"Losing critical moments" key to Worcestershire's red-ball struggles

Worcestershire's red-ball season fizzled out as they finished ninth in Division Two after being one of the pre-season promotion favourites

Worcestershire first team coach Alex Gidman pinpoints “losing critical moments” in games as a key reason for a disappointing campaign in Specsavers County Championship cricket.

Gidman believes successive matches against Sussex and Derbyshire at Kidderminster and Gloucestershire at Cheltenham in mid-season, when the county failed to press home their advantage from strong positions, cost them any hopes of a top three spot.

Ultimately the season fizzled out and Worcestershire finished ninth in Division Two after being one of the pre-season promotion favourites.

Gidman knows becoming more consistent throughout the entire four days of a game will be paramount if Worcestershire are to challenge for a return to Division One in 2020.

With Championship cricket set to dominate the opening two months of 2020, the emphasis will predominantly be on red-ball training when the squad report back in early November.

“I just feel that run of games in the middle, where we got into positions to win games and lost critical moments, was the period which cost us our chance of finishing in the top three," Gidman said

“We can identify a session in this period during games where we lost control quite quickly and didn’t wrestle it back.

“It was frustrating to watch but we have to keep trying to understand what is required in four-day cricket over a long period of time, work really hard to address that and get better and be more consistent.”

^{Worcestershire came so close to retaining their T20 Blast title}

Worcestershire’s top order failed to fire with no-one topping 600 runs but Gidman says it is not just the batsmen that lie behind a disappointing campaign.

He said: “If you look at the stats, there is an argument but at the same time we didn’t bowl as well as we could at times and it all comes down to those key moments.

“The games we won, the blueprint was there and we executed what we wanted to do. The guys know what is required and it is not lack of effort.”

In contrast, Worcestershire again performed with distinction in white-ball cricket, reaching the quarter-finals of the Royal London Cup and coming within a whisker of becoming the first side to retain the Vitality Blast trophy.

Gidman said: “I’m very proud of the way we played and what the lads achieved in 50-over cricket. We played some outstanding cricket.

“It was just disappointing that in the quarter-final (against Somerset) we had one of those few days where we failed to perform anywhere near our best.

“T20 on the one hand was really successful but we were one ball away from achieving what no other team had achieved so there are mixed emotions.

“Overall, if you have had good competitions in two out of three, then you are not doing too badly.

“The red ball campaign is almost accentuated because it is the format you play all year but once you sit back, we can reflect on two out of three good campaigns and being ever so close to winning another trophy.”

Courtesy of the ECB Reporters Network.