County Championship: Cheteshwar Pujara and Steve Smith bail Sussex out of trouble on Day two against Worcestershire

Cheteshwar Pujara and Steve Smith bailed Sussex out of trouble on Day 2 of the County Championship Division two game between Worcestershire and Sussex. Sussex were reeling at 67/3 in the first innings when the duo got together at the crease.

Batting together for the first time, Pujara and Smith added 61 runs for the fourth wicket and took their team’s score past 100. Smith scored 30 off 57 balls with the help of five boundaries in his innings. Their partnership was broken by Josh Tongue who trapped Smith in front of the stumps during the first session of the day.

Earlier during the game, Sussex captain Cheteshwar Pujara won the toss and invited Worcestershire to bat first. The Brett D'Oliveira-led side didn’t have the best of the starts as they lost their first wicket in the very first over itself with Ollie Robinson getting rid of Ed Pollock.

From there on, there was no stopping the seamer as he went on to pick three more wickets in his first spell leaving Worcestershire reeling at 44/5. Seeing their side in trouble, Adam Hose and Gareth Roderick got involved in a 92-run stand to help their side cross the 100-run mark.

Ollie Robinson claims a brilliant 7-fer for Sussex

Their partnership was broken by Sean Hunt who dismissed Roderick for 39. Adam Hose was also dismissed shortly after for 59 by Henry Crocombe. With their team on 160/7, Matthew Waite (59) and Joe Leach (53) got involved in a massive 103-run stand.

Courtesy of their valiant knocks, Worcestershire posted 264 runs on the board in the first innings. Ollie Robinson was the wrecker-in-chief for them as he picked 7/59 in his 17-over spell.

In the second innings, Sussex lost Tom Clark (12), Tom Alsop (13) and Ali Orr (34) early in the innings and were struggling at 67/3 before Pujara and Smith took them to the safe shores. At lunch on Day 2, Sussex were 158/5 with Pujara unbeaten on 40* along with Oli Carter on 5*.