Essex form not enough for England

After the euphoria of winning the Friends Provident Trophy it was important as a team that we didn’t think that was the end of our season.

There was still promotion in both the Championship and the Pro40 to play for and though we didn’t quite manage it in the longer form there was one further chance to celebrate in the 40-over game.

It all came down to a decider against Kent – at Canterbury – which was like another final. When we looked at the schedule it seemed part of the script that the title would be decided on the last day of the season – and so it turned out, as victory for either side would give them the Division Two trophy.

Going into the game we were 3-3 on past matches against Kent this year so it really was a decider in all senses of the word. It was clear that Kent felt hurt by losing the FPT Final so we knew they would come hard at us and have a lot of determination to win.

It turned out to be an exciting game of cricket but all the better for us as we ended up winning it in some style.

Kent put up a good total, with Robert Key playing a true captain’s knock, and when Graham Napier got injured and Yasir Arafat picked up a wicket with the first ball of our innings it was going to take a huge effort for us to win.

Jason Gallian and Ravi Bopara gave us a solid platform from which to mount our chase so that, despite the run-rate increasing, we had kept plenty of wickets in hand for the late charge.

Our victory was inspired by another huge knock from Grant Flower, who Kent must be sick of the sight of now. For Grant to play two innings like those at Lord’s and Canterbury was phenomenal. Grant still works tremendously hard on his fitness and cricket skills at this late stage in his career, so I was delighted to see him produce those performances – it couldn’t have happened to a nicer bloke.

With two titles to our name the 2008 season could barely have gone better for the team. Missing out on promotion in the Championship was our only blip and that is something we will all be aiming to put right next year.

From a personal point of view I ended the four-day season strongly with three centuries in the last five matches to lift my average up to 50.

Whether my form in the longer form of the game will make any difference to my chances of making the next Test tour (to India) is unlikely, however. With fellow wicketkeepers Matt Prior and Tim Ambrose both having been awarded incremental contracts it shows my chances are slim – otherwise why offer them contracts if they aren’t going to be selected?

It’s disappointing because I feel I’ve had a good season with the bat and gloves in all forms of the game. In general, I feel I’ve been very consistent over the last four to five seasons and my skills are improving all the time. That doesn’t seem to be enough for the England selectors but I’ll keep plugging away. I’m still picking up information and learning from various coaches, which is something I’ll continue to do over the winter.

I don’t want to go into detail but I’ll be working on ways of manipulating the ball into new areas during the off-season. I’m excited about improving my game and being a better player once again next year.

At the moment I’m not planning on going anywhere before Christmas because I’ve not really had a proper break since my University days. I’ll enjoy a period off to recharge my batteries – hopefully doing a bit of coaching around November time – and then feel hungry to make a start again in the new year.