Worcestershire suffered a six wicket defeat at the hands of Derbyshire on their pre-season tour of Abu Dhabi but there were encouraging performaces from two of their younger players in Tom Kohler-Cadmore and Brett D'Oliveira during the Twenty20 encounter.
Kohler-Cadmore, who impressed on his senior debut against Bangladesh A last summer, hit 38 off just 29 balls during an opening stand of 79 in 10 overs with skipper Daryl Mitchell who made 37 from 34 balls after electing to bat.
But the spinners then came into their own with Knight and Elstone taking seven wickets between them at a cost of just 41 runs.
Elstone returned 4-15 from his four overs and Knight 3-26 as Worcestershire were restricted to 126-9 from their 20 overs.
Derbyshire were also made to fight for their runs in the sweltering conditions and Cessford struck an early blow when trapping Borrington lbw for four.
D'Oliveira made a quick breakthrough when he had Durston (13) stumped by Ben Cox off his fourth ball after the Derbyshire player had advanced the score to 62 in partnership with Hughes.
The same combination accounted for Hughes – 48 from 35 balls – with the total on 85.
With the score on 112, Worcestershire took their fourth wicket when Elstone was caught at deep mid off by Leach off the bowling of Pardoe for 29 from 28 balls.
Madsen hit the winning runs with a straight drive off Mitchell with just five balls to spare to finish on 16 not out.
D'Oliveira again impressed with 2-17 along with Pardoe, whose left arm spin returned figures of 1-11 from his four overs.
Worcestershire will again be in action this afternoon against New Zealand before the Kiwis travel to Bangladesh for the Twenty20 World Cup.
