STEVE Rhodes says the Worcestershire Rapids’ top order batsmen will be determined to make amends for their display against Warwickshire when they return to Royal London One-Day Cup action against Northamptonshire at New Road tomorrow (11am).

The Rapids were 19-6 at one stage and struggled to cope with Warwickshire new ball bowler Rikki Clarke who delivered his 10 overs straight through in one spell and ended with his best List A figures of 5-28.

Warwickshire eventually triumphed by eight wickets to leave the Rapids with two wins, two defeats and one no result from their opening five games.

Director of cricket Rhodes said: “We’ve got some very good players who had a bad day at the top of the order.

“I think they’ll be absolutely determined to try and put it right tomorrow.

“The top order let us down at Edgbaston. Clarke bowled well. Let’s not take anything away from Rikki. He swung the ball away and he had nice angled seam and nipped the ball back and he made life difficult and he is a quality new ball one-day bowler.

“If you look at his stats, he doesn’t go for many runs and he does take wickets but we’ve got to be better than that against him.

“We’ve got to be able to cope with that type of bowling because that is what professional batting is about – and especially top order.

“Sadly for us, the top order let us down a bit and we weren’t helped I thought with some tough decisions by the umpires. Those are the rub of the green type things that go with you or they go against you.”

Ed Barnard top scored for Worcestershire with 38 from 64 balls and Joe Leach also contributed with 29 from 65 balls.

Rhodes added: “It was a little bit about the quality of the bowling and a little bit of indiscipline from some of top order in the sense that our footwork could have been better.

“Barny (Ed Barnard) and Joe (Leach) did their best and put up a reasonable stand but it was never really going to be enough.

“We desperately needed a really good start and to take early wickets but Warwickshire could do what they want with it in the end.”

Warwickshire’s match-winner Clarke, the former England all-rounder, has often been a thorn in Worcestershire’s side down the years.

He said: “We talk a lot about the importance of bowling well in partnerships and creating pressure and we did that really well. A couple of decisions went our way and we got on a roll and got ourselves a small target and then the batters chased it down really professionally.”