worcestershire first team coach alex gidman gave his reaction after a thrilling two wicket win over derbyshire falcons in the vitality blast at New Road this evening.
wayne parnell’s unbeaten 81 saw the rapids home with one over to spare after derbyshire had been restricted to 156-4.
the only downside for the rapids was a hand injury to skipper brett d’oliveira who picked up two wickets but was then struck on the hand and forced to bat down the order.
gidman, speaking after the game, said: “i thought it ebbed and flowed. credit to derbyshire. they played really well and adjusted to the conditions really well.
“but we found a way to win. these games are never easy. we played very well the other day (against durham) with an outstanding partnership (between martin guptill and riki wessels).
“today we needed a different skill set and we just managed to get over the line.
“you lost your ‘big guns’ early? that will happen and it will happen again at some stage and we know that as a group. we know they are extremely talented and amazing cricketers but they are only human and are not going to do it all the time.
“we are prepared for that and with the skill set of wayne and ross and a couple of other lads who didn’t have their day today, we know there is plenty in the bank.
“it was an outstanding win and lots of learning that we can use to improve and get better.
“it was a match-winning knock from wayne (parnell). generally to win these games you either need one guy to do something like that or you have one really good partnership.
“the other day we had the partnership, today we had that outstanding individual performance. i think ross whiteley’s contribution (20 off 12 balls) was important as well because i think the overs he was in, we scored really well which actually got us to the point where we were in control.
“although we had a little bit of a ‘moment’ losing a couple of wickets near the end, thankfully with wayne still there he got us over the line.
“wayne is an ex international cricketer, still young but very good. we know that. we are fortunate to have him and he has played a huge amount of this format of the game around the world.
“to have his experience at the end was really important and he played superbly well.
“you put wayne at number four? the balance of the team felt so good against notts (outlaws) obviously with moeen at number four and we just feel that middle is so strong that we want to try and keep that for the crunch times in the game.
“that was a decision we made and it has paid off today and we will look to continue that.
“wayne has been around the world playing all formats, but particularly white ball cricket so we are very lucky to have him.
“he is very good and long may it continue.”
daryl mitchell bowled a crucial spell of four overs for just 15 runs.
gidman said: “it was great, we really needed it. he bowled exceptionally well. the downside was derbyshire learnt a lot from it as well because they tried to mirror what he did – and did it really well.
“it was an outstanding bowling performance and, with brett the other end as well.
“until brett got a knock on the hand, they went really well (together), particularly after the powerplay, slowed it down and made it hard for derbyshire to score.”
