Vitality Blast: Worcestershire head coach Alan Richardson wants tougher approach

Worcestershire head coach Alan Richardson says their T20 cricket will have to be "tougher and better" next season following their final-game failure to qualify for the quarter-finals of this year's competition.

The 2018 winners were well beaten by 78 runs in their winner-takes-all match against Somerset at Taunton on Sunday to finish bottom of a very tight Central & West Group with six wins and six defeats in their 12 games.

After winning three of their first four fixtures, and six out of 10, the Rapids were firmly in the mix to make the knock-out phase but back-to-back losses ultimately scuppered their hopes.

"Really disappointing," Richardson told BBC Hereford and Worcester.

"We gave ourselves a chance to qualify, which was a really good effort if you look at the group in general and the amount of wins that it took to get there.

"So I was pretty pleased that we were in a position to qualify and then not to get there is, ultimately, very disappointing."

After Will Smeed (52) and Thomas Rew (42) propelled Somerset to 117-3 after the Powerplay, the home side set Worcestershire 195 to win - a target Richardson said he felt was gettable.

"We felt like we had a chance, we knew we'd have to play really well but we felt like it was a good wicket," he said.

But after four wickets went in the visitors' first 10 overs, their reply never recovered and were eventually bowed out for 116 in 16 overs.

Richardson said it was "difficult to say" whether the Rapids' campaign was limited by a potential lack of firepower with the bat, with their highest score a total of188 in the opening match at Leicestershire.

"I think it's an incredibly tough group," he said.

"We're going to have to be tougher next year. We're going to have to be better.

"We've played well at home - we've won four games out of six - and two out of six away. I think the challenge in whatever format you play is you have to be good enough to play on all kinds of surfaces.

"With the ball we have to be as effective as you can be on good surfaces then with the bat we have to probably be a bit more powerful, a bit more dynamic, when we need to be."

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