SOMERSET captain Tom Abell believes his side have “as good a chance as anyone” of winning this year’s Royal London One-Day Cup.

Abell leads Somerset to Worcestershire tomorrow (Friday) for a quarter-final, with a trip to Trent Bridge to face Nottinghamshire on Sunday awaiting the winners.

Somerset secured their place in the knockout phase with a five-wicket win over Surrey on Tuesday, ending a run of three straight defeats.

Abell said: “We have mixed emotions about the group stage.

“We have not played as well as we can do, particularly from a batting point of view.

“Cricket is all about confidence. We were flying, then we lost a tight game and the momentum shifted.

“Tuesday’s match was all about just getting through, so to win in the manner we did was very pleasing.

"Now that we are through, I think we have as good a chance as anyone of winning it.

“Of course we would have liked a home knockout game, and we only have ourselves to blame for not having one, but now we have to focus on a tough challenge at Worcester.

“Quarter-finals will always be tough and I think this should be a really good game between two good sides.

“I have full confidence we can beat anyone on our day.”

Dom Bess is part of the Somerset squad making the trip to New Road, with the off-spinner's loan to Yorkshire starting next week.

Ben Green, who along with Tim Rouse made an unbeaten century for the Second XI against Sussex this week, is also included.

Somerset squad: Tom Banton (wkt), Azhar Ali, Peter Trego, James Hildreth, Tom Abell (capt), George Bartlett, Roelof van der Merwe, Lewis Gregory, Craig Overton, Josh Davey, Jamie Overton, Dom Bess, Tim Groenewald, Ben Green.

Opposition in focus

WORCESTERSHIRE'S white ball pedigree was proven as they lifted the Vitality Blast trophy last summer, and they have taken that momentum into this year's 50-over competition.

The Rapids finished second in the North Group with six wins from eight matches and go into the quarter-final off the back of three straight victories, sealing their progress by chasing down 351 against Derbyshire on Monday.

Both Riki Wessels - a close season signing from Nottinghamshire - and Australian batsman Callum Ferguson scored centuries in that chase, taking the number of Worcestershire centurions in this year's competition to seven - that's higher than any other county.

Worcestershire and Somerset last met in 50-over cricket at the quarter-final stage in 2016.

An imperious unbeaten century from Mahela Jayawardene ensured Somerset made light work of a target of 210 in Taunton, as the hosts cruised home by nine wickets.

Ahead of Friday's match, Worcestershire captain Brett D'Oliveira said: "We set out at the start of this tournament to win it and I think we are on the right track at the minute and have picked up some good momentum in the last few games.

“Hopefully we can take that into the next game.

"We know our conditions pretty well and we will play to our strengths.”

Worcestershire have named the following unchanged squad:

Riki Wessels, Tom Fell, Callum Ferguson, George Rhodes, Brett D’Oliveira (capt), Ben Cox (wk), Ross Whiteley, Ed Barnard, Wayne Parnell, Pat Brown, Charlie Morris, Daryl Mitchell, Josh Tongue, Josh Dell