RAPIDS director of cricket Steve Rhodes has called on his side to rediscover their rampant one-day form as they bid to reach the Royal London One-Day Cup final.
Worcestershire topped the North Group last month in impressive fashion with six wins and a tie from eight games and face Surrey at New Road this weekend for a place at Lord’s.
The Rapids have received a double boost for the clash with Moeen Ali and John Hastings both available.
The talented duo are part of the Rapids plans after England and Australia’s respective exits from the ICC Champions Trophy.
Rhodes’ side have the luxury of a week’s break to get into the best possible shape for Saturday’s showdown.
Rhodes insists they will utilise the time to get over the disappointment of a County Championship defeat to Glamorgan.
Rhodes said: “We’ve got a busy week now preparing for Saturday. Will there be no negative reaction after losing a couple of games? You are bound to have a bit of negative reaction.
“We’ve lost a game but it’s important for us now to start focusing on white-ball cricket and Saturday’s match.
“Having a few days’ preparation is really important because it seems a long time ago since we played 50-over cricket even though it’s not.
“It will give us an opportunity to go back to that white-ball preparation and try and reproduce some of the practice that we’ve done which has helped us in that competition with bat and ball.”
“You might say there is an advantage in getting in a 50-over game and then going into a semi-final,” Rhodes said.
“But having said that, it could mean quite a lot of travelling for those teams as well as the game being parked on the back of four-day cricket, so that is not easy preparation for them in a quarter-final.”