CAPTAIN Joe Leach pulled no punches after Worcestershire's winning start to the Royal London One-Day Cup came to an end at Durham.

The Rapids lost a rain-abandoned clash by nine runs via the Duckworth-Lewis method to put a first blemish on their North Group record.

Michael Richardson scored a half-century to guide the home team to a total of 209 after losing the toss, while Gareth Harte also impressed with 48.

Charlie Morris claimed figures of 4-33 to give the visitors hope of earning their third win on the bounce.

However, a clatter of early wickets put Durham in command as Chris Rushworth, Matt Dixon and Nathan Rimmington struck to hand Tom Latham's men a narrow victory.

"We're very disappointed, we should have won that game easily," said Leach.

"With the weather we've let ourselves down, we're going back down to Worcester without two points that the first half probably deserved.

"Our game management wasn't good enough. We sat in the dressing room after the game and spoken about Duckworth-Lewis chases, we won't get many easier ones.

"The first half was as close to perfect as you'd like to get. It was nice to see Charlie Morris among the wickets.

"Pat Brown bowled well, in fact the whole group were very good. We can't quite shake off the disappointment of that run chase.

"We're very lucky we have all the figures available to us. We knew where we needed to be almost by the ball, depending on wickets.

"That's what makes the pill even harder to swallow, it was a pretty straightforward task for us.

"We haven't managed to knock off the runs needed or get ourselves in a position to win the game."

Richardson and Cameron Steel dug in to see off the opening burst and put on 50 for the second wicket before the latter was caught on the fence by Ross Whiteley.

Latham made a brisk 21 off just 19 deliveries, only to be dismissed by a straight delivery from Pat Brown and Morris put the home side on the back foot with further inroads.

Richardson seem well placed on 64 to kick on towards three figures but he was caught on the boundary by Whiteley off the spin of Brett D'Oliveira.

Fortunately for Durham, the tail wagged as Rimmington and Rushworth provided valuable runs down the order.

Worcestershire's reply began poorly as Daryl Mitchell edged a Rushworth delivery behind to Poynter in the first over.

Travis Head and Tom Fell departed in quick succession as Durham continued their surge into the middle order. D'Oliveira scored three boundaries on the spin to stem the tide, but the Rapids then lost Joe Clarke for 17 when he was removed by Rimmington.

Rapids had to bat with aggression to reach the Duckworth-Lewis target of 92 in the 15th over but their onslaught against Harte was not good enough.