WORCESTERSHIRE trailed promotion rivals Surrey by 134 runs at the end of the first innings of their LV= County Championship Division Two clash at New Road.

The visitors kept alive their faint hopes of finishing in the top two after a superb 103 from Jason Roy helped to earn them maximum batting points against the leaders.

Roy had made his England breakthrough at the weekend when he played in the NatWest T20 international against India at Edgbaston.

He gave another impressive demonstration of the form he has shown throughout this summer as he reached a third Championship century of the campaign off 102 balls with 14 fours and a six.

Roy went to three figures with a cover-drive for four off England team-mate Moeen Ali.

It enabled Surrey, who began the match 39 points adrift of Worcestershire, to claim the full eight bonus points after bowling the home side out for 272 on the first day.

Worcestershire fought back strongly in the final session on day two, with Jack Shantry picking up 6-87 from 28.1 overs as he reached 50 Championship wickets for the season.

It was his second six-wicket haul against Surrey this season after his 6-53 at the Kia Oval.

But Worcestershire will need to improve on their first innings batting performance if they are to set Surrey a testing last-day target.

Surrey resumed on 59 without loss in reply to Worcestershire's 272 but added only 11 to their overnight total before Zafar Ansari edged paceman Mitchell McClenaghan through to keeper Ben Cox.

It will be McClenaghan's last appearance for the County as he is to return home to New Zealand after the current match after his father Dennis passed away following an illness.

He will not be returning for the final Championship match against Essex at Chelmsford beginning on September 23.

Former Worcestershire batsman Vikram Solanki looked in good form on his first appearance at New Road since leaving the County in 2012.

But, after making 28, he drove at Joe Leach's first delivery of the innings and nicked to Tom Kohler-Cadmore at first slip.

Rory Burns, who had resumed on 40 not out, looked set for a century and, when on 83, he passed 1,000 first-class runs for the season.

However, he fell nine runs short of reaching three figures when the Cox-McClenaghan combination struck again.

Another ex-Worcestershire player, Steven Davies, played fluently in making 69 from 90 deliveries with 12 fours before Shantry enjoyed his first success when the wicketkeeper edged through to first slip.

The major stand of the innings saw Roy and skipper Gary Wilson add 151 in 32 overs for the fifth wicket.

The visitors looked set for a massive total as they reached 373-4 in the 95th over.

But then Shantry started to make inroads into the Surrey batting.

He held onto a caught and bowled chance from Wilson (73), dismissed another ex-Worcestershire pairing of Aneesh Kapil (10) and Gareth Batty (0) with successive balls and trapped Stuart Meaker (0) lbw.

Moeen got in on the act as Matthew Dunn was caught at slip, also without scoring.

Roy had time to complete his 100 but holed out to deep cover off Shantry to end the innings.

Worcestershire were left with six overs to bat and openers Daryl Mitchell and Richard Oliver saw their side to 12-0 by the close.