Alex Wakely couldn’t hide his relief after the Steelbacks secured a welcome victory at New Road.
The 42-run defeat of Worcestershire was the end product of a decent all-round effort from the visitors who, for the first time this season, managed to adhere to the basic principles of the limited overs game as the captain acknowledged.
He said: “It was good to win a toss eventually and that helped. It looked like the kind of wicket that would break up and get harder to bat on later on.
“We got some partnerships together and it was the first time in our one-day cricket that we’ve done that. I know they weren’t big ones but given the pitch they were pretty good.
“We didn’t lose wickets in clusters which we’ve done in the other games and we had the (Steven) Crooks and (David) Willeys to come in later who could play with some freedom.
“It shows that’s the way we can this kind of cricket.
“We knew that if we could go into the last 10 overs with five or six wickets left then we could capitalise and we managed to do that. It’s a shame that no-one went on to get a big score but with the pitch the way it was that didn’t matter as much.”
One particularly impressive feature of the win was the outcricket of the Steelbacks who were excellent in the field.
And this is a facet of the game that, wheher they are winning or losing, Wakely is keen to see continue.
He added: “We’re still not great when things aren’t going quite as well, we had a couple of overs in the middle when we went a bit quiet.
“But that’s something I’ve been emphasising, that we can be good in the field and keep the right kind of intensity up all through the innings and we did that for most of today which was pleasing and I want that in every game we play.”