Worcestershire's head coach Alex Gidman admitted he thought his side were dead and buried in their T20 Blast semi-final against Notts with two overs to go, and paid tribute to his side's precision with the ball and in the field.

Notts were 137 for 2 chasing 148 to win with two overs remaining, and would have gone through with a tie having lost fewer wickets. But Pat Brown and Wayne Parnell both bowled brilliant overs at the death to claw things back, and after Ben Duckett swung-and-missed at the final ball, Ben Cox whipped off the bails to seal a one-run victory.

"I probably did [think we'd lost it]," said Gidman. "The 18th over [which went for 15 runs] was a big one. We had a good chance before then, but the 18th went for a few. That happens. Ross took one of theirs for quite a few at the end as well, so it's probably unrealistic to think it's all going to go swimmingly well.

"You think about just trying to hang in the game for as long as possible, which is something we've talked about doing. It's something that Mo [captain Moeen Ali] talks about with the group all the time, and those last couple of overs got a little bit messy but we managed to pull it back."

Worcestershire became the first side in the competition this season not to concede an extra in an innings, and Gidman paid tribute to his side's miserly qualities.

"It sounds really daft, but we just try and do the basics as well as possible," he said. "Again, Mo talked about that at the beginning of the day - just doing the basics as well as we can - and that was certainly one area that we should be proud of."

Worcestershire were involved in a similarly remarkable come-from-behind win at Chester-le-Street during the competition's group stage, and Gidman said that the semi-final had topped that drama.

"We had one game at Durham a couple of months ago which was equally bizarre," he said. "It was an amazing effort, amazing game of cricket. There's so many ways that T20 entertains us, but that last couple of overs was pretty special from ourselves, and to stay in the game for as long as possible.

"That was right up there. I think that probably did top the Durham game."

Moeen suggested that he had initially misread the pitch, but said that he expected runs to come more easily in the powerplay through the day.

"I came off saying it was a 180 wicket," he told Sky, "so that shows how much I know. Obviously I had a good start, and I think throughout Finals Day if you go at ten an over in the first six, it doesn't really matter, you can drag it back.

"It wasn't easy to score. I thought [Alex] Hales played fantastically well and he was a big wicket for us - it was nice to get him out, actually."