worcestershire head bowling coach alan richardson hailed a “complete performance” from the rapids who made it four wins out of four in the vitality blast with their 41 run home win over northamptonshire steelbacks.
the rapids smashed 130-3 in nine overs thanks to joe clarke (28), travis head (37) and ross whiteley (36 not out) and then dillon pennington with a four wicket blast destroyed any hopes the steelbacks had of reaching their target.
victory keeps the rapids top of the north group as a New Road crowd were rewarded for their patience by another impressive display from the home side.
richardson said: “as performances go for us this campaign, that was a complete performance.
“we had no idea of what a good score was going to be in nine overs. none of the guys had played that before but the batting unit was sensational.
“there was a real intensity in what they were doing and probably gave us an over par score in nine overs, probably better than we could have wished for.
“than obviously the bowlers….the scoreboard pressure helped, but they executed their skills brilliantly i thought.
“dillon has had quite a start, hasn’t he! he has done brilliantly well.
“i’m fairly new to the club but i remember watching him on tv in the under-19s world cup and all the reports back, and the things that we saw, showed there is a guy who has got some real ability there with the ball, especially the new ball in white ball bowling.
“they were very impressed with him over there (in new zealand) and, the chances he’s had with us, he has shown what he can do.
“he bowls a really good length, hits the seam consistently and asks questions and it is very difficult then for batters to be able to line him up and hit him out of the ground.
“he’ll have his day – and today was one of those.”
in terms of the rapids performances, richardson said: “i think the confidence has spread through from the 50 over competition and that thankfully has also gone into the t20 campaign.
“it is similar. we are just condensing it down but the guys are having similar roles and are just trying to execute similar skills.
“the guys are just backing themselves. they are practicing really hard, practicing with really good intent and they back themselves in a game to do that.
“it is obviously helping that it is coming off in games so that they have the confidence to do that but there is no repercussions for the guys if they go out and practice the way they do and it doesn’t quite come off.
“we are happy with that. obviously if it does come off, we are ecstatic and we are going to win games.”
northamptonshire head coach david ripley said: “we were considerably on the wrong end of things and that is the disappointing thing.
“we haven’t really been competitive. a one-sided nine over game. you don’t often lose a nine over game by the amount of runs we did.
“we were disappointing, worcestershire were very good and looked like a team that are full of confidence and we didn’t.
“they have invested in overseas batters and with joe clarke, they have three big guns firing upfront. they got a foothold in the game and we found it hard to claw that back.
“we looked very tentative in the field and in the same conditions worcestershire looked hungry to pull balls in and, with richard levi, the catch that ed barnard took was an example of the difference between the sides, probably mentally.”
