Rhodes makes century as Pears-Bears ends in draw

Will Rhodes' 121 not out was his second century for Warwickshire at Worcester

Vitality County Championship Division One, Worcester (day four)

Worcestershire 307: D'Oliveira 76, Waite 53; Hannon-Dalby 3-64

Warwickshire 128: Davies 58; Taylor 6-28 & 252-3: Rhodes 121*, Davies 65

Worcestershire (13 pts) drew with Warwickshire (11 pts)

Match scorecard

Former Warwickshire captain Will Rhodes completed his century but the weather had the final word at Worcester as the second County Championship Midlands derby of the summer ended in another rain-hit draw.

Just as in the first meeting of the season in early April, too much time was lost in the Pears-Bears rematch.

But, on a day when Nottinghamshire and Lancashire both lost, the two Midlands rivals now look almost certain to stay up.

Despite missing the chance to extend their run of three straight Championship wins, Worcestershire are now 40 points clear of danger - with only two games left and a maximum 48 points on the table.

Warwickshire are only slightly worse off, four points behind the Pears and 36 clear of second-to-bottom Lancs.

Warwickshire were still eight runs in arrears when they resumed on the final morning on 171-3.

And had the Pears enjoyed the sort of start they did on day three - when they bowled out the Bears for 128 and forced them to follow on - it might have been a different outcome.

Instead Rhodes went on to complete his third Championship ton of the season - all in just four matches against the Kookaburra ball - and now needs only 46 more runs to complete his 1,000 first-class runs in a season for the first time.

He was given solid support by teenager Hamza Sheikh, who finished on 33 not out to follow up his career-best 91 for England Lions against Sri Lanka at New Road last month.

Sheikh extended the fourth-wicket stand to 83 with Rhodes, who enjoyed his own career-best 207 at Worcester in the Bob Willis Trophy four years ago.

After Rhodes leg-glanced first-innings hero Tom Taylor for four to steer Warwickshire into the lead, then on-drove Matthew Waite to the boundary, he reached three figures with a cover drive off Logan van Beek.

The Bears still had to survive the second new ball, which only triggered one alarm when Taylor found Rhodes' edge - only to see it fall tantalisingly out of reach at second slip. But, having safely negotiated the morning session, a heavy post-lunch downpour proved terminal.

The Bears now face Essex at home next Tuesday, when Worcestershire go to Hampshire.

Worcestershire head coach Alan Richardson told BBC Hereford & Worcester:

“A lot pleased me about that game. For us to have lost the toss and be put in to bat on a September morning is a big challenge and we did really well. The boys put together some really nice partnerships.

"Batting wise, we knew it was going to be a challenge in Division One. The attacks are very good but we’ve stuck at it brilliantly and given ourselves a chance. Brett D'Oliveira has been in great nick and done really well.

“Matthew Waite came in, first game for a while, and put together a really good partnership. Tommy Taylor, again did fantastically well and Jack Home would have enjoyed his first knock in first-class cricket. A big thing for us is batting the whole way down, valuing our wickets.

“As for Tom Taylor’s spell, he was inspired. He bowled beautifully against Kent and took two or three wickets in the game. We said ‘his time will come’ and it did. It was a crazy 45 minutes but thoroughly deserved for Tommy.”

Warwickshire first-team coach Mark Robinson told BBC CWR:

“In some ways, you have disappointment because the weather denies you the chance to do things off your own back. But what we have to say is that for large parts of the game we haven’t played very well.

"We should probably have bowled them out for 180 on that wicket. There was enough in it. With a bit of luck on the first morning, they could have been five or six wickets down but we weren’t at our best.

“We actually didn’t do too bad the next day to be only four down in horrendous batting conditions. The light was barely playable and we were on and off all the time. But the next morning you can’t lose six wickets for 14 runs when it didn’t actually do that much.

"It is not good enough. But we showed some character, Davo and Rhodesy for the majority and then young Hamza."