PACE ace Shoaib Akhtar made his competitive debut for Worcestershire yesterday -- but could not prevent the Royals crashing to their third straight Twenty20 defeat.

The under-achieving County side slumped by 37 runs at New Road to impressive Northamptonshire Steelbacks.

Worcestershire's chances of progressing to the competition's quarter-finals from the Midlands/West/Wales division are now fading following previous losses to Somerset and Gloucestershire.

But despite languishing near the foot of the six-team group, Steve Rhodes' outfit have four more games to turn their fortunes around, starting on Friday at Warwickshire.

Optimistic head coach Rhodes said: "It was disappointing to lose again, but if we win our last four games, which is a possibility, then we still have a great chance of qualifying.

"You must remember that in Twenty20 cricket, everybody can beat each other and there's always a lot of shocks along the way."

In front of a 4,600 crowd, the Steelbacks relied on skipper David Sales' third half-century in three games and comfortably defended their score of 180-6 to go clear at the top of the division.

The visitors' bowling was more demanding and their fielding much sharper as Worcestershire were pegged back to 143-8, despite Stephen Moore's first 50 in the competition.

Moore got to 59 from 50 balls but drove Jason Brown over the bowler's head and saw Ben Phillips hold a brilliant low catch on the boundary.

After defeats to Somerset and Gloucestershire, Worcestershire hoped for something better from a reshaped attack.

Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib, in his competitive bow four days before his original starting date on July 1, opened the attack with Kabir Ali, who again secured his release from England's one-day squad.

Yet the presence of two international new-ball bowlers failed to lift the County out of their low-key mood.

Shoaib's opening over yielded 12 runs and Kabir bowled four wides in an expensive first over that cost 14 runs.