HOSE AIMING TO CONTINUE IMPRESSIVE FORM AS RAPIDS BID FOR FIRST DOUBLE

Adam Hose will be looking to continue his consistent run of scores for Worcestershire Rapids in the Vitality Blast when they take on Yorkshire Vikings at Headingley on Friday (6.30pm start).

Hose has continued the form which brought him 569 runs in the 2022 tournament, and his knocks have included scores of 61, 44, 51 not out and 42.

It has given him a combined total of 214 runs at an average of 42.80 and a strike rate of 151.77 with ten sixes.

The Rapids will be bidding to complete their first double of the campaign after their thrilling win over the Vikings at New Road when Adam Finch hit three sixes in the final over.

Pat Brown will be aiming to add to his 14 wickets, and he has the fourth-best strike rate in the 2023 competition, with a wicket every 7.92 deliveries.

Only Somerset's Ben Green has more wickets to his name with 16 scalps, and Brown's figures are 17.3-0-201-14.

Worcestershire have again announced an unchanged 14-strong squad – the 11 players who featured against Lancashire Lightning at Blackpool on Wednesday evening, plus Matthew Waite, Taylor Cornall and Ben Gibbon.

Former Yorkshire all-rounder Waite struck 94 not out and picked up four wickets in a T20 match for the Seconds against Glamorgan at New Road on Tuesday.

Mitchell Santner is confident the second-placed Rapids can bounce back from losing their last two matches after winning the opening four.

The all-rounder, who hit his maiden fifty for the Rapids against Lancashire, said: "We are playing some good cricket and will take that going forward.

"The Vitality Blast is such a long tournament, 14 group games, and we still have plenty of time to re-right the ship.

"The nature of this tournament means matches come around pretty quick, and it's new opposition, a new challenge, a new ground on Friday.

"If you get that momentum, you can keep riding it, so hopefully, start that again on Friday."