WORCESTERSHIRE deserve their place in the Friends Life t20 quarter-finals after setting up a clash with Yorkshire, according to director of cricket Steve Rhodes.

The New Road side, who have qualified for the knock-out stages for only the third time, will visit Headingley on either Tuesday, July 24, or Wednesday, July 25.

They booked their place as one of the best third-placed sides despite yesterday’s seven-wicket defeat to Somerset, having started the final round of fixtures top of the Midlands/South West/Wales group.

Rhodes, however, who hails from Yorkshire, believes his team have what it takes to progress in the competition, citing the 54-run victory at Somerset earlier this month as proof.

He said: “It’s the knock-out stage and anybody can win. Fingers crossed, if we hit our ‘A’ game, which we’ve done on two or three occasions this year, we will be hard to beat.

“We will just try and do our best to put in a performance like we did at Taunton. If we can do that in the quarter-final, then we’ll go close.

“Everyone was disappointed to lose against Somerset, I really wanted to beat them, but the team had one goal for the t20 and that was to qualify for the quarter-finals.

“We’ve managed that and have played some really good cricket along the way.

“There have been a few little lapses but we also had some terrific matches and the players thoroughly deserve to qualify.”

He continued: “We haven’t got as many internationals as a lot of the other teams but there’s a good spirit and the players are very much together as a unit. It doesn’t always go our way but we certainly try to stick together and send some of the bigger, wealthier clubs away with their tail between their legs.

“It didn’t happen yesterday but it does occasionally and it’s something to be proud of. We are mixing it with some of the best.”

The County struggled to 119-7 at New Road, Phil Hughes top-scoring on 45 not out, before Somerset secured their place at the top of the group with seven balls to spare.

“I was disappointed. I didn’t think we stuck to our batting plan and had too many dot balls,” Rhodes added.

“This game and the Gloucestershire one (lost by seven wickets) could well be a massive wake-up call for us.

“We know we can play because we’ve done it earlier in the group and this could be a call to say let’s get ourselves sorted and start getting those big scores and defending them.”