IT was the start of the new 50 over competition last weekend and it felt like a really big change.
It’s obviously a slightly longer form of one-day cricket than we’re used to and with the rule changes, you’re going to see a lot of big scores.
You’re only allowed four people outside the fielding circle, which makes it really difficult for the spinners.
It means that there’s always going to be boundaries and it’s going to be so hard for the spin bowlers – I really don’t think that we’ll develop many one-day spinners in this country anymore.
But it’s great for batsmen and I’m lucky that I get to take advantage of it when I’ll be batting.
We didn’t really take to the competition properly on Saturday and we got beaten really heavily by Derbyshire, but we came back and hammered Lancashire on Sunday, which was really important.
We chatted on Saturday evening about how we need to approach the competition and hopefully we can get it right from now on.
Derbyshire scored 340 against us and we made 360 up at Lancashire, so that shows just how huge those scores are going to be.
I still felt like I played well in both games – I took a couple of wickets on Sunday and even though they played me pretty well on Saturday, I was still pretty happy.
We’re got the T20 quarter-final coming up this Sunday and I think everyone’s excited for that game – we won at Trent Bridge two years ago and that was also in the quarter-finals.
I definitely think that we’re looking at ourselves as underdogs and we’re perfectly happy with that. Being at home gives you an advantage but it’s going to be the team that plays the best cricket on the day that goes through.
I think that it’s ourselves and Nottingham that are the best two one-day teams in the country and we know exactly what to expect from them because they’ve got a superb batting line-up – there’s Alex Hales, James Taylor, Samit Patel and Michael Lumb.
It’s an exciting game to be a part of.
We’ve been kicked out of our ground this week because England are in town for their Test match.
It’s a bit of a shame when you’re not able to train at your own ground but hosting an England game is great for the club - hopefully England do well.
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