My News
20.08.07
The Times - We lost but Durham cut the Mustard
When Nic Pothas and Dimitri Mascarenhas walked out to bat at 12.30 yesterday I had not given up hope of winning the Friends Provident Trophy. They are two great chasing batsmen and they just needed early momentum. Unfortunately they could not get going, and nor could the rest of us. We were outplayed over the two days.
Durham deserved to win.
I was asked afterwards how defeat compared with other losses in my career. It hurts. I hate losing. Everyone should hate losing. But when a nice guy like Ottis Gibson takes the man-of-the-match award it does not seem so bad. For the good of county cricket it is probably not a bad thing that Durham have opened their account.
The first seven or eight overs of each innings were crucial. Phil Mustard gave them a great start; we were three down inside half an hour. I don’t regret putting them in. Our plans were fine. We just didn’t execute them as well as we would have liked and successive Durham batsmen played without fear.
On Saturday I wrote that Mustard is the best one-day batsman-keeper in England. He did his reputation a lot of good. He reminds me of a young Adam Gilchrist. He has the same high grip, hits the ball from backward point to widish mid-off, plays the short ball pretty well and has that effective shot to cow corner.
I thought he might be vulnerable if I set two fielders close together at point instead of posting a cover. First ball, he hit between the pair of them. I can’t remember whether I first saw Gilchrist at New South Wales or Western Australia, but he also had that same will to go for shots.
After a setback like this the team can go one of two ways. We can either allow the disappointment to affect us for the rest of the season, or we can make sure it serves as inspiration to achieve something special. Knowing the character of these players I have no doubt which path we will take.
We are one game off the top of the Pro40 ladder and have two games in hand on Yorkshire and one on Sussex in the Championship with a big game against Lancashire starting tomorrow at Old Trafford. If we win that, with close to maximum points, we will have a great chance in the final month.
We want to give a debut to Liam Dawson, a promising 17-year-old who bowls left-arm spin and is shaping up as a good right-handed batsman. With Dimi Mascarenhas going off to play for England, Liam will allow us to keep our balance. It is a great opportunity for him, but the ECB is insisting that he plays for England Under 19 instead.
The guy has earned his recognition. It is an honour to represent your country at any level. But in this case I think it would be better for his development to bowl to the likes of Stuart Law and bat against Muttiah Muralitharan than to face Pakistan Under-19 in a one-day series. I hope that the ECB will change its mind.
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