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DARYL Mitchell passed 1,000 first class runs on day two of Worcestershire's LVCC Division Two match against Essex as the County built up a healty lead.

The 24-year-old Badsey-born opener grafted his way to 70 as the New Road side ended the day 228-5 leading by 288.

The day started superbly for Worcestershire as Essex resumed on 80-7 in reply to the County's 176 and the visitors to could add 10 more runs before Steve Magoffin found the edge of James Foster and he was caugh behind by Steven Davies for 12.

Essex moved on to 116-8 before Vikram Solanki decided to hand Simon Jones the ball in the 29th over.

The Welshman just needed two balls to wrap up the innings, first he removed David Masters as he edged to Graeme Hick for 12, before digging one in short to Danish Kaneria which he could only fend off to Gareth Batty at gully.

The 29-year-old England international finished the innings with figures of 4.2-2-14-4 leaving himself on a hat-trick when Essex return to bat.

The Worcestershire second innings started with a slice of luck for Mitchell as he was dropped by Masters in the fifth over with him on two, but then he and Stephen Moore put on 50 for the first wicket before the England-qualified South African, who passed 600 first class runs for the season, was trapped leg before by Kaneria for 28.

Solanki joined Mitchell at the crease and the pair added 41 before Ravi Bopara drew the edge from the skipper and he was caught behind by Foster for 15.

The star of the Worcestershire's first innings with a fine 60, Ben Smith joined Mitchell and the Badsey-born passed the 1,000 run milestone in the 52nd over as he built on his best first class score of the season and his best first class innings at New Road.

The duo put on 60 for the third wicket before Mitchell was bowled by Kaneria.

Hick and Smith put on 54 for the fourth wicket in a subdued period of play before Hick pulled Bopara to Tony Palladino at mid-on and was out for 16 Smith, who was dropped by Varun Chopra on the third ball he faced, was trapped just before the close leg before by Alex Tudor for 71, while Davies, who was also dropped by Chopra, closed on 5 and Gareth Batty was 0 not out.

6:17pm Saturday 31st May 2008

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