County Championship - day three (close)

Worcestershire 257 & 50-2 v Somerset 337 & 362-9 dec

AZHAR Ali scored a century on his Somerset debut to help his new side into a dominant position going into the final day of the County Championship match against Worcestershire at New Road.

Jamie Overton picked up the key wicket of Moeen Ali (7) from the final ball of the day as Worcestershire closed on 50-2, 393 runs adrift of a Somerset side looking to take the eight wickets needed for a victory which would keep the pressure on Surrey at the top.

Resuming on 47-0, Eddie Byrom (28) and Marcus Trescothick (71) took their opening partnership to 97 before they both fell along with James Hildreth in the space of six overs, each to Moeen Ali.

Azhar Ali remained calm at the other end and successfully negotiated the threat of the England spinner, though he lost the company of Tom Abell (31) with the score on 189.

The Pakistan international kept going and brought up his century from 157 balls, with 11 fours and a six, as Somerset's lead became an imposing one.

Ali's departure for 125 provided his namesake Moeen with his fifth wicket and prompted Abell to declare with a lead of 442, giving Somerset 15 overs to bowl in the evening session.

They made the most of them, as Josh Davey pinned home skipper Daryl Mitchell (6) lbw before Jamie Overton delivered a snorter which proved too good for Moeen Ali, clean bowling the England man as Overton dismissed him for the second time in the match.

Moeen's earlier five-wicket haul will give Jack Leach hope of making an impact on the final day - England's first Test against India begins a week on Wednesday (August 1).

Another player in contention for that squad is Dom Bess, who today reacted to his omission at New Road by scoring 185 for the 2nd XI at home to Middlesex.

Speaking afterwards, Somerset centurion Azhar Ali said: "We almost got everything we wanted today. We put runs on the board, were ruthless with the bat and, when we put them in at the end of the day, we wanted a couple of wickets and we achieved that.

“Credit to the bowlers. They got the lengths right. It will be hard work getting wickets tomorrow but those couple of breakthroughs will definitely help us.

“It was a great delivery (from Jamie Overton) to dismiss Moeen (Ali) and when you get a wicket from the last ball of a day, it is definitely a boost for a team.

“Hopefully we can capitalise on that tomorrow.”

On his own century on his Somerset debut, Azhar said: “I’m really happy. It is my first game for Somerset and I’ve been made welcome.

“I really enjoyed batting out there and it was really pleasing to get some runs in the first game and hopefully I can build on that.

“Moeen started to turn the ball out of the rough so I thought attacking him early on was the right option because if you are bogged down, they can bring a short leg into play so I had to go after him to start with.

“We wanted to score runs as well to be in a position to boss the game. That is why I played positively and it paid off.”