Captain David Willey praised Worcestershire and Moeen Ali after consigning Yorkshire to an innings defeat at Scarborough.
Willey’s England limited overs team-mate was the standout performer in an innings and 186-run victory for the Pears.
Moeen scored 219 in the first innings, took six wickets in the second with his off-spinners, finishing with memorable match figures of 8-89.
Moeen is only the second Worcester player to have scored a double hundred and taken five wickets in an innings in the same Championship match.
The other was Ted Arnold against Warwickshire at Edgbaston in 1909 when he scored 200 not out and added seven for 44 in the second innings.
Worcester came into this match bottom of Division One, and this was only their second victory in nine.
The gap is now five points between the two counties, with Yorkshire having lost four of nine.
Both sides will have to wait for other games involving relegation rivals Lancashire and Hampshire to finish later today to see exactly where they sit in the table.
Yorkshire started day four on 140-6, losing their last four wickets in 40 minutes – two to Moeen and two to seamer Dillon Pennington, who also enjoyed a decent week.
The White Rose were bowled out for 170, with stand-in skipper Willey saying: “It’s been a difficult week.
“Sometimes you have to take your hat off and say ‘We’ve been outplayed’. That’s probably been the case this week, so credit to them. I think they applied themselves better. As a result, they confidently beat us.
“Moeen Ali played exceptionally well with bat and ball, and that’s why he’s doing what he’s doing at international level.
“There’s some areas we’d have liked to have done better, obviously, looking at the scores.
“We have to be honest with ourselves.
“It’s my first game as captain and first game back since Hampshire (in April 2017). I’m still getting my bearings with four-day cricket.
“It’s been a tough week all round.
“Ultimately, we have to look at the five games that are left and make sure we are doing the processes right. Hopefully we’ll get some results on the back of that.”
Willey continued: “We got 200 on the board first innings.
“When there are a couple of soft dismissals and decisions which weren’t quite right, you’re going to struggle to post a big score.
“From there, we were behind the eight ball.
“I don’t think we initially bowled that badly. But we could probably have come away from line and length and looked at some alternative ways to break that partnership between Moeen and Mitchell (294 for the second wicket in Worcester’s first-innings 572-7 declared).
“We saw that at the end of day two when Mo got dropped following a bouncer.
“We maybe needed to think outside the box.
“Maybe that falls on my shoulders a bit. First time back into four-day cricket, I didn’t want to be too funky.
“There are some learnings for me and the rest of the lads.
“There’s still a lot of cricket to be played, and I don’t want us to focus too much on winning or losing.
“We need to focus on what we’re doing and how we’re doing it – what we’re giving to the team.
“As long as I’m captain, if guys are doing their best for the team, that’s the way forwards. That maybe scrapping out for an hour or sticking in with the ball.”
Yorkshire’s next match is against Somerset at Emerald Headingley, starting next Wednesday.
