Day 4:

Warwickshire completed a 88 run victory over Worcestershire on the final day of the Championship match at New Road.

The morning session started with a flurry of wickets as Warwickshire went from an overnight score of 411-3 to 428-8 within the first hour of play. The first wicket to fall was that of Varun Chopra when the score was 420, gloving a catch to Vikram Solanki at 1st slip off the bowling of Alan Richardson for a career best 228. Four balls later Jim Troughton was caught by a James Cameron, a diving catch at mid off for 46 off the bowling of Matt Mason.

Rikki Clarke followed less than two overs later, edging a catch to keeper Ben Cox for 0 off Richardson with the score still on 420. Two more wickets fell quickly to leave Warwickshire on 428-8. With the declaration target in mind Botha was able to strike out and was on 28* when the visitors declared on 461-8 with 8 overs left before the lunch interval. Alan Richardson finished with figures of 4-97 from 40 overs.

This left Worcestershire the formidable target of 288 to win with a minimum of 75 overs left to be bowled in the day. Daryl Mitchell was dismissed before lunch for 2 with a bat / pad catch to Ian Westwood off the bowling of Chris Woakes, with the home side going into lunch on 18-1.

After lunch Vikram Solanki looked in fine form but was beaten by an excellent delivery from Chris Woakes which he could only edge to Ant Botha at 1st slip for 23. Four overs later James Cameron was dismissed by a fine outside edge to the keeper Richard Johnson for 18, once again off the bowling of Chris Woakes.

At one stage Moeen Ali and Alexei Kervezee looked set to build a useful 4th wicket stand before Ali returned a straight forward caught & bowled chance to Ant Botha when he was on 17 to leave the home side in serious trouble on 94-4. Worcestershire reached the tea interval 123-5 with Kervezee looking confident at the crease.

A 6th wicket stand of 66 either side of the tea interval between Gareth Andrew and Alexei Kervezee gave the home side a faint glimmer of hope in being able to bat the day out. However after Kervezee fell to a good catch at mid-wicket to Jim Troughton for 65 it was all but over for the home side. From 169-6 Worcestershire collapsed to 199 all out with Chris Woakes finishing with Championship best figures of 6-49 as Warwickshire wrapped up a 88 run victory.

Result: Warwickshire (201 & 461-8 dec) beat Worcestershire (375 & 199) by 88 runs.
Worcestershire 7 points. Warwickshire 20 points.