DAY 1

On an eventful first day at Edgbaston Warwickshire were 19-3 in reply to Worcestershire’s 246 at the close of play.

Worcestershire made three changes to the side that lost at Hove as Joe Leach, Brett D’Oliveira and Chris Russell all made their Championship debuts for the County.

Worcestershire won the toss and elected to bat and Daryl Mitchell and Phil Hughes made a steady start until Mitchell was trapped lbw by Chris Wright for 11, with the score on 46-1.  Matt Pardoe fell soon afterwards for 9 when he edged an outswinger from Keith Barker to Tim Ambrose behind the stumps and then Moeen Ali also edged behind to Ambrose off Boyd Rankin for 1, with the score on 73-3 in the 24th over.  Before lunch Hughes went to his 50 off 72 balls, with 8 fours, as Worcestershire reached lunch on 98-3 off 30 overs.

Hughes and Vikram Solanki both went aggressively after lunch as Hughes went to his first Championship hundred for the County off 142 balls, with 15 fours and six, by sweeping Jeetan Patel for 4 and Solanki reached his 50 off 82 balls, with 6 fours and 2 sixes.  But their fourth wicket partnership was to end on 124 when Solanki swept a Patel delivery to Barker at deep square-leg for 57 off 95 balls, with 7 fours and 2 sixes, with the score on 197-4, and then in the next over Leach edged to Varun Chopra at first slip off Chris Wright for 0.

At tea Worcestershire were 214-5 off 61 overs and then in the evening session had moved on to 239-5 when D’Oliveira edged to Rikki Clarke at second slip off Wright for 19 and worse was to follow for Worcestershire as they eventually lost their last five wickets for just seven runs in under 8 overs.  Gareth Andrew (1) was caught behind by Ambrose off Patel, Ben Scott (1) had his off stump removed by Rankin, Chris Russell (3) edged behind to Ambrose off Patel and when Alan Richardson was caught at slip by Clarke off Patel Worcestershire were all out for 246 off 75 overs, with Hughes carrying his bat and ending up on a magnificent 135 off 207 balls, with 19 fours and 1 six.

Warwickshire had to bat for 11 overs but were soon reduced to 10-3 in the 5th over as Richardson trapped Chopra lbw for 0, Russell took his maiden first-class wicket by dismissing Ian Westwood lbw for 0 and Richardson got William Porterfield to edge to Mitchell at second slip for 5.  Darren Maddy and nightwatchman Wright then added 9 more runs as Warwickshire reached 19-3 at stumps.

Worcestershire's Phil Hughes spoke to BBC Hereford & Worcester's Dave Bradley after the first day's play at Edgbaston;

To listen to the interview please click here

DAY 2

On another action-packed day at Edgbaston Warwickshire require a further 181 runs to win, as they finished on 79-0 at stumps, after trailing Worcestershire by 114 runs on first innings and bowling the visitors out for 145 in their second innings.

Starting the day on 19-3 in their first innings Warwickshire lost nightwatchman Chris Wright in the first over of the day when he edged to Vikram Solanki at first slip off Chris Russell for 3.  Then Russell took the next two wickets as he dismissed both Darren Maddy, caught brilliantly by Daryl Mitchell, diving to his left, at second slip for 11, and James Troughton, trapped lbw for 13 and when Tim Ambrose was lbw to Gareth Andrew for 4 the home side were deep in trouble at 77-7.

Rikki Clarke went on the attack as he went to his 50 off 56 balls, with 9 fours, but, with the score on 118, he was caught by Matt Pardoe at short leg off Moeen Ali for 61 off 72 balls, with 10 fours, and then Worcestershire cleaned up the tail to dismiss Warwickshire for 132 off 42.3 overs as Jeetan Patel played an upper cut off Richardson and was caught by Andrew at third man for 3 and Keith Barker was caught by Richardson at long-on off Ali for 17.

Russell was the leading wicket-taker with 4-43 off 16 overs, Richardson took 3-36 off 16 overs, Ali ended up with 2-17 off 6.3 overs and Andrew finished with 1-21 off 4 overs.

With a lead of 114 runs Worcestershire suffered a big blow as Phil Hughes was out before lunch, when he shouldered arms and was out lbw off Barker for 0, and then in the first over after lunch Mitchell edged to Clarke at second slip off Wright for 4 to leave the vistors on 4-2 in the 3rd over.

Ali departed for 10 when he edged an outswinging delivery from Barker to Varun Chopra at first slip, with the score on 23-3, and although Matt Pardoe and Vikram Solanki steadied the innings for over 13 overs, with a fourth wicket partnership of 49, Solanki was out for 33 when he hit a Boyd Rankin delivery straight to William Porterfield in the gully.  Before tea Joe Leach was lbw off Wright for 20 as Worcestershire went to tea on 110-5, a lead of 224 runs.

Then in the evening session Worcestershire collapsed again as they lost their last 5 wickets for 35 runs.  Pardoe was the first to go when he edged to Chopra off Patel for 30, Andrew was lbw to Patel for 4, Brett D'Oliveira was lbw to Barker for 7, Ben Scott, playing a reverse sweep, was lbw to Patel for 11, and when Russell was caught by Barker at long-on off Patel for 5 Worcestershire were all out for 145 off 46.5 overs.

Warwickshire required 260 runs to win and Chopra (46*), who was dropped by Pardoe at short leg off D'Oliveira, and Ian Westwood (32*) remained at the crease as they took the home side to 79-0 off 21 overs at the close of play.

Worcestershire's director of cricket Steve Rhodes spoke to BBC Hereford & Worcester's Dave Bradley after the second day's play at Edgbaston;

To listen to the interview please click here

DAY 3

Worcestershire fell to a seven wicket defeat against Warwickshire on the third day at Edgbaston.

The home side resumed on 79-0, requiring a further 181 runs to win, and 21 runs had been added in the opening 11 overs of the day until Chris Russell made the breakthrough when he trapped Varun Chopra lbw for 58 off 101 balls, with 5 fours, with the score on 100-1.

Ian Westwood and William Porterfield were largely untroubled during the rest of the morning session as Warwickshire reached lunch on 171-1 off 53 overs but after lunch Westwood was out for 83 off 172 balls, with 11 fours, when he mistimed a pull shot off Russell, who reacted quickly and dived forward to take a good catch off his own bowling.

Porterfield was the third wicket to fall for 37 when he was caught by Vikram Solanki in the slips off Moeen Ali, with the score on 193-3, but Warwickshire never looked in any danger and they reached their target at 3:20pm by finishing on 263-3 off 79.5 overs, with Darren Maddy unbeaten on 45 and Jim Troughton unbeaten on 34.

Worcestershire's two wicket-takers were Russell, who finished with 2-74 off 14 overs and had match figures of 6-117, and Ali, who took 1-80 off 33.5 overs.