Essex continued to struggle to replicate their outstanding one-day form in the Championship, against Worcestershire, the second division leaders, who restricted them to 269 for nine at Castle Park, Colchester. Yet more outstanding base bowling from Kabir Ali brought him his fourth five-wicket haul of a season in which he has claimed 57 first class victims at 18 apiece, the best return by anybody in the country. Ryan ten Doeschate's positive unbeaten 87, as well as a pair of plucky fifties from Mark Pettini and James Foster, enabled Essex to muster a couple of batting points.

With Matt Mason breaking down after one over with an inflamed pectoral muscle, Ali assumed responsibility manfully and was well supported by Imran Arif's whippy seam-up. Ali, obtaining early movement in the air and off the seam, broke through in the opening over of the match, which did not start until 1.10pm owing to a morning deluge. Phil Sharpe, the ECB pitch liaison officer, confirmed that he was perfectly happy with the pitch.

Jason Gallian was bowled second ball and Grant Flower was leg before to his third both batsmen making ducks. Soon after, Varun Chopra was also bowled by Ali, playing across the line, to leave Essex a sickly 24-3. Their predicament could have been serious had Pettini not been dropped on ten at fourth slip by Stephen Moore off Ali when the score was 33 for three.

Pettini and Foster's fourth-wicket stand of 114 in 33 overs was somewhat spoilt by the fact that both got out in successive balls, Arif extracting extra bounce to remove the Essex captain. Both played particularly well through the onside and were assisted by some loose support bowling by Gareth Andrew.

Audaciously though Ten Doeschate played, hitting 10 fours in his 41-ball fifty, he did not get the support he had hoped for from the lower order. James Middlebrook did not last long, flashing outside off stump at Arif, Graham Napier edged low to first slip, and Chris Wright flat-batted a pull to give the Pakistani a four-wicket haul. David Masters became Ali's fifth wicket when he was well caught at first slip.

A festival crowd of 1,500 pleased David East, the Essex chief executive, who is expecting a bumper turnout on Sunday when the Friends Provident Trophy will be paraded. An Olympic flag handover for the County of Essex will also take place between the innings that day. The club have agreed to allow Olympic archers to practice at their Chelmsford headquarters, only 20 minutes by train from Stratford in East London, prior to the 2012 Games when Lord's stages the archery event.

Scoreboard

Essex: First Innings
V Chopra b Ali 13
J E R Gallian b Ali 0
G W Flower lbw b Ali 0
*M L Pettini c Davies b Arif 59
J S Foster c Davies b Ali 55
R N ten Doeschate not out 87
J D Middlebrook c Davies b Arif 8
G R Napier c Smith b Arif 4
C J C Wright c Ali b Arif 4
D D Masters c Smith b Ali 16
Danish Kaneria not out 12
Extras (lb 5, w 2, nb 4) 11

Total (9 wkts, 75 overs) 269

Fall of wickets: 1-3, 2-3, 3-24, 4-138, 5-138, 6-172, 7-188, 8-208, 9-238.

Bowling: Ali 21-5-77-5; Mason 1-1-0-0; Arif 24-7-77-4; Andrew 11-1-52-0; Batty 11-0-51-0; Mitchell 7-3-7-0.

Worcestershire: D K H Mitchell, S C Moore, *V S Solanki, B F Smith, G A Hick, S M Davies, G J Batty, G M Andrew, K Ali, M S Mason, Imran Arif.

Umpires: N L Bainton and M A Gough.