Bears rally at Worcester after Taylor's 6-28

Tom Taylor's career-best 6-28 at Worcester beat his previous best 6-47 in 2019

Vitality County Championship Division One, Worcester (day three)

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

Warwickshire 128: Davies 58; Taylor 6-28 & 171-3: Rhodes 72*, Davies 65

Warwickshire (3 pts) trail Worcestershire (5 pts) by eight runs

Match scorecard

Worcestershire all-rounder Tom Taylor took a career-best 6-28 on a morning of mayhem as Warwickshire were made to follow on in the Pears-Bears derby.

But, after slumping from their overnight score of 112-4 to be bowled out for 128, the Bears had rallied well by the end of another rain-hit day at Worcester.

When play was finally abandoned after the loss of half a day's play, the Bears were on 171-3 in their second innings, still eight runs adrift - but in a lot happier position after half-centuries from former skipper Will Rhodes, who is on 72 overnight, and captain Alex Davies (65).

The game still looks like ending in a rain-affected draw, just like this season's first County Championship derby meeting in April..

But Taylor did at least bring the contest truly to life with surely one of the most incredible wicket-taking bursts ever seen at New Road.

The Bears had no hint of the carnage to come as they resumed 195 in arrears with six first-innings wickets left.

But, off only the second ball of the day, bowling from the Diglis End, Taylor had England Under-19s captain Hamza Shaikh caught behind, then Michael Burgess caught at second slip off the fourth ball of his second over.

Then, from the first two deliveries of his third over, he had Danny Briggs lbw before bowling Michael Rae first ball. Taylor had taken four wickets in 13 balls to earn a first five-wicket haul for the Pears.

Olly Hannon-Dalby survived the hat-trick ball and for the lion's share of the next three overs too. But, with the last ball of Taylor's fifth over, he departed too, a fifth wicket of the morning to earn the ex-Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Northants man new career-best bowling figures.

With 30 still needed to avoid the follow-on, ex-Pears all-rounder Ed Barnard tried to smash his side out of trouble, but holed out at the first attempt to home skipper Brett D'Oliveira in the mid-wicket boundary.

Worse was to come for the Bears when Rob Yates was quickly removed by Logan van Beek in their second innings but Rhodes dug in with Davies, who has now hit over half his 1,089 runs this season in six innings against the Kookaburra ball.

Although Davies departed, playing on to ex-Bears team-mate Ethan Brookes for the second time in the game, Warwickshire ended the day better placed than they might at one time have imagined.