pm. The outfield was still soft following rain on Tuesday, but despite the weather, a large festival crowd had turned out, keen to see Essex in action for the first time since they won the Friends Provident Trophy final at Lord’s last Saturday.

Tea

After the loss of the morning session, a further five overs had to be knocked off the day’s total following a post-lunch shower. Worcestershire took three wickets in the first 11 overs, all of them from the impressive Kabir Ali, before Essex’s fourth-wicket pair rallied strongly with an unbroken stand of 104 in 29 overs. Mark Pettini, dropped on 10 off Kabir, completed a fine fifty from 85 balls with seven fours, while James Foster went into tea on 46.

Kabir had made the breakthrough with his fifth ball when he bowled Jason Gallian. The in-form fast bowler, who has already claimed 50 first-class victims this season, struck again in his second over when he had Grant Flower lbw for a duck. By the time he bowled Varun Chopra for 13, Essex found themselves a sickly 24 for three. Worcestershire, however, failed to press home their advantage.

Close

Essex surrendered much of the initiative gained by Pettini and Foster’s plucky fourth-wicket stand, which eventually realised 114 in 33 overs, when the two fell off successive balls soon after tea. Lower-order wickets then tumbled to reduce the home side to 208-8 before Ryan ten Doeschate brought Essex back into the match with some sparkling strokes in his unbeaten 87.

Pettini had been first to go after the interval, surprised by some extra bounce extracted by Imran Arif. Foster then nicked Kabir Ali to fall for 55. Middlebrook flashed at Arif, Graham Napier was caught at first slip, Chris Wright at mid-on and David Masters' dismissal give Kabir a deserved five-wicket haul.