worcestershire rapids will be hoping for a helping hand from durham in the battle for a vitality blast home quarter-final tie this evening.
the rapids take on northamptonshire steelbacks in their final vitality blast north group game at wantage road (18.30pm start).
they currently trail notts outlaws, who entertain durham at the same time, by a single point after wednesday’s wash-out between the two counties at New Road.
they will need to defeat the steelbacks and hope the outlaws slip up at trent bridge if they are to finish in the top two and secure a home semi at New Road.
rapids first team coach alex gidman has announced an unchanged 13 strong squad – the same 11 who played against lancashire lightning on sunday plus club captain joe leach and paceman charlie morris.
gidman said: “northants are a good team. they would have had an outside chance of qualifying had things gone really well their way and not so well for us.
“but they are still a very dangerous team and one we hugely respect.
“we will go there focusing on ourselves, being aware of the challenge, but looking to perform ourselves to take that momentum into the following week.
“we will go and try and win the game and put pressure on notts to beat durham to give ourselves a chance of a home quarter-final.
“win or lose, we will try and perform the best we can so there will be plenty of positives to take into the quarter-finals.”
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rapids (from):
wessels
rutherford
moeen ali ©
parnell
fell
cox (w)
whiteley
barnard
mitchell
pennington
brown
leach
morris
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north group
leading positions
lightning played 13, won 7, lost 2, tied 0, no result 4, points 18, run rate 0.773
outlaws 13, 6, 3, 0, 4, 16, 0.672
falcons 14, 7, 5, 0, 2, 16, 0.022
rapids 13, 6, 4, 0, 3, 15, 0.278
