JOE Clarke scored 157 and Tom Fell 88 as Worcestershire survived the jolt of Amar Virdi’s two wickets in successive balls just before tea to finish day three with a highly creditable 469-6 in reply to Surrey’s 434 at the Kia Oval.

Clarke, the 21-year-old right-hander seemingly destined for higher honours, completed his 10th first-class hundred in his 51st match while Fell put behind him a prolonged and worrying run of poor form to score his first Specsavers County Championship half-century since 2016.

Australian left-hander Travis Head also made an attractive 50 before becoming the first of 19-year-old off-spinner Virdi’s two scalps when he was bowled attempting to cut.

Ben Cox was lbw to the next ball, the last of the 107th over, but Clarke calmly pushed forward to keep out Virdi’s hat-trick ball at the start of the final over before the tea interval.

Afterwards Clarke scored the 12 more runs he required to go to three figures and with Ed Barnard took Worcestershire past 400 and then, compared to the batting woes suffered while losing their first three championship games of the season, to the sunlit uplands of a first-innings lead.

When Clarke was lbw to tall fast bowler Conor McKerr 20 minutes before the close after facing 280 balls and striking 18 fours, he had added 124 for the sixth wicket with Barnard who reached stumps on 42 not out.

Only Barnard and Cox had previously scored half-centuries in Worcestershire’s three defeats in April and so this collective success for their top order was a welcome change in fortune for a side who began the game at the bottom of the Division One table.

For Fell, who made only 323 championship runs from 23 innings last season at an average of 14.68, it was a particularly significant day.

It was his first four-day score above 47 for more than 18 months and he had battled for 220 balls across almost four-and-a-half hours, hitting nine fours, when he chipped Sam Curran’s second delivery with the second new ball straight to mid-wicket in the 87th over.

Clarke, who caught the eye representing the North against the South in the Caribbean earlier this year and also for the England Lions last winter, had scored just 88 runs from his six previous innings this season but he was rarely troubled on a soporific surface as he featured in stands of 117 with Fell and a further 80 with Head.

Virdi’s two wickets in two balls, meanwhile, at least provided some excitement for a home crowd basking in warm sunshine while also treating the spectators each time to what is quickly becoming his trademark celebratory run towards deep point.

He now has 10 championship wickets already this campaign, having taken four-wicket hauls against both Hampshire and Lancashire in Surrey’s first two championship fixtures.

Worcestershire lost opener Daryl Mitchell in the day’s third over, lbw to Rikki Clarke after adding just four runs to his overnight 77, and at 139-2 the visitors looked a little vulnerable.

Mitchell, however, had already done more than his bit for the cause and with Clarke, Fell and Head in particular following his lead Worcestershire went from strength to strength in a contest which looks destined to finish in a draw.

Century-maker Clarke said: "The guys at the top of the order started things off really well for us and it was nice to get a good pitch here.

"When I got in I didn't want to give it away. 

"I tried to keep remembering all the green wickets we have been playing on in the last few weeks and so tried to make the most of this one.

"I spoke to Daryl about it. He's played a lot of cricket and he says it has been one of the toughest starts to the season for batsmen since he started his career."