worcestershire head coach kevin sharp gave his reaction after the rapids went down by five wickets to notts outlaws in their penultimate vitality blast north group encounter at New Road.
brett d’oliveira hit his highest ever t20 score – 64 – in the rapids 191-6 but riki wessels 55 off 18 balls with nine sixes put the outlaws on the way to a victory they achieved with 11 balls to spare.
sharp said: “we were quite happy with our score (191). we accumulated a good score there.
“i actually don’t think there has been much in the game, probably three overs when they were batting.
“wessels played some fantastic shots and that is the first time that has probably happened to us by an individual in the first six overs to that extent.
“they got off to a flier, 80 odd runs in six overs, but what i was really pleased about was that we got back in the game.
“that showed again the fight and resilience of the lads and there was looking a point where it could get tight again.
“they obviously had that one good over, and played three good shots against mo (moeen ali), and whacked them for six, and that’s what got them over the line.
“they weren’t bad balls. he (tom moores) just hit them off length coming down the pitch and middled all of them.
“another day they go straight up in the air and we could have been in the box seat. that’s the fine lines of t20 cricket.
“you win one, you lose one and fortunately this year we’ve won more than we’ve lost and are still in a quarter-final – but we do want a home tie.
“was i pleased with the form of brett d’oliveira? dolly has been a little bit short of runs for him but tonight he and coxy (ben cox) had a good partnership.
“coxy didn’t go onto make a big score but he contributed and, for two lads who have probably been a bit more short of runs than what they normally would be, it was very pleasing to see and dolly played a fantastic innings. great stuff for him.”
