Group A leaders Warwickshire booked at least a quarter-final place as they made it six wins out of six against Northampton on a rain-hit day of action in the One-Day Cup.

Victory kept the Bears’ 100% record going and the side on track for a home semi-final.

Gloucestershire maintained their quarter-final push after Jack Taylor’s sensational century set up a crushing win over Sussex.

Taylor clubbed 106 off 54 balls – the county’s fastest List A ton – and, with Ollie Price’s 95, helped pile up an intimidating 311 in their 38-overs match.

Sussex wilted under the pressure, buckling to 145 all out to lose by 166 runs.

Worcestershire are still very much in the hunt for the latter stages too after Kashif Ali’s hitting illuminated the dank conditions at the County Ground, with 88 off 36 balls their 62-run win over Derbyshire in their 30-overs game.

Derbyshire gave a debut to 16-year-old Henry Moore, making him the club’s youngest-ever player, but were left to rue a specular collapse with the bat as they subsided to 192 all out chasing 253, with Luis Reece’s brilliant 96 off 54 balls in vain.

Bears total proves beyond Northants

With the weather delaying play in Birmingham until 17:00 GMT, conditions cleared up enough to get a game on.

In-form all-rounder Ed Barnard again impressed at the top of the order, whacking 32 off 14 balls before captain Will Rhodes (23 off 15) and wicketkeeper Michael Burgess (26 off 19) propelled Bears to a testing 104 off their overs.

Needing to go at over 10 runs per over, Northants’ reply never got going as they lost wickets regularly on the way to mustering only 80, with Tom Taylor making 29 and the competition’s leading wicket-taker Ollie Hannon-Dalby taking his tally to 20 with 2-10.

With a two-point lead and two matches left, Warwickshire know a home tie in the last four is tantalisingly close.

Tremendous Taylor ton inspires Gloucestershire to big win

Back-to-back wins over Somerset and Glamorgan had moved Gloucestershire up to second in Group B before this round of matches, and after being put into bat following a delay of just over 90 minutes they made a lively start despite the early loss of Chris Dent.

James Bracey, fresh from his record double century against Glamorgan, put on 78 for the second wicket with Ollie Price before cutting loosely to Cheteshwar Pujara off the left-arm spin of Jack Carson for a 36-ball 41.

At 127-4, Sussex were in reasonable control only for Price and Taylor to wreak havoc.

The pair produced an astonishing exhibition of hitting, with Taylor particularly savage. He cleared the ropes seven times and walloped another eight fours on his way to the fastest List A hundred by a Gloucestershire player.

His half-century came off just 26 balls, reaching his century 26 deliveries later.

Price, who contributed 42 in their partnership of 128 for the fifth wicket, perished in the deep looking to reach three figures first and when Taylor was out two balls after bringing up his ton, Gloucestershire were three short of 300.

The last three wickets scrambled them to 311 off their 38 overs, with Henry Crocombe returning career-best figures of 4-64.

Sussex made a solid start to their chase, reaching 39 without loss, before captain Tom Haines slapped Tom Price to cover and was followed by Paul van Meekeren’s brilliant piece of fielding to throw down the stumps and run-out Tom Alsop attempting a sharp single.

That wobble continued as three more wickets fell for 43 to leave them 88-5.

With India star Pujara still in, Sussex had hope at 126-5, but when he was out lbw sweeping spinner Tom Smith (3-16) for 32, the home side’s slim chances disappeared as the last four wickets fell for 19, leaving them 145 all out.

The result kept Gloucestershire in second spot, two points behind the Bears, with one game left – against Durham – on Tuesday.

Kashif cashes in as Worcestershire stay in top-three contention

There was an innings to rival Taylor’s at the County Ground in Derby as Worcestershire looked to keep the pressure up on Gloucestershire and leaders Warwickshire against Derbyshire.

Asked to bat first in a match delayed until just after 14:00 GMT, the visitors lost openers Gareth Roderick and Ed Pollock with only 11 runs on the board.

But, just as they did in their win over Northamptonshire, when they put on a record 194 together, Jones and Libby first consolidated and then started to shift the momentum of the innings.

When he was out after compiling a second consecutive score over 50, fears that the fluency of Worcestershire’s innings would falter were dispelled by Kashif, who produced a List A cameo to remember.

His 50 came off 24 balls and when he was caught on the cover boundary off Sam Conners, he had creamed 88 off 36 balls with eight fours and seven brutal sixes.

Libby’s third half-century in four innings left them 21 short of the 250 they were chasing when the captain was out, but Ben Cox improvised his way superbly to 22 off 11 balls to take the visitors to 254-5.

Derbyshire looked well set for only their second win in the competition when Reece’s mix of power and touch had them 145-2 after 18 overs.

But Wayne Madsen miscued Matthew Waite to Pat Brown at deep cover to start an alarming slide that saw six wickets lost for 28 runs – including Reece, four short of a century, dismissed by Brown, who finished with his best List A figures of 4-51.

Worcestershire stay third, behind Gloucestershire on run rate, with their final game at home to Sussex on Sunday.