County Championship: Moeen Ali makes 219, then takes 4-35 against Tykes

Moeen Ali moved on from his 294-run stand with Daryl Mitchell to post only the second double century of his career

England all-rounder Moeen Ali made the second highest score of his career, then weighed in with 4-35 as Worcestershire took control against Yorkshire at Scarborough.

After extending his overnight stand with Daryl Mitchell to 294, Moeen moved on from 107 to finish with 216.

Mitchell had earlier gone for 178 as the Pears piled up 572-7 then declared.

Moeen then took the first four wickets, before the Tykes, driven by 61 from Kane Williamson, closed on 140-6.

Resuming on their overnight 314-1, the efforts of Mitchell and Moeen were supplemented by 34 apiece for former England Under-19 and Shropshire team-mates Joe Clarke and Ed Barnard.

Leg-spinner Josh Poysden eventually finished with three wickets on his home debut following his signing from Warwickshire, for whom he made his final appearance last Friday against Worcestershire as a Birmingham Bear in the T20.

But it was not enough to earn the Tykes a single bowling point, the Pears having gone through the all-important 110-over cut-off point on 419-2.

Moeen's second career double century was then followed by the wickets of Adam Lyth, trapped lbw by his fourth ball, Harry Brook, who needlessly chipped to mid-on, Gary Ballance and his former Worcestershire team-mate Tom Kohler-Cadmore.

Moeen and Mitchell

• Moeen Ali's 294-run stand with Daryl Mitchell was Worcestershire's highest second-wicket stand in games with Yorkshire.

• The stand was only 22 short of the county's overall second-wicket record, set by Stephen Moore and Vikram Solanki at Cheltenham College 10 years ago.

• It was just 23 short of Worcestershire's biggest for any wicket against Yorkshire - the 317 put on by Solanki and Moeen himself at Headingley in 2009.

Yorkshire debutant Josh Poysden:

"It's been a pretty tough game for us so far. Playing a team down at the bottom, it's been disappointing to find ourselves in this position.

"At the same time, we've got to scrap for everything we can. We've spoken about showing a bit of pride in playing for Yorkshire and making it as hard as possible for them.

"These things happen in cricket. We've obviously found ourselves a long way behind the eight ball in this game. But it's a chance to show some character.

"The ball's coming out ok for me. It was nice to pick up some wickets, to burgle three-for at the end."

Worcestershire captain Moeen Ali:

"They've been three fantastic days. We've outplayed Yorkshire, and it's set us up to win the game.

"We felt we had to get our heads down. We earned the right to play how we did. We scored so quickly that we could keep them out there in the field for a bit longer and make them tired. It's worked fantastically well.

"Daryl Mitchell is an amazing player. He's one player I really enjoy batting with. Everyone can see the way we run between the wickets, for example. He said when we were fielding in the first innings that it would take a grubby type of innings, and that's exactly what he's done. Full credit to them.

"I knew I was going to play a big part with the ball. It's spinning, and hopefully I can pick up some more."