Tom Fell says confidence is still high amongst the Worcestershire Rapids players heading into the second half of the Royal London Cup group stages despite a narrow first setback of the campaign against Middlesex at New Road.
The Rapids won their opening three matches and came close to chasing down a 300 plus score at home for the second time in a week before being edged out by 13 runs.
Fell, Brett D’Oliveira and Jake Libby all scored fine half-centuries, and the Rapids are still well placed in second spot with four group games to play, starting with Hampshire at the Ageas Bowl on Wednesday.
Fell said: “Confidence is still high. We are playing some excellent cricket at the moment. We were three wins from three coming into the Middlesex game.
“We would have liked it to be four from four, but there are still a lot of good things to take from the game.
“We will be going down to Hampshire full of confidence still.
“We came into the competition knowing that we are a good side, and we were confident from the start.
“Things have gone well, and we’ve had some really good wins. We played brilliantly at Essex.
“We knew there was going to be some hiccups along the way, and we are not going to let it get to us.
“We are still going to go down to Hampshire backing ourselves but aware they are a quality side.”
Reflecting on the game against Middlesex, Fell said: “It was fairly close at the end. Obviously, we are disappointed, seeing how close we actually got, but it was another good game of cricket, and luckily we had a lot of fans in supporting us again.
“It was always going to be a tough chase, but on another day, we would back ourselves to do it. We did our best, and unfortunately, it wasn’t to be in this game.
“Brett (D’Oliveira) played brilliantly again. He really took it to them, especially once he got to 40-50. He really started to get the pace of the wicket and struck it nicely.
“He will be disappointed he didn’t carry on because, if he had stayed there, I think we would have won that game comfortably.
“Myself as well, a little disappointed not to bat a little bit longer and take it a little bit deeper. That’s probably what we lacked, one of us going on and making the chase a little bit more comfortable.”
