Head Coach Alan Richardson said he will be looking for a “huge upturn” in performance when Worcestershire Rapids return to Metro Bank One-Day Cup action against Northamptonshire Steelbacks at the County Ground, Northampton on Wednesday.
The Rapids had won three of their opening four games in the 50-over competition and played excellent cricket but went down by nine wickets to Warwickshire in a one-sided derby at New Road after being bowled out for 108.
Matthew Waite made an excellent 44, but the other batters found it a challenge against Oliver Hannon-Dalby and Ed Barnard.
Richardson said: “A bad day at the office? You could say that. As good as it was on Thursday, completely opposite today. Really disappointing for the boys and obviously everyone who has come along and watched us.
“Not a great toss to lose? Not ideal, but I’d like to think it was a bit more than that as well. It moved around a little bit on Thursday and we managed to get through those first 10 overs and build on it, and we just never had an opportunity to do that today.
“I’d like us to have shown a little bit more fight and a little bit more spirit which has been in abundance this year, and we didn’t quite have that today and that was the most disappointing thing for me.
“They bowled well, and it felt like every time we nicked one, it went to hand, but we’ve got more in the tank certainly.
“One of those games in terms of, as things might have gone our way on Thursday they didn’t quite go our way today, so we have to pick ourselves up and make sure we are ready for the game on Wednesday.
“In terms of performance, we will be looking for a huge upturn.
“If we perform well, then we will have a chance to win the game which we didn’t have today.”
Waite continued the fine form he has shown throughout the summer.
Richardson said: “I thought he played brilliantly well and, if we could have got a couple of partnerships with him, then we might have got somewhere competitive and maybe tried to put them under a bit of pressure.
“But getting to 108, and your number seven gets nearly half of the runs, probably tells a story.
“Matthew again continued his fine form with either bat or ball, and it was a nice innings to watch in an innings from the team, which probably wasn’t that pleasant for everyone else.”
