Friday, May 25th, 2018

Joe Leach: Rapids Versus Jets Post Match Reaction

Worcestershire Rapids skipper Joe Leach has given his reaction to today’s nine run defeat under the Duckworth-Lewis system to Durham Jets at South Northumberland Cricket Club.

Leach told BBC Hereford-Worcester: “We are very disappointed to be honest because we should have won that game very easily even with the weather (intervention).

“We’ve let ourselves down really. We are going back to Worcester without the two points we deserved for the first half of the game but our game management in the second half wasn’t good enough.

“We’ve just sat down and spoken about Duckworth-Lewis chases and we probably feel like we are never going to get an easier one. As I say, we are bitterly disappointed.
“Look, the first half was probably as close to perfect as you could wish to get. It was nice to see Charlie amongst the wickets, a nice four-for, and I thought Pat Brown bowled well. In fact, the whole group were very good.

“But I can’t quite shake off the disappointment of that run chase.

“We are very lucky these days. We have all the figures available these days. We knew exactly where we needed to be (in the run chase) almost by the ball and that’s what makes the pill even harder to swallow.

“The task was laid out pretty straightforwardly for us and we haven’t managed to knock off the runs we needed or to get ourselves into a position to win the game.

“I think if that game had lasted 50 overs I would feel more than confident we would knock off their score even from the position we found ourselves in.

“But we knew the rain was coming, Duckworth-Lewis was always going to play a part in this game and we just didn’t manage it well enough.”