Jake Libby says there are plenty of positives to be taken from Worcestershire’s white ball cricket this summer and still plenty to play for when the LV=Insurance County Championship reaches its climax next month.
Libby was captain of the Rapids side which reached the quarter finals of the Metro Bank One-Day Cup before losing by just 10 runs to Hampshire at the Ageas Bowl.
It followed on from their efforts in also qualifying for the last eight of the Vitality Blast.
Now all attention will turn to second placed Worcestershire trying to secure promotion to Division One of the Championship, starting with next Sunday’s clash with third placed Glamorgan at New Road.
Libby said: “It has been a fantastic campaign and has been all season in the white ball stuff. There are loads of positives to take.
“Barring the Warwickshire game, I think we’ve played well all competition in the One Day Cup and there have been a lot of moving parts as well, with a couple of injuries here and there.
“Everyone has played their part, they really have, and there have been loads of good performances throughout the competition from everyone.
“We are right in the hunt in the four-day stuff and we’ve got three big games coming up next month, two of them at home.
“The lads are going to have a few days off now just to get over this one (against Hampshire) and we will be raring to go in September.
“Hopefully we can get some fit enough bodies on the pitch for that, and we are right in contention, and it’s really exciting for us.
“We will lick our wounds and come back again. We’ve got great characters in our squad as we’ve shown that all season, to keep bouncing back.
“We will do that again. We are playing great cricket in all formats and that’s really encouraging.”
Regarding the Hampshire setback, Libby said: “Absolutely devastated. I think the lads are really gutted in there. It was a hell of an effort. We knew it was going to take something special to chase that (307).
“The wicket deteriorated, it turned into a real tough pitch to bat on, and they had two really good spinners.
“I thought we batted really well. It was a great effort and when you lose by 10 runs you can always pick and choose moments. Just a real tough one to take, to be honest with you.
“We dragged it back well with the ball. You’ve got to take your cap off to Aneurin (McDonald). He batted really well and that was probably the difference in the game, between them getting 260-270 and 300.
“Rob Jones and Gareth Roderick had a great partnership, were going really well, up with the rate, but on that wicket it was going to be really tough for the new guys coming in.
“I would have loved to have seen a bit more of it but ultimately you can’t fault it. To chase it down you ideally needed one of the set lads to go on and take it by the horns.
“I can’t fault the lads. We are gutted but I’m really proud of them at the same time.”
