Worcestershire's Alan Richardson urges Rapids to bounce back

The Bears were convincing winners on Friday evening to book their spot in the quarter-finals of the Blast, whilst the Rapids slipped to third with just two games remaining.

The Rapids will secure their spot in the quarters with one more win and they now have a week's rest before they host Durham at New Road on Friday. 

READ MORE | Bears complete Blast double over rivals Rapids at rowdy Edgbaston 

It was a brilliant atmosphere at Edgbaston on Friday night, just a week on from hosting the first Ashes test (Image: Newsquest)

Worcestershire had won their previous three coming into the derby and Richardson was keen to focus on what has been a positive week for the team. 

"We will determine whether we play well again on Friday and we will give ourselves the best chance," he said.

"We’ve got a week for those who don’t play in the red ball game (against Derbyshire) to lick their wounds and get on with it.

"But I think we’ve had a fantastic week bookended by two disappointing results but the performances in the middle were fantastic to win three really good games of cricket.

"I don’t want us as a group to forget that."

Richardson admitted the Rapids did not fire on all cylinders during the 53-run defeat against the Bears.

He said: "Frustrated and disappointed because I think over the last week we’ve put ourselves in a good position to win this game, and to come in with a great of confidence, and I don’t think we showed that.

"We didn’t show our skill sets as well as we have done over the last three games and the boys are very disappointed.

"We move on and we’ve got two big games left in this tournament and we have to make sure we are ready for that, and nice and confident for those games.

"We were very sloppy in the field to start off with, and the energy levels were down, and we talked about it quite a bit and we thought we had addressed it.

"To start the game well is really important and we didn’t do that and it instantly puts you under pressure."