PERSONALLY, it has been nice to get a few runs lately — it is what you work towards in the nets and the practice sessions — so it’s good to reap the rewards in the middle.
From a team point of view, there have been some good performances.
Our LV= County Championship Division Two match was a bit of a wash-out against Essex, so we couldn’t force a result in that game, but we had the better of the draw and took 10 points to their six, which pushed us above them in the table.
Against Warwickshire Bears in the Yorkshire Bank 40, we would have liked to have got a few more runs, but you have to credit them for bowling well in the middle period and at the death.
It was difficult for new batters coming in on a slow, low wicket, but we got there in the end. I thought we bowled and fielded well and kept them below our total of 210.
We were delighted to get such a good win over our local rivals and those are the sort of games you want to be in professional cricket for — the big matches in front of decent crowds and a bit of sunshine on your back helps too.
It was a great catch from Moeen Ali to remove Varun Chopra but, if he had been back on the edge of the circle where he was supposed to be, it would have been straight to him! Joking aside, it was a great catch and we put a lot of hard work into our fielding, so when you see catches like that, it is not a fluke, it is off the back of lots of practice.
There was also a great piece of work in the field by Aneesh Kapil to pick the ball up cleanly and run-out Jim Troughton, who is a key player for them. Alexei Kervezee’s run-out of Chris Wright at the end to clinch the win was an important one too.
I have to hold my hands up to running out Sammy (Thilan Samaraweera) though — we all make mistakes and I probably forgot who I was batting with at the time, as well as picking out their best fielder, but we won the game and that’s all that matters.
We then backed that win up with a hard-fought victory against Holland over in Rotterdam, so we are back on track. It is a difficult competition to qualify from and we’re going to have to go on a hell of a run if we are going to top the group as Nottinghamshire are way out in front.
It is a tough group too and everyone has been beating each other, so it is unlikely the best second-placed team will come from this group either, but we just have to keep approaching each game as if it’s a cup final.
It’s a squad game and we’ll prioritise Alan Richardson for four-day cricket as much as we can, but he’s our best bowler in all forms.
Luckily, we had a bit of a wash-out against Essex, so he hadn’t had much of a workload and was able to play the Warwickshire game.
We’ll be looking to figure him in as much as we can, while still keeping one eye on the Championship.
It’s a pretty hectic schedule at the moment, so we headed over to Northampton yesterday for the start of today’s four-day game.
They have been the form side in the competition so far and are top of the league, having played some fantastic cricket.
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