Saturday, July 9th, 2016

Rhodes Says Focus On Winning Final Three Group Matches

Rhodes Says Focus On Winning Final Three Group Matches

Steve Rhodes says the focus is on Worcestershire Rapids winning their final three North Group games in the battle for qualification for the NatWest T20 Blast quarter-finals.

The Rapids take on Notts Outlaws at Trent Bridge this afternoon in the Sky Sports televised clash, looking to bounce back from last evening's seven wicket home defeat against Lancashire Lightning.

After today, the Rapis entertain Birmingham Bears and wind up their group programme against Derbyshire Falcons at the 3aaa County Ground.

Director of Cricket Rhodes said: "The equation is simple. In the dressing room after the game at night we had a really good chat about it.

"We know exactly what we need to do. We need to win three games and that's what we will be going out to do.

"It is a very simple equation. We now that. We've put last night's game already to bed and we are looking forward to the Notts game."

Rhodes says the Rapids were not at their best against Lancashire for whom Jos Buttler smashed 57 off 22 balls despite suffering a thumb injury whilst keeping wicket.

He said: "How do I assess the performance? 50% which is disappointing. We needed to play well to beat Lancashire, they are champions, and they've got in Jos Buttler the match-winner the other day in the T20 international for England.

"He is a very special talent. You can see why the IPL comes calling to him and he is one of the best T20 players in the world.

"It is very difficult bowling at Jos Buttler. We dropped him and he made us pay and that's the reason they got so many runs (98-1) in those first six overs."

Rhodes added: "We lost too many wickets. We were bowled out in 19.4 overs and that's not what we want to do.

"We want our middle order maximinsing those last overs, not our tail. That's not ideal.

"Having said that, we posted a reasonable total and if we'd had a reasonable powerplay (when bowling) we'd have gone a long way to winning that in the field as well.

"We had some mistakes in the field. Some of the extras and no balls and free hits is something we pride ourselves on avoiding."