FOLLOWING a two-week break, everyone is raring to go for the LV= County Championship finale.
It has been a while since the Gloucestershire game and, having suffered our first defeat against them, we’re really keen to get out there again and put a better show on at Derbyshire tomorrow.
The break has given us a lot of time to go back to practicing our four-day skills because there wasn’t much prep time between the 50-over competition and the Gloucestershire game, and most of the lads returned to playing in the Birmingham League last weekend.
With the schedule being as it is and us not having the biggest squad in the world, it was important to get refreshed, the seam bowlers in particular, but once you’ve had three or four days off completely you’re ready to go again.
There are three games left and I think one win would probably be enough to get us promoted but it’s all about this fixture first and trying to get points on the board as quickly as possible.
We want to get good bonus points and a win against Derbyshire and that would push us up the division with two games to go.
We’ve played Derbyshire in the T20, which is obviously a different format, but we played well against them at home in a rain-affected game earlier in the season when we forced a win in three days which was a really good effort.
We always look forward to going up there, it’s normally quite a greenish wicket so I am sure it will seam around a bit on the first day but hopefully we can set the tone on the first morning whether we bat or bowl.
It is also good to have Mitchell McClenaghan with us until the end of the season. He is a proven match-winner and a top bowler.
He’s slowly got up to match fitness by shedding a few pounds and he’s really raring to go.
We’ve got three more games to get out of him and hopefully he’ll get plenty of wickets and get us over the line in one of the matches.
Tom Kohler-Cadmore has extended his stay at New Road until the end of the 2016 season, which is great news.
Tom is a really talented young man and has gone straight from school cricket to the first-class game.
He had a little bit of a tough start in April but he’s shown a lot of character and learned very quickly and he’s put in some really good performances.
He’s got a really bright future and is only 19 still so we look forward to seeing how he progresses over the next couple of years and hopefully he’ll score plenty of runs for Worcestershire.
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