County Championship: Dane Paterson takes career-best 8-52 for Nottinghamshire

Stuart Broad played for the first time since the final Ashes Test in Hobart in January ahead of his expected return to the England fold under new captain Ben Stokes but he was emphatically upstaged by team-mate Dane Paterson on the opening day of the County Championship match against Worcestershire at Trent Bridge.

Broad took a wicket in the third of his eight overs but the man of the moment was the South African pace bowler Paterson, who finished with a career-best 8-52 as Worcestershire were dismissed for 159 in 41 overs by the Division Two leaders.

They were the best bowling figures at Trent Bridge since Broad's extraordinary 8-15 against Australia in 2015.

Jack Haynes, the 21-year-old former England Under-19 batter, top-scored for Worcestershire with 37. There were half-centuries by Haseeb Hameed and Ben Duckett in Nottinghamshire's reply but Worcestershire took five wickets in the final session as the home side closed on 203-7 for a lead of 44.

All eyes were on Broad after Nottinghamshire chose to bowl first on what looked a bowler-friendly surface, and the fillip of an early wicket came as Jake Libby nicked one to wicketkeeper Tom Moores.

Ed Pollock profited from some early aggression, the former Warwickshire opener clearing the ropes with an audacious whip to the leg side off Luke Fletcher and hitting Broad for three fours in seven balls.

Yet Paterson, replacing Broad at the pavilion end, removed Pollock with his first delivery, drawing the batter to push at one that flew off the edge to second slip.

Paterson, who had been a candidate to be rested to make way for Broad's return, bowled a consistently good line and had four wickets before lunch as Worcestershire stumbled to 114-5.

Pakistan Test batsman Azhar Ali succumbed in his second over, caught behind off a thin edge. Brett D'Oliveira, who had two unbeaten centuries in three innings coming into this match, perished in similar fashion before Ed Barnard was bowled off a bottom edge, trying to leave.

After lunch, Paterson brought one back to have Ben Cox leg before, had Haynes caught behind and induced Josh Baker to miscue to mid-on. He bettered his previous best figures of 7-20 by bowling Charlie Morris with one that kept low.

Fletcher wrapped up the innings by dismissing Dillon Pennington as keeper Moores took his fifth catch.

In reply Nottinghamshire cruised to 70 without loss, with openers Hameed and Ben Slater picking off boundaries at will against some loose bowling.

Their partnership ended as Slater, after his double hundred against Durham, was run out on 24, beaten by Libby's throw to keeper Cox from probably the deepest corner of the outfield as Hameed went for a third run.

Hameed passed fifty for the first time this season with consecutive boundaries off Adam Finch in the penultimate over of the afternoon, but was out in the same over, brilliantly caught one-handed by Cox.

Cox took two more catches after tea, Duckett, who had been dropped at slip off Baker on 11, reached fifty for the fourth consecutive innings but was immediately out, nicking a drive, before another diving effort accounted for Joe Clarke, whose struggle for runs this season continued as a Barnard outswinger found the edge.

Clarke's dismissal sparked a run of four Nottinghamshire wickets falling for 23 runs as Worcestershire continued to fight back. Lyndon James and Steven Mullaney were both caught at second slip and Liam Patterson-White run out by Baker's direct hit from cover.

Report supplied by the ECB Reporters' Network.