A five-wicket blast from Chris Rushworth wans’t enough for Durham as they fell to a third successive Specsavers County Championship defeat, going down at Worcestershire’s New Road.

Rushworth picked up five wickets and posed all sorts of problems in reducing the homes side to 55-5 in pursuit of a modest 81 target.

It was the 22nd five-wicket haul of his career and ended with figures of 9-3-28-5.

The sixth wicket pair of Ross Whiteley and Ben Cox saw Worcestershire over the finishing line half an hour before lunch.

Worcestershire again showed their prowess with the ball with Charlie Morris following up his career best 7-45 in the win over Leicestershire with a return of 6-53 in the first innings.

Josh Tongue confirmed his potential in front of England director of cricket Ashley Giles with a five-wicket haul and skipper Joe Leach confirmed his fitness after 11 months out with a stress fracture of the back.

A lack of substantial scores have led to Durham’s downfall in four-day cricket this year.

Totals of 171, 235, 224, 189, 273 and 197 have given their bowlers insufficient runs to defend and has left them anchored at the bottom of the table with just 11 bonus points.

A target of 150 would have presented a substantial challenge to Worcestershire in the overcast conditions and Rushworth asking questions with almost every delivery.

Rushworth was soon into his stride in trapping Daryl Mitchell (9) lbw after he offered no stroke and George Rhodes (0) went for a drive and was bowled.

Josh Dell (4) failed to repeat the heroics of his first innings half century on debut and also had his stumps shattered by Rushworth.

First innings century-maker Riki Wessels was undone by a ball which kept low and castled him for a third-ball duck.

Fell mixed some genuine attacking strokes with fortuitous edges in making 36 off 37 balls with eight fours before he went lbw.