Worcestershire Director of Cricket Steve Rhodes gives his reaction to BBC Hereford-Worcester's Ian Randall after the Royal London One-Day Cup defeat by Somerset at Taunton today.
Question: What is your assessment of today's game?
Steve Rhodes: "I think Somerset thoroughly deserved the win. They were better in all departments than us. But the good thing about defeat is you look at it and definitely see areas you can improve. That is what we have spoken about. In all departments, particularly with the bat. I think we can be a lot better in our starts, working the ball around and putting the bad ball away for four. Definitely things in this young team that they can progress with."
Question: A first 50 for Ed Barnard showed today there is potential with bat as well as ball?
Steve Rhodes: "Ed has always really been a batting bowler. He played his England Under-19 cricket for England as a batter who bowled occasionally. The good thing for us is he always could bowl as a youngster and once his body stopped growing and he filled out a little bit, his bowling really did come back so for him to go and get 50 is no surprise. As a 19-year-old cricketer, he is a very bright prospect as are many of our young players are."
Question: You said after the Yorkshire game that the start was the problem as you lost early wickets. Again today 28-3 is not an ideal position to be in?
Steve Rhodes: "No, to get to where we want to be after 30 overs, we need good starts. That's letting us down and something we've got to put right."
Question: You had a grip on the game in the middle order, but Tom Cooper was the glue of the innings for them?
Steve Rhodes: "He played well to his credit. After the dismissal of Jamie Overton, he and Jim Allenby probably felt they needed to steady things and they took quite a conservative approach and we bowled quite well at them so there was a bit of stalemate for a while.
"To Cooper's credit he got through. He soaked up a lot of balls for his fifty and exploded in his last 40 runs. It was a good knock for them because it meant they got the end flurry that they wanted in the last five overs.
"We want to get good starts. If we get good starts, we give ourselves the chance to do that sort of thing."
Question: There are eight games in the pool, can you still be competitive in the group?
Steve Rhodes: "What we need to do is try and win the rest of the games and see where we are at the end of it."
Question: Do you get encouragement from today that you can do that?
Steve Rhodes: "Look, the two performances, we know we can do a lot better. I've got a lot of confidence in this group of players because they are young and the desire to do well is excellent. Can they pick themselves up? Of course they can."
Question: Is it good you have another game so soon on Sunday?
Steve Rhodes: "I think as a coach you want to try and improve in the areas that need to improve. You also want to enhance and make better your strengths.
"But you can't dwell too much when you've got games coming up, sometimes the next day. We will have a breather on Saturday, recharge the batteries and the energy levels and then come in and go hard on Sunday against Northants. It's a fresh day and we look forward to it.
"We do know Northants pretty well, they know us pretty well and in the T20 we had one win each so we are looking forward to a really good battle."
Question: In short today, Ed Barnard's performance the one real good factor for you?
Steve Rhodes: "I thought Barny bowled really well as well. He had 3-16 off about five overs and suddenly there is a border-line call, and I'm not blaming the umpires, for a bouncer. It was a very tight call and who knows, it possibly was above head high and the umpire felt that.
"Now with the new rules that means it is a no ball and a free hit. International rules state that it is a wide so you don't have a free-hit. The whole idea I feel that we are playing international rules is to prepare our players for international cricket. That's the whole ideaof playing 50 over cricket and not 40 over cricket.
"So for us to have a different rule on a height ball is absolutely crazy for me. We are either doing this so we can prepare our guys for international cricket or not. If we are going to change that rule, you could change any other rule as well. It seems crazy we are not doing exactly the same as in T20 which is play international rules. But that decision had no impact on how the game went."
