Worcestershire Rapids will be looking for a quickfire response after being completely outplayed by Notts Outlaws and losing by 10 wickets in the Vitality Blast encounter at Trent Bridge.
The Rapids have an immediate opportunity to bounce back in tomorrow game against Yorkshire Vikings at Headingley after a performance to forget against the Outlaws.
The Rapids, who had won five of their previous six T20 matches at Trent Bridge, were restricted to 86-8 after being put into bat.
They were always facing an uphill battle after losing four wickets in the powerplay – three of them to spinner Samit Patel.
It was a mixture of excellent bowling and fielding but also some poor shot selection.
Then Alex Hales and Joe Clarke saw the home side to victory in just 6.2 overs.
It was the sort of evening to forget for the Rapids but which can happen to any side of any quality in T20 cricket – and can all turn around in the space of 24 hours.
Tom Fell came into the Worcestershire side for his first T20 appearance since September 2019 in place of Moeen Ali whose replacement as captain was Ben Cox.
The Rapids were put into bat and ran into early trouble against veteran spinner Patel who picked up three wickets in his first two overs.
Brett DOliveira (0) pushed forward to his first ball and was caught at slip, Tom Fell (3) came down the wicket and was stumped and Riki Wessels (2) departed off a leading edge to backward point.
Cox (3) attempted a pull against Jake Ball and skied a catch to Steven Mullaney at mid-off.
Worcestershire reached 20-4 by the end of the six over powerplay with Patel having figures of 3-3.
Jake Libby and Ross Whiteley attempted to rebuild the innings but could not afford to take any risks after the early quartet of wickets.
Whiteley struck the first boundary of the innings when he lofted Calvin Harrison straight back down the ground.
The Libby-Whiteley partnership was worth 46 in 8.1 overs when the latter on 15 was caught at long-on off Mullaney.
In the same over Libby, having made an accomplished 29 off 33 balls, sliced a Mullaney delivery into the hands of point.
Ben Dwarshuis cut Jake Ball to the boundary but runs continued to be hard to come by.
Ed Barnard (10) also fell at long on off Ball who bowled Dwarshuis (12) with his next delivery.
Spinner Ish Sodhi and Dwarshuis were given the new ball but runs flowed freely from Alex Hales, who hit an 18 ball half century, and Clarke.
