Worcestershire CCC Bowling Coach-Assistant Coach Alan Richardson gave his reaction after the 10 wicket defeat at Northampton in the Specsavers County Championship.
Riki Wessels hit an unbeaten 84 on the final day to help Worcestershire avoid the follow on before the home side completed their victory mid-way through the afternoon session.
Richardson told BBC Hereford-Worcester’s Dave Bradley: “We were outplayed for the duration of the game really. We had glimpses of some performances from one or two individuals but nothing near long enough to compete with Northants over the last couple of days.
“We’ve had quite a period of the season in red ball cricket now where we haven’t produced at the top of the order and that is a continuing battle.
“On the first day, getting through that first session was really important. We have to back ourselves to do that and unfortunately we didn’t. Brett (Hutton) bowled really well and there were a couple of good deliveries in there.
“But we have to back ourselves to battle it out for those first couple of hours, potentially lose a couple of wickets, and build from there.
“As we saw, the wicket was quite good for the next day, day and a half and then it started to show that variable bounce and spin and that’ s where we hoped, by batting first, we would really start to come into the game.
“We went into the second day thinking if we could make some inroads and keep their lead as small as possible, then we would hopefully build our own pressure but Alex Wakely and Dwaine Pretorious played really well.
“We had a couple of opportunities that we didn’t take so again, we were our own worst enemies, and those are the things that happen.
“If you look at the duration of the game, they’ve done the basics for longer than we have and then been able to apply pressure and, when you are behind the game, it makes it really difficult.
“We’ve had an interesting six or seven weeks where we’ve been in and out of T20 cricket and red ball cricket and guys finding rhythm has been quite difficult.
“Riki (Wessels) has had a good T20 tournament, scored quickly, and it was nice for him to spend some time in the middle (in the Championship).
“There were a couple of half decent performances – Riki, Mo (Moeen Ali) got 40 in both innings, Joe (Leach) got fifty batting at ten on the first day and I thought Wayne Parnell bowled beautifully at times.
“But we just didn’t stack it up with partnerships or as a team for long enough and therefore we were behind the game.”
