Saturday, July 12th, 2014

Bumpy Looking For Rapids To “lick Our Wounds And Fightback” After Derby Loss

Bumpy Looking For Rapids To “lick Our Wounds And Fightback” After Derby Loss

Steve Rhodes is looking to Worcestershire Rapids to "lick our wounds, brush ourselves down and fight back" after suffering a last over five wicket defeat to Birmingham Bears in a NatWest T20 Blast derby at Edgbaston.

Director of Cricket Rhodes saw some "very good things" in the Rapids performance in front of a 12,000 plus crowd.

Tom Kohler-Cadmore hit his maiden half century in T20 cricket while spinner Saeed Ajmal returned the excellent figures of 3-17 from four overs in his final appearance in the competition this season.

But the focus now is on the remaining two North Group matches with Northamptonshire Steelbacks and Derbyshire Falcons which will decide if the county are to qualify for the quarter-finals.

Rhodes said: "I thought there were some very good things about Worcestershire. I thought the batting was good.

"Tom Kohler-Cadmore at the age of 19 playing in front of a big crowd, on a big stage, a Test ground, against a good attack, to play like the way he did was outstanding.

"At 19, what a bright prospect he is. If he keeps his head screwed on and carries on progressng, then there is a really, really exciting cricketer there. I thought his innings was excellent.

"We lost our way slightly just before the last five overs and that meant we just had to tick along and make sure we had a few wickets in hand so we could maximise those last four or five overs.

"I thought Ross Whiteley and Ben Cox fought back for us and Dolly put in a nice little cameo at the end but 175, we'd have settled for that at the start of the match.

"I've got to say I thought things didn't quite go our way in the field. The ball was just eluding our fielders and when it went up in the air, it was just out of reach and very frustrating.

"All credit to Warwickshire and particular Varun Chopra who played an outstanding innings in chasing a score down. He kept a cool head and it was a mature innings.

"It was a good game of cricket, not quite there for Worcestershire, and we were just second best."

Rhodes added: "You look at Saeed Ajmal's figures again, incredible, and he bowled beautifully and he had three wickets and could easily have had another couple.

"He was outstanding but again we've got to lick our wounds and brush ourselves down and fight back now.

"We've got a crucial couple of games going forward but the pleasing thing is we've played a game where we've batted well. We could have bowled better. I thought the spinners did a good job, we fielded pretty well so we've given it a good crack.

"We lost to a side that also played very well. That's cricket, they are allowed to play well, and you take it on the chin and say well done and move on.

"We've got a couple of games where we've got to make sure we qualify."