[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

The last time the Pears met the Bears in first-class cricket, David Cameron was newly re-elected and David Bowie was enjoying his last summer on earth. It's been half a decade since the rivals locked horns in the longest format, and a staggering twenty years - this very week in August 2000 - since Worcestershire last triumphed over their neighbours with the red ball thanks to a first-innings 160 from Vikram Solanki. The Bob Willis Trophy is offering Worcs a marvellous opportunity for a match to remember at New Road, and with the current slender lead over Somerset, there's everything to play for.

Warks are missing Dom Sibley thanks to England duty, and a top order that includes the likes of Ian Bell and Sam Hain has been mysteriously misfiring. So far in the competition they've drawn with Northants on a dead pitch, arsed up a run-chase against Gloucestershire and scraped another draw against Somerset thanks to a fortuitous day of rain. It's probably too late to be thinking about Lords, but if they want to maintain their two-decade-long unbeaten record against the Pears then they'll need Bell or Hain to find a bit of touch, or even Tim Bresnan to regain some of the lower-order clubbing power that saw him to a century in the season's first game and made him the county's top scorer so far in 2020. With ball in hand, it'll be Oliver Hannon-Dolby - with 18 wickets in the competition at an average of just 18.78 - who's the principal threat.

The weather may well be the worst enemy of both sides, with showers forecast on Sunday afternoon, all day Monday and thunderstorms on Tuesday. But as the forecast for Taunton is hardly any better, the Pears can only forge ahead and hope for the best.

Probable Worcestershire XI: Mitchell, Libby, Haynes, Fell, Wessels, D'Oliveira, Cox, Barnard, Leach, Tongue, Morris