Essex's Mark Pettini (PA)

Former Essex captain believe they were made to rue their batting collapse as Worcestershire Royals capitalise.

Essex batsman Mark Pettini felt they were well below par as they slipped to a disappointing seven-wicket defeat to Worcestershire in the Clydesdale Bank 40 Group A match on Sunday.

The former skipper starred with the bat, top scoring with 64, but apart from the 28-year-old and England-bound Alistair Cook, who hit 47, the Eagles struggled to get going throughout their innings after Worcestershire won the toss and opted to field.

“We struggled with partnerships today,” said Pettini.

“Cookie and I had a decent start at the top of the innings but we lost wickets regularly and unfortunately in one-day cricket you cannot do that.

“They knew they only had to chase 191 so it’s nice batting second times in one-day cricket, you know how much you have to get.”

And in the end Pettini thought their all round performance was simply not up to their usual high standards in one-day cricket as the Royals, and in particular Moeen Ali who hit 99, cantered to victory with just over six overs remaining.

“It was certainly 40 runs short I would think but at the same time I thought we could do a better job in defending the total we had,” he added.

“Timmy Phillips bowled pretty nicely today but we just didn’t quite get our skills right and they took advantage. Moeen Ali played extremely well for 99 and you can’t take anything away from him.”

But Pettini is hopeful they can get back on track in the four-day format after play started today in their match at Leicestershire, having seen some positives in their last encounter with Kent.

“”We played some good cricket in the four-day game here against Kent but couldn’t get an outcome in that match, but you have got to move on to the next one and hopefully we can perform well at Leicestershire.”