VIKRAM Solanki and Phil Jaques staged a stirring 223-run partnership to lead Worcestershire to an eight-wicket triumph over their old rivals Warwickshire in a splendid Friends Provident Trophy game at New Road.

Faced with Warwickshire's massive 303-6, the Royals batted superbly as they chased down the imposing total with ease, eventually winning with four overs to spare.

Captain Solanki carried his bat for 144, while Jaques batted his way into some sort of form with a gritty 102 as the pair compiled a county-record one-day partnership against the Bears, surpassing Graeme Hick and Tom Moody's unbroken 198 in the Natwest Trophy final at Lord's in 1994.

Skipper Solanki, batting in his preferred opening slot as opposed to number three, said: "It's been a tough season to date, but that makes it even more pleasing to have played the way we did and the fact it was against Warwickshire was the icing on the cake.

"It was a daunting target, but once Phil and I had put together a lengthy partnership, we gave ourselves the opportunity to challenge.

"Then myself and Ben (Smith) put together another partnership at the end to get us over the line. It was pleasing that I was there at the end. In the past I've been accused - rightly so - of not seeing games through so I took a lot of pleasure from walking off at the end.

"Chasing scores of over 300, you need someone to get a hundred and you need to build partnerships and we managed to do that - I don't think we could have played that run chase any better.

"There was a lot of pride at stake for us and I think we played in a manner that showed that pride. Worcestershire against Warwickshire are always great games and the atmosphere was really good."

Solanki is now urging his team-mates to draw on the confidence from the victory to turn around their faltering season.

He added: "I certainly think we can use this result to kick-start our season. If you can't take confidence from a win like that, it is difficult to know what you can take confidence from.

"I am very confident in the group of guys we have here and if we keep working hard I am sure we can turn the corner in the four-day format of the game too. We need to get onto some sort of a roll and get a winning habit going."

Worcestershire made a great start to the game with Kabir Ali removing Ian Westwood in the first over before Warwickshire had scored a run.

However, classy Sri Lankan Kumar Sangakarra and Bears skipper Darren Maddy set about compiling an excellent 199-run partnership.

The visitors built on the solid foundation and went on to post a daunting 303-6 and the New Road doom-mongers were fully expecting another defeat to go with the Durham debacle from Friday.

Openers Solanki and Jaques had other ideas though and put together their fantastic match-winning partnership.

Jaques edged Dale Steyn to Tim Ambrose when on 102 but Ben Smith (44no) batted well with Solanki as the County eased to a morale-boosting victory with four overs to spare.