A brilliant unbeaten 150 from 20-year-old Alex Hales was not enough to prevent Nottinghamshire tumbling to a seven-wicket defeat by Worcestershire in NatWest Pro40 Division One on Saturday.

Hales smashed eight sixes and 13 fours from 102 balls to guide the hosts to 282 for seven in what was his second century from only his 10th limited-overs game.

But England hopeful Steve Davies then cracked 106 of his own from just 78 balls in a partnership of 169 with Stephen Moore to set the Royals on the way to a comfortable victory.

Moore finished on 87 not out, including nine fours and a six and was joined by Ben Smith (40 not out) to finish things off with 13 balls to spare, to keep Worcestershire in the title hunt, while Notts remain rooted to the foot of Division One.

Notts chose to bat after winning the toss and got off to a bright start, reaching 26 in the fourth over before Ali Brown drove to mid-on.

That brought Hales to the wicket and while the 6ft 4in right-hander saw opener Matt Wood fall to a sharp return catch by Imran Arif for 22, continued to attack the Worcestershire bowling, driving on the up and pulling off front and back foot to anything pitched short.

But only Kevin O'Brien of the Notts batsmen was able to stay with Hales for any length of time, as Samit Patel holed out to deep square leg, Bilal Shafayat was run out and Chris Read edged to Davies behind the stumps.

O'Brien made 42 before he was bowled with Paul Franks soon following, but Hales finished the innings in style with his eighth six off the final ball from Jack Shantry.

Despite the brilliance of Hales, the out-of-form Notts bowlers were put to the sword by Davies and Moore, who quickly took the game away from the hosts.

Vikram Solanki got the ball rolling with 27 before cutting Charlie Shreck to point, having faced every delivery from the first four overs, but both Davies and Moore scored freely, hitting to all parts of the ground.

Notts tried six bowlers but could not stem the flow of runs, although Davies was finally dismissed caught and bowled by Franks and Moeen Ali run out by a direct hit from Shafayat.

And the match was finished off by Smith, who hit Shreck over cover for six and then cut to third man for four.