Worcestershire Rapid’s Assistant Head Coach, Kadeer Ali, emphasised his frustration with the manner in which his team failed to capitalise on a strong start to their batting innings.
The Rapids made their way to 87-3 after nine overs, playing with a positive intent, spearheaded by Gareth Roderick’s aggressive 49 off 29 balls.
The second half of the innings was dominated by the hosts bowling attack however, as they took frequent wickets to restrict the visitors to 150, a target which in the end, proved very gettable for the Foxes.
Ali, says that was a key phase of the game, on reflection.
“A very disappointing result to start with. We wanted to bat first and see if we could get the runs on the board and I think after the power play, we’re 54 for two, we had a reasonable start.
“The halfway stage of our innings we were 88 for three and had a really nice platform. So it was just really disappointing how we played the back end of our innings, really, the last 10 overs, I think we scored 60 and we lost five wickets.
“I don’t think we dealt with how well Liam Trevaskis and Ben Mike bowled. Between them, the bowled eight overs and picked up five for 39 which was really disappointing from our point of view, because we had a really nice platform set, and we ended up with a disappointing score. I felt like we left 30 odd runs out there after we completed our innings.”
Suffering two defeats in succession, the Rapids must capitalise on their remaining two fixtures against Durham, and old foes Birmingham Bears, before the Blast breaks for the return of the Rothesay County Championship next weekend.
Inconsistency has proved a problem at start of the North Group campaign for the Rapids, picking up two wins from their opening six matches.
Within those defeats, batting processes have been put under the spotlight, as the positive Worcestershire approach has been thoroughly examined by their rivals, but Ali, is aware his side need to find the balance of positive intent with smart cricket.
“T20 cricket is about playing with the right intent, but we had a chat the other day, and it’s all good being aggressive and playing with intent, but you’ve got to be smart at the same time.
“And what we are alluding to there is that we’ve had some soft dismissals in both games, but we’re not going to say to the guys, don’t play with intent, we can encourage that. But I think the lads know we need to be a bit smarter.
“Hitting to the big side into the wind – can we be a little bit smarter there and try and hit pockets a bit more and be a bit smarter with the options?
“A disappointing display and that was ultimately always going to be a challenge to try and defend 150.”
