Rushworth, Woakes bowl Warwickshire into ascendancy

Chris Rushworth and Chris Woakes bowled Warwickshire into the ascendancy over Worcestershire on the second day of the Rothesay County Championship Division One derby at Visit Worcestershire New Road

Rushworth, with 4 for 37, and Woakes' 3 for 34 exploited perfect seam-bowling conditions to bowl the home side out for 181. That gave Warwickshire a first-innings lead of 46 - small but potentially decisive in a low-scoring game.

The visitors closed the second day on 53 for 1 - 99 ahead overall. It was an encouraging day for Warwickshire and also for England as Woakes safely came through his first first-team bowl after a knee injury. He looked fluent and in good rhythm as he unfurled spells of 5-2-9-0, 7-3-14-2 and 4-2-11-1 from the Diglis End.

Worcestershire resumed on the second morning on 53 without loss, strongly placed but in batting conditions which were even more tricky than on the first day. Cloud cover and dampness from overnight rain had been added to the mischievous pitch.

Rushworth and Woakes could not have asked for more helpful conditions for their first competitive bowl of the season and both took full advantage as Worcestershire's ten wickets fell for 117 runs.

Woakes began the collapse by pinning Jake Libby for 45 off 66 balls lbw. He then extended Henry Nicholls' thin spell of form via a catch at third slip.

Nicholls' departure was the first of four wickets to fall for eight runs in seven overs as Rushworth found his rhythm from the New Road End. Perfectly pitched outswingers induced three fatal edges in eight balls from Gareth Roderick (24 in two hours), Rob Jones and Brett D'Oliveira.

Under glowering skies, the outside edges continued to come. Wicketkeeper Alex Davies took the catches as Woakes snared Ethan Brookes and Matthew Waite became Rushworth's 673rd first class victim. Kashif Ali's 159 minutes of impressive defiance for 31 ended when he edged Ed Barnard high to second slip.

Tom Taylor clubbed Webster to mid on and when the Aussie allrounder, on his farewell appearance for Warwickshire before joining up with the Australia squad, bowled Ben Allison through a slog, Warwickshire's first innings lead was a solid 46.

With the last session to bat, Warwickshire soon lost Alex Davies, beaten for pace and bowled by Jacon Duffy. In murky light, Rob Yates and Tom Latham ground out an unbroken partnership of 38 in 115 balls to cement their side's advantage while Rushworth's happy day got even better when his beloved Sunderland knocked in a stoppage time winner against Sheffield United in the Championship playoffs final at Wembley.