WORCESTERSHIRE Royals head to Northamptonshire Steelbacks this evening (5.30pm) looking to cement their place in the top-four of the Friends Life t20 North group.

The New Road outfit returned to the quarter-final qualification places on Sunday with a fine 41-run success over Yorkshire Carnegie.

That win was the Royals’ fourth of the tournament and victory at Milton Key-nes could see them return to the top two should Leicestershire Foxes fail to beat Yorkshire at Grace Road tonight.

Having lost to second-placed Leicestershire on Saturday — a defeat that ended a three-match winning Twenty20 run — the Royals bounced back 24 hours later against Yorkshire.

“We just want to go on a run of two or three more wins,” director of cricket Steve Rhodes said.

“Losing to Leicestershire was a big blow. Maybe that’s typical of how we are developing as a side.

“Sometimes you go forward but then you go back a bit before going forward again.

“If we can get some consistency and win back-to-back games then we will certainly be challenging.”

Rhodes has also hailed the form of batsmen Alexei Kervezee, James Cameron and Moeen Ali as the Royals enjoy a successful stint in the campaign.

“James played extremely well at Leicester, then he had a good partnership with Alexei against Yorkshire where the running between the wickets was excellent. He’s developing nicely in one-day cricket.

“Alexei played a very mature innings against Yorkshire and Moeen is another young player with real ability for one-day and four-day cricket.”

Worcestershire are unlikely to change the team that defeated the Tykes on Sunday with Rhodes having his spin quartet of Shakib Al Hasan, Saeed Ajmal, Moeen and Shaaiq Choudhry at his disposal once again.

Shakib, who claimed t20 best figures of 4-31 and reached 50 wickets in the shortened format of the game, will also be hoping he can record a decent score at Milton Keynes. The world number two one-day international all-rounder has yet to fire with the bat with a top score of only 16.

Worcestershire, who will be making their first visit to Milton Keynes’ Campbell Park, will be aiming to secure a double over the North group basement side after beating them by seven wickets at New Road.

Rhodes hopes the pitch will suit his team. He said: “With the match being at an out-ground, the wicket will possibly suit our spinners.”

Worcestershire (from): Moeen Ali, Solanki, Kervezee, Shakib Al Hasan, Cameron, Mitchell, Andrew, Scott, Choudhry, Saeed Ajmal, Shantry, Whelan, Kapil.

Northamptonshire (from): Shafayat, White, O’Brien, Wakely, Hall, Botha, Vaas, Willey, Middlebrook, Brooks, Daggettt, Newton.