Solanki salutes Worcestershire

Worcestershire captain Vikram Solanki saluted his players for gaining promotion to Division One of the LV County Championship despite their eight-wicket defeat against Middlesex at Kidderminster.

His side returned to the top-flight after Essex - playing Warwickshire at Chelmsford - failed to secure the last bowling point they needed to delay Worcestershire celebrations.

Vikram Solanki has led his side back to LVCC Division One at the first opportunity this year

Solanki said: “It’s one of the goals we set out to achieve and I think we deserved to get promoted with the way we have played this year.

“We certainly have been one of the two better sides – if not the best side – in the division this year.

“I don’t mean that in an arrogant way in any shape or form or anything like that. I just think we have played good cricket and we do deserve promotion.

“We need to enjoy it as a reasonable achievement and as far as planning for next season is concerned we can set about doing it after a bit of a rest.”

Solanki, however, described injury-hit Worcestershire’s performance against Middlesex as “pretty poor”.

He said: “Throughout the season we have let ourselves down on two occasions, against Derbyshire and here at Kidderminster against Middlesex.

“But the group of guys can be very proud of how they have gone about their business throughout the year.”