Early Rapids momentum key in shorter Blast - Taylor

Worcestershire all-rounder Tom Taylor says their good start in the T20 Blast has been very important, given the shortened nature of this year's competition.

The Rapids have won two and lost one of their first three games, having bounced back from their heavy defeat by Northamptonshire with a confident six-wicket victory over local rivals Warwickshire Bears on Friday.

In that game, Taylor picked up a wicket with the first ball of the match as the Rapids were set 142 to win, which they knocked off with seven deliveries to spare.

Taylor said it was a "great feeling" to see off the Bears in front of a full house at New Road and added they felt confident of chasing down their target after working hard on developing a clear strategy of attack.

"We've had a lot of meetings with the batting group about how we play our cricket at New Road and to restrict [them] to 140, we were confident," Taylor told BBC Hereford and Worcester.

"We put a really good batting performance together at Grace Road against Leicestershire [scored 188 in an 18-run win] and then we had a poor game here last time [against Northants] and then obviously much better [against the Bears] so we just keep trying to build on that."

Worcestershire are next in Blast action against Glamorgan on Friday at New Road in a tournament that contains 12 group matches, two fewer than in previous years.

Unlike 2025, when the group phase ran from May to July before the knockout stage began in September, this year's edition will be completed in full by 18 July.

After Worcestershire won only three of their first nine games last year, they failed to qualify for the quarter-finals despite a late rally.

Taylor says getting off to a good start this time round is vital.

"You're always trying to win every game but the nature of the tournament last year, it was over such a long period of time, it was about trying to keep yourself into the tournament and then go on a bit of a run towards the end - win your games at the right time almost," he said.

"It's a shorter competition this year so you try to hit the ground running, win those games early and see where you get to.

"We've got a little bit of time off now to the next game so hopefully we can keep building that momentum up."