Daryl Mitchell was delighted to pick up his first trophy as Worcestershire captain as the Rapids overcame Birmingham Bears by five wickets in the T20 Blast at Edgbaston.
Mitchell proudly lifted the inaugral Norman Gifford Trophy which the two local rivals will contest whenever they meet in the short format of the game.
And the 32-year-old was particularly delighted with the Rapids success after admitting there were areas for improvement.
Mitchell said: "It is the first trophy I've picked up as captain I think. It is special with it being named after Norman Gifford, a Worcestershire legend who works with our spinners.
"It was a brilliant win and probably the most pleasing thing was we weren't quite at our best.
"To come somewhere like this and beat a very good side like Birmingham was really pleasing.
"We weren't at our best all the way through the game but we had some really great patches.
"To still have a little bit of room for improvement, bodes well for future games."
Mitchell hailed the performance with the ball of man of the match Brett D'Oliveira (1-17) and Ed Barnard (1-14) in restricting Birmingham to 155.
He said: "I thought Barny and Dolly both bowled exceptionally well and both bowled four straight overs in the middle of a T20 game which is pretty unusual.
"They put the squeeze on the Birmingham batsmen and brought us right back into the game.
"Was I happy chasing 155? Very much so. Originally I thought maybe it was a 170-180 wicket so being 15-20 runs short of where par was I thought, we were pretty pleased really."
D'Oliveira followed up his leg spin with an unbeaten 62 while Alexei Kervezee's quickfire 40 was also a crucial effort.
Mitchell said: "Obviously we didn't get off to the best start with the bat which made things a little bit more difficult.
"But in the end, with the way Dolly played, we got there pretty comfortably
"It is easy to miss Alexei's innings with how well Dolly played but that was a vital innings at a tough time for us.
"I think we were 40-3 at one point and Alexei kept going, kept hitting his boundaries, kept striking the ball beautifully.
"It was his first game in the competition for us this year and that bodes well.
"Missing Mitch Santner is a big blow but if someone like Alexei can step in and fill his boots like that, it shows our strength in depth."
