Worcestershire Rapids are through to the knockouts of the Metro Bank One Day Cup despite being edged by three runs against Lancashire Lightning.

Rapids have reached the knockout stages of the tournament for the second year running.

They were narrowly defeated by Lightning in their final Group A match at Emirates Old Trafford, yet they managed to secure a second-place group finish due to their high run rate.

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The Rapids are set to clash with bitter derby rivals Warwickshire, at Edgbaston today (Friday, August 16) after the Bears' third-place finish in Group B.

Deprived of eight senior members of the squad due to injuries, the Rapids managed to pull through five victories, including a 100 per cent record at Visit Worcestershire New Road.

The established members of the squad stepped up, with top three batters Gareth Roderick, Ed Pollock and One Day Cup captain Jake Libby scoring at will and making match-winning contributions.

Opening bowler Tom Taylor and middle over ace Ethan Brookes also left their marks with the ball in hand.

Worcestershire's up-and-comers have also impressed.

Jack Home, an academy product, expected to play Under-18s cricket this summer, but ended up delivering 15 wickets in four appearances for the men's.

Loan spinner, Fateh Singh, was also on fire, claiming 15 wickets, while Tom Hinley contributed much-needed runs and 12 dismissals.

Lancashire were dismissed for 237 on a used pitch that slowed increasingly after Libby won the toss.

Rapids were three runs away from replicating Lancashire’s score before the last two wickets fell in successive balls, as the team finished at 234 in 48.5 overs.

Captain Libby's ace 83 headlined the day for the Rapids, with Taylor's 41 also catching eyes.

Worcestershire head coach, Alan Richardson, said: "We haven’t been on the wrong end of too many results in this tournament and in terms of performance, we did pretty well.

"We don’t like losing but we did enough today.

"The wicket was slower than we expected and we knew we’d have to bat well and bat deep to get close.

"I also thought Ethan did a magnificent job and Harry Darley also."