Wednesday, May 17th, 2017

Rapids Take On Yorkshire Or Surrey In June 17 New Road Semi

Rapids Take On Yorkshire Or Surrey In June 17 New Road Semi

Worcestershire Rapids will face either Yorkshire Vikings or Surrey in the semi-finals of the Royal London One-Day Cup at New Road.

The mouth-watering tie will take place at New Road on Saturday, June 17.

Yorkshire and Surrey will meet at Headingley on June 13 to decide who will meet the Rapids who topped the North Group.

In the other tie, South Group winners Essex Eagles will face the victors of the Somerset-Notts Outlaws meeting on Friday, June 16.

Opener Daryl Mitchell is relishing the prospect of a home semi-final for the Rapids.

The Rapids made sure of their first semi-final appearance for 13 years via Tuesday's five wicket win over Derbyshire Falcons at the 3aaa County Ground.

That completed a trio of wins in the space of five days after the home triumphs over Warwickshire and Durham Jets.

Mitchell, who has scored three half centuries in six knocks in the competition, said: "The home game is important for the club financially.

"To get a big crowd in at New Road for a knockout game is always exciting.

"But from our point of view as players, we know those conditions, we know our own wickets.

"Anyone who comes down to New Road, we will back ourselves if we perform to the best of our ability to give them a good game."

Mitchell has seen Worcestershire gradually improve in the 50 over competition in recent seasons.

He said: "I think it has been slowly building over the last two or three years.

"We've picked up some big scalps, away to Yorkshire, away at Trent Bridge, away at Edgbaston in that period.

"We are showing a lot more maturity and a lot more fight and a lot more confidence.

"That comes from winning a lot of games this year so to never feel you are out of the game with the quality we've got in the squad."