By Alex Wakely
I DIDN’T sleep much the night before our opening County Championship match against Middlesex. That’s unusual for me, pressure and nerves don’t usually have much of an effect but on this occasion it was different. It wasn’t really my own performance I was worried about either, I just wanted the work the boys have put in over the winter to show, and thankfully it did.
While we’ve not come away from the first game with a win, I’d have snapped your hand off if you offered me 12 points at the toss (not that we had one, of course). Given what happened last year it was important that we started well and that first day was vital for us. We needed to win the supporters back, we needed to get people back on our side and most of all we needed to get the confidence high in the dressing room.
Overall, I think we played really good cricket throughout that first game, we were in strong positions all the way but just couldn’t hammer it home. If I’m honest, I don’t think that was any fault of our own. Dawid Malan played well, as did James Harris in the first innings and all our bowlers beat the bat consistently. Sometimes things just don’t go your way, if one or two of those catches the edge it’s a whole different game.
Nathan Buck was top drawer and fully deserved the career best figures he finished with, in fact the whole bowling group were spot on. If there was any criticism it’d be one of the batters going on and getting that hundred, but now I’m really being picky.
I think we’ve got a really nice balance in our side, we’ve got a lot of batting depth and all cases covered with the ball. We look more athletic, a lot of the boys have really trimmed down over the winter and we were really good in the field, so everything’s started well and now it’s just about producing more of the same for me.
I was asked what’s changed since last year and truthfully the answer is not a lot. It’s more of a confidence thing, last year we were rock bottom. We managed to lose every crucial moment within a game, whereas this year things seem to have started well.
Jason Holder has been a massive (no pun intended) influence for us, he’s come in with a fresh positivity, he’s not scarred from anything last year and he’s the best all-rounder in the world, which helps. The way he’s helping the youngsters and mixing with the entire group, he’s just a breath of fresh air for us in the dressing rooms.
Confidence is a massive part of sport and it’s particularly important in cricket. Once the season starts, we play so much that you simply don’t get enough time to train, so when things are going well you just roll with the momentum but when things are going badly it can be tough to turn it around. We’ve started well, but it’s only the first game so it’s important that we start well again. As a side, when we start well, we tend to carry on through so I’ll be hammering that home to the boys all season. Making sure that whenever we cross that white line, we’re on it from the start.