WORCESTERSHIRE Rapids ensured they would not end the Royal London Cup campaign winless as an Azhar Ali century helped them to a six-wicket win over Northamptonshire Steelbacks.

The opener managed 130, just two short of his List A best, and together with Taylor Cornall (61), the pair provided the base for the Rapids to finally get a win under the belt in the competition.

Northamptonshire had scored 248-4, with Will Young scoring the first century of the game off 94 balls and after a rain disrupted start, The Rapids were given 254 to win off 40 overs.

It was a close run thing and it took until the final over to do it, but Jake Libby and Ed Barnard saw them over the line to record a morale boosting victory.

After the match, the hero of the day Azhar Ali, said: "We talked about ending on a high.Yes, the tournament hasn’t gone our way, but we can still do a lot for the supporters and our confidence as well.

"This win will do a lot of good for us, and hopefully, the two home games, we can win those as well and bring more smiles to our fans.

"We have been playing decent cricket in patches, but we weren’t getting over the line and key moments of the game, we were losing.

"Against Northamptonshire, it was a very good performance, especially the start with the ball. We were very up for it from the start."

Azhar paid tribute to the contribution of Cornall as the Rapids chased down a 254 target and learned from the example of Steelbacks centurion Will Young.

He said: “We needed a partnership up top and have struggled in the tournament to get those, but Taylor was outstanding with me early on.

“He absorbed the pressure early on. There was a little bit of nip with the new ball, but we kept the run rate around five an over, and whatever we planned, it paid off.

"We got a little bit of help from the way Will Young batted in the morning. He absorbed the pressure as well. It was hard work for him as well to start with.

"But after his fifty, he just made it look so easy, and we thought if he can do that, with wickets in hand, on this wicket, you could achieve any run rate, even nine or ten.

"But the good thing was we kept getting the boundaries when we needed it and rotated the strike well enough, so the run rate never really got out of hand at any stage."