WORCESTERSHIRE Rapids have received a massive boost with Colin Munro given permission by New Zealand Cricket to play in Saturday’s NatWest T20 Blast quarter-final with Surrey Lions at the Kia Oval.

Munro was due to join up with New Zealand ‘A’ for their triangular series with England Lions and Sri Lanka ‘A’.

But Rapids have been given the green light to play Munro against Surrey — subject to New Zealand not being struck by a series of injury setbacks.

Rapids director of cricket Steve Rhodes said: “New Zealand Cricket understand our cause and they think it would be a good idea if Colin could play in the quarter-final for us.

“They are going to release him to play, but we won’t know for definite until right up to the verge of the match.

“They will want to check their situation with fit players.”

Meanwhile, on the Rapids’ eight-wicket defeat to Essex Eagles in the Royal London One-Day Cup today, Rhodes said: “We had a bad start with the bat and lost a few wickets.

“To get to five down, it meant we were going to struggle to get a decent total but the two lads at the end (Joe Leach and Shaaiq Choudhry) played really well to get us something to bowl at.”

Rhodes added: “To be perfectly honest, the wicket was a big difference.

“Bowling second, it was a lot slower and, at 10.30am, it nipped around a little bit and we were probably 50 runs short of what we would have liked.”