Tom Fell spoke of his joy at completing his first hundred since getting the all clear in his cancer battle as Worcestershire Rapids kept alive their Royal London One-Day Cup quarter-final hopes.
Fell scored a brilliant 116 not out from 123 balls as the Rapids triumphed over Lancashire Lightning by four wickets at New Road yesterday, chasing down a 268 target with 14 balls to spare.
Now victory against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge in today's day-night encounter will put them in strong contention for a last eight place (2pm start).
Director of Cricket Steve Rhodes has named an unchanged squad for today's clash – the 11 in action yesterday plus pace duo Charlie Morris and Jack Shantry.
Fell said: "It felt really good. It was nice to get my first hundred since being back in the first team and it's a great win for us and gives us a really good shout of reaching the quarter-finals.
"With us not being in the T20 anymore, it's a chance for us to push for a white ball trophy.
"It is a huge game tomorrow against a good side like Notts. A good win there will hopefully give us a good chance of getting through to the quarters.
"I think we've played some good cricket in this competition. The first half, we won two out of three and had a couple of disappointing results after that.
"But it's nice to get another win and push for that quarter-final spot."
Fell was on 99 when a cut for four off spinner Stephen Parry took him to three figures off 104 balls with 14 boundaries. It was the cue for a standing ovation from the entire ground and his team-mates on the balcony while the Lancashire players also joined in the applause.
Fell said: "To be honest, at that time it was just about getting singles and ticking over. I knew I didn't have to do anything too spectacular to get over the mark.
"It was quite a nice situation for me really just to knock it about. "It is a stepping stone I guess. Any hundred is nice. I've had quite a lot of starts since I've been back and hopefully getting over the mark to a hundred will lead to a few more.
"I've had a bit of stick in the past from people saying I'm not fit enough to get a hundred in white ball cricket so I proved a few people wrong there!
"It actually felt pretty good. There weren't many twos and threes out there. It was more singles and I actually felt quite good and strong towards the end."
Fell added: "We spoke at half-time and thought 240-250 was about par because it was quite a slow, tacky wicket and obviously they've got some good spinners.
"To chase that down was a good effort from the lads and the way Ross (Whitely) and Coxy (Ben Cox) came in towards the end, really took the pressure off me.
"There was a bit of a difficult period, losing a couple of wickets, and they came in and got those boundaries and I could just knock it around and play my game."
RAPIDS (from):
Mitchell
Kohler-Cadmore
Fell
Clarke
D'Oliveira
Whiteley
Cox
Rhodes
Leach
Barnard
Abbott
Morris
Shantry
