Worcestershire Director of Cricket Steve Rhodes admitted his side's first innings batting display proved costly as Warwickshire triumphed by 181 runs in the LV = County Championship derby at Edgbaston.
The county were dismissed in just 42 overs for 149 in reply to Warwickshire's 264 with the result that their pace trio of Charlie Morris, Joe Leach and Jack Shantry, who bowled 54, 50 and 39 overs respectively in the game, did not have time to fully recuperate.
Worcestershire were left a 437 target, after a ninth wicket stand of 114 between Boyd Rankin and Chris Wright, and were bowled out in mid afternoon for 255.
Skipper Daryl Mitchell dug in for nearly four hours to make a dogged 38 and Ben Cox top-scored for the fourth successive innings with 44.
But the dismissal of Mitchell and Tom Fell (33) just before lunch was a decisive moment and Warwickshire always looked likely winners after that despite Cox's knock and an unbeaten 29 from Joe Leach.
Rhodes said: "They were two costly dismissals just before lunch as was Moeen's last night just before the end of play.
"There is never a good time to lose a wicket but just before the close of play, or when a session ends, is even more important.
"But we were put under pressure by the way we batted first innings and to be rolled in 42 overs puts you in a very delicate position in a game of cricket.
"That is the real reason why we've ended up with no points and a loss.
"You can't have a bad session and when we beat Somerset it was the same for them. You can't have a bad session. Even in Division Two or Test match cricket, you can't have a bad session.
"The nature of four or five day cricket is to wait for that opportunity and ram it home and that is what Warwickshire did ever so well."
Rhodes added: "Who did well? I think the bowlers did well, they worked really tirelessly and wholeheartedly, and by the time of the stand with Rankin and Wright, who played ever so well, they had run out of juice.
"They run out of juice because we hadn't given them enough recovery time with the bat. They hadn't had their feet up enough which is realy important.
"I thought Coxy had another outstanding game. I thought his 40 in either innings and some of his wicket-keeping was excellent so there are definite things we can take out of it.
"We've lost three, we've won one, we will very much try to continue to win games of cricket.
"That's the type of cricket we want to play and hopefully we will get enough wins in the season to do what we want to which is to survive in this league."
