Robinson reflects on semi-final blow but positive over One Day Cup highs

“It’s heartbreaking. The lads feel hurt, embarrassed. We wanted to put on a good show for our supporters and we’ve clearly not done that.”

That’s the frank assessment from Warwickshire’s First Team Coach Mark Robinson after a hugely disappointing end to what had been a brilliant Metro Bank One Day Cup campaign.

Bears were in scintillating form in qualifying as they won seven from eight Group B games but faltered against Hampshire having secured a home semi-final. 

“We had a great opportunity to win today, two evenly-matched teams, but we gave the game away and never got a foothold,” said Robinson after watching his side slip to a nine-wicket defeat inside 50 overs.

“I’ve been in the game a long time to know days like this can happen. And what happened today is a reversal of what we did to Worcestershire (nine wicket win) and Gloucestershire (eight wicket win) in the group stage.

“The toss was crucial: if a team goes two or three down early doors then it’s tough. But we’ve lost five wickets for two runs towards the end which is just something that shouldn’t happen.

“We’re in this together, we win together, lose together and move forward together.”

Despite the disappointment of another knock-out stage defeat – following the Vitality Blast quarter final exit to Essex after a similarly strong group showing – Robinson said it was important not to overlook the competition’s positives.

“We’ve done a lot of good things in the competition,” he added. “Olly and Barney – who’s shown he can play in a different role – have been outstanding, bowlers have come back from injury, and young players have come through and got valuable experience.

“We know we’ve had some breaks, some luck along the way but equally we knew we were going up against a lot of teams who were missing just one or two players whereas we were missing far more (to The Hundred). 

“In those circumstances, I think we did outstandingly well.

“We are doing better in the one-day format, we’re winning a lot more games and we’ve won some big games to get to the semi-final.

“I love the One Day Cup because it reconnects you with the members, the fans, and when you go to away games and out grounds the atmosphere is fantastic. It gives us a lot this competition, the supporters like it and we enjoy this.”

And he said the players would quickly pick themselves up for an important red ball run-in.

“We’ve got to brush ourselves down pretty quickly and move on,” continued Robinson. “We’ve got to pick ourselves up and get ready for what are big four championship games to come.

“There’s a lot still to focus on. We’ll come back in Thursday, Friday then travel to the Oval and look to win that game, which we’ll look to put us back in the mix.”