Joe Leach has continued his impressive form of last season to emerge as Worcestershire’s leading wicket-taker after the opening block of five LV=Insurance County Championship matches.
The all-rounder has 17 wickets to date to add to his tally of 34 in just eight games last season.
Leach’s best return was 4-49 versus Gloucestershire at New Road, and he has picked up three wickets in an innings on three other occasions.
Only Timm van der Gugten, Matthew Potts and Ben Raine have taken more wickets in Division Two this season.
Leach has been well supported by Ben Gibbon, with 13 wickets in four games, while Adam Finch is top of the bowling averages after his career-best 5-74 against Glamorgan.
On the batting side, Matthew Waite has made an impressive start to his full-time career with Worcestershire and is the top run-scorer heading into Thursday’s home meeting with Leicestershire.
Waite, who had a spell on loan at New Road last summer, has amassed 332 runs, including a maiden first class century against Derbyshire, and also tops the averages.
Waite also struck 59 versus Sussex and played other important knocks in crucial partnerships from the lower order.
Azhar Ali is the other main contributor to date, with 312 runs including a superb century against Sussex a major highlight.
Waite and Azhar are currently the ninth and tenth highest Division Two run-scorers.
LV=INSURANCE COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP
BATTING AVERAGES
Waite Matches 5, Inns 9, Not Out 3, Runs 332, Highest 109*, Average 55.33
Azhar Ali 5, 10, 1, 312, 103*, 34.66
Libby 4, 8, 1, 241, 104*, 34.42
Haynes 5, 10, 2, 268, 134*, 33.50
Hose 3, 5, 0, 150, 59, 30.00
D’Oliveira 5, 9, 1, 203, 89, 25.37
Finch 2, 3, 2, 25, 18*, 25.00
Roderick 4, 7, 0, 169, 44, 24.14
Leach 5, 7, 0, 126, 53, 18.00
Cox 1, 2, 1, 17, 15, 17.00
Pollock 5, 10, 0, 155, 41, 15.50
Gibbon 4, 4, 1, 43, 30, 14.33
Pennington 2, 2, 0, 20, 14, 10.00
Tongue 4, 6, 3, 24, 11, 8.00
Cornall 1, 2, 0, 10, 6, 5.00
BOWLING AVERAGES
Finch Innings 4, Overs 53.0, Maidens 6, Runs 227, Wickets 9, best 5-74, Average 25.22
Leach 9, 164.0, 30, 540, 17, 4-49, 31.76
Gibbon 7, 111.0, 18, 436, 13, 4-92, 33.53
Waite 9, 101.5, 14, 355, 9, 4-50, 39.44
Tongue 6, 102.5, 8, 456, 11, 3-37, 41.45
D’Oliveira 9, 44.0, 1, 194, 3, 2-37, 64.66
Pennington 4, 51.3, 7, 222, 3, 2-54, 74.00
Cornall 1, 1, 0, 5, 0 —-, —-
