WORCESTERSHIRE skipper Joe Leach said his side will ‘live and learn’ following defeat in the opening game of their Specsavers County Championship Division One campaign against Hampshire at the Ageas Bowl.
Leach’s seven-wicket haul, taking returns of 4-42 and 3-55 in the two innngs against Hampshire, lifted the Worcestershire captain’s tally of first class wickets to a magnificent 200 since the start of the 2015 season.
But speaking after the 196-run defeat, Leach said: “The scoreboard doesn’t quite do us justice. Although we deserved to lose the game, I think 190 flatters them slightly.
“We’ve had a quick chat and we’ve spoken about giving them spells in the game, especially in the first session and the 70-odd Vince got, where we didn’t bowl as well as we could do and we were always fighting back in the game.
“We always felt we were 50 runs behind the game all the way through.
“There are little moments in the game which have cost us, but we have competed in a lot of the game and had been on top in certain periods.
“Ultimately it wasn’t good enough but we live and learn.
“I have just told the group, which might be a bizarre thing to say about an 190-run loss, that this game reaffirmed to me that we deserve to be here and mix it in this division with these types of teams.
“We drove the game for large parts and not got it right in other parts, but that was the same in Division Two.
“If you don’t get it right for four days, you don’t win games of cricket – regardless of the standard of cricket.”