Bob Willis Trophy: Worcestershire and Warwickshire draw after final day washout

The New Road outfield was sodden following torrential overnight rain

Worcestershire's home Bob Willis Trophy Central Group encounter with Warwickshire ended in a draw after the game was called off following heavy overnight rain.

Umpires Rob Bailey and Jeremy Lloyds decided no play was possible 35 minutes before the scheduled 11:00 start time after inspecting the outfield.

The two teams both collect 13 points from a batsman-dominated game.

Only 16 wickets fell during the course of the first three days of play.

• Relive Tuesday's Bob Willis Trophy action as it happened

Warwickshire, winless after four games, were already out of the running, but Worcestershire now face a crunch top of the table final match with new Central Group leaders Somerset at New Road, starting in 12 days' time - on Sunday 6 September.

The Pears were displaced at the top of the table when Somerset finally got on the field at Taunton to prise the two wickets they needed to complete a crushing 314-win over Gloucestershire.

Somerset are now on 76 points - six ahead of Worcestershire. And, more pertinently, they have the highest points tally of all the three group leaders, better than North Group leaders Derbyshire (71) and South Group pacesetters Essex, who are on the same 70-point mark as the Pears.

The two group winners with the most points will go through to the final at Lord's in late September - but the Bob Willis Trophy now has a short break ahead of the start of the delayed T20 Blast over the August bank holiday weekend.

Worcestershire, winners in 2018 and runners-up in 2019, have revealed that they will be captained in this year's competition by their 24-year-old England Lions all-rounder Ed Barnard.

Worcestershire captain Joe Leach told BBC Hereford & Worcester:

"It was heading for a draw from 11:10 on day one if we are perfectly honest. You can't do much about the weather.

"It looked pretty bleak for a few days and then we knew we were going to get this storm. The ground is saturated, you've got no chance of getting on.

"In some respects, it is disappointing that the pitch and circumstances didn't allow a result but once again we applied ourselves exceptionally with the bat to get a first innings 'win' with this 120 overs rule.

"It sets us up for what in effect is a red ball semi-final in a couple of weeks time. If you had offered us that at the start, we'd have absolutely taken that."