Joe Leach took his 400th first-class wicket as Worcestershire dominated Sussex on day one at Hove to boost his side’s slim promotion hopes.

That modest total represented a recovery by Sussex who had been 23-5 before half-centuries by Fynn Hudson-Prentice, James Coles and Jack Carson revived them.

But the pitch caused few problems for Worcestershire’s openers Ed Pollock and Jake Libby, who posted 87 without loss before bad light ended play six overs early.

After the teams observed a minute’s silence in memory of Queen Elizabeth II, Leach took 3-16 in his seven-over new-ball spell to leave Sussex struggling after they had won the toss.

Ali Orr played-on to Leach’s fifth ball and he pinned Tom Alsop lbw with a full delivery that swung back just enough.

A similar length accounted for Tom Clark in Leach’s fourth over as the batter played across the line.

Dillon Pennington struck with his first ball when he extracted some extra bounce and Oli Carter touched it tamely to the wicketkeeper.

Tom Haines, returning from a broken hand, faced 36 balls and batted for 65 minutes for his two runs but the Sussex captain played on to Ben Gibbon’s second ball.

Hudson-Prentice led the recovery and was dropped by Jack Haynes on 36 but added 76 with Coles, before Pennington had him caught behind for 51 after lunch.

Leach returned and reached his milestone courtesy of a low catch by Haynes off Pakistan all-rounder Faheem Ashraf with the score 106-7.

But Sussex’s last three wickets more than doubled the score as Coles progressed to his second half-century of the season before being caught by Azhar Ali off Pennington.

After Henry Crocombe holed out to mid off, Carson was last out for 58 when he was run out by Libby’s direct hit.

Pollock gave one chance on 34 but was dropped at slip by Alsop off Haines as Sussex’s seamers failed to find a breakthrough.

Report supplied by the ECB Reporters’ Network.