TOM Moody expects further improvement from his Worcestershire side des-pite a convincing five-wicket victory at Northamptonshire that gave them their first Benson and Hedges Cup win of the season.

The New Road club returned to form to banish the memory of this week's record defeat ag-ainst Gloucestershire with gold award winner Andy Bichel on form with both bat and ball.

Bichel produced a superb spell of bowling to record figures of 4-38 as Northants reached 232-7 in their 50 overs and then struck the winning runs after opening batsmen Ste-phen Peters and Vikram Solanki hit half-centuries.

Moody, Worcestershire's Director of Cricket, was upbeat about the display particularly the performances of his openers and Bichel, but still expects more from his side.

"It was nice to get some points on the board and I thought we played well, but we have still got some room to improve and we are going to have against the teams we are going to be facing in the next few days," he said.

"Bichel performed very well and he is a high class player and it's no coincidence that he is in the Australian one-day squad.

"I was also pleased with the performances of Peters and Solanki who both batted extremely well and set the win up from the top of the order."

Peters and Solanki put on 95 for the first wicket until Solanki fell victim to a smart stumping by Tobin Bailey off Tony Penberthy.

Skipper Graeme Hick was out for 17, lbw to Penberthy, before Peters fell to Graeme Swann for 53.

Ben Smith (19) and David Leather-dale (33) then made useful contributions before Bichel came in and struck 27 off 22 balls to finish the job with 15 balls to spare.

Worcestershire expect to field the same side for tomorrow's cup game at Warwickshire.