dillon pennington completed his first five wicket haul at first team level for worcestershire and george rhodes hit his highest list a score as a youthful rapids side went down by 21 runs to west indies a in a high-scoring encounter at New Road.
pennington followed up his two encouraging performances in the royal london one-day cup with figures of 9-1-67-5 and the occasional seam bowling of ross whiteley also brought four wickets as west indies a closed on 338-9.
then rhodes struck 95 in the opening role and looked set for his maiden list a century until he was caught down the legside off chemar holder.
whiteley contributed a typically aggressive half century and there were useful knocks from josh dell and jack haynes as the rapids closed on 317-8.
seven worcestershire players made their list a debut for the county including haynes and dell who this week signed their first professional contracts with the club.
pennington took the new ball after west indies a elected to bat and enjoyed two early successes.
chanderpaul hemraj (20) fell victim to a superb full length catch by jack haynes running back from mid-off.
then in his next over devon thomas (3) was caught at cover by josh dell at 28-2.
jermaine blackwood, who has played 27 tests, and jason mohammed dominated the remainder of the innings with a partnership of 238 in 37 overs.
mohammed reached his century off 93 balls with three sixes and seven fours and he had advanced onto 142 before he was caught in the deep by ben twohig off whiteley.
the county all-rounder enjoyed another success in the same over as sunil ambris (0) went for a pull and was caught around the corner by pennington.
blackwood went to his hundred from 110 deliveries with 11 fours but the returning pennington held onto a return catch to dismiss him for 119.
he trapped rahkeen cornwall lbw for nought in the same over and completed a five wicket haul when rhodes held onto a lofted drive from rovman powell (42) at long on.
whiteley enjoyed two further successes in the final over of the innings with raymond reifer (4) lbw and chemar holder (3) bowled.
rapids openers rhodes and skipper ollie westbury put on 54 in 10 overs before the latter on eight was caught behind off holder and tom fell (28) edged spinner cornwall to first slip
rhodes and haynes added 79 for the third wicket before both departed in quick succession.
holder had rhodes taken down the legside by keeper devon thomas who then stumped haynes (33) off cornwall at 179-4 in the 33rd over.
whiteley and dell rekindled the rapids hopes during a fifth wicket stand of 107 in 12 overs.
whiteley was in typically aggressive vein in hitting 70 off 45 balls with three sixes and seven fours and he was given excellent support by dell.
the fall of whiteley at long on in the 45th over bowled by powell swung the contest decisively in the tourists favour.
alex milton (0) was unfortunately run out in the next over as a dell drive was deflected onto the stumps by bowler holder.
dell (46) was run out attempting attempting a second run after drilling holder to long on and twohig (1) went for a big heave against the same bowler and was bowled.
