Watching George go nuts

My last blog was written just after a couple of defeats against Middlesex in the Twenty20 Cup had halted our early progress in the competition.

Three weeks on and ourselves and Middlesex are one victory away from meeting in the Twenty20 Cup Final so the potential for exacting the ultimate revenge is not an impossibility.

Everything has gone to plan for us in recent times and we are now on a roll. I’ve written before about how important momentum is so we just have to go with it while things are going our way. Everyone is confident in their own performances and we now feel we have the squad to maintain our level of competitiveness even when we are missing a player or two.

In terms of Twenty20 cricket – which is the format that has occupied a lot of our thinking of late – it is clear we have become a very strong outfit with a lot of bases now covered. Danish Kaneria is an outstanding spin bowler and James Middlebrook and Grant Flower have offered support in that area; ‘Golden Boy’ Graham Napier and Dave Masters have started well up front with the ball; Ryan ten Doeschate has also come in with a lot of wickets at crucial times.

When it comes to our batting there has always usually been someone for the occasion to give us the runs we’ve needed. Clearly, one innings springs to mind in particular in this season’s Twenty20 Cup but for me it was a case of déjà vu.

It’s been a privilege over the last month to have been at the other end for two of the best exhibitions of hitting that most cricket watchers can ever have witnessed.

I paid tribute to Ravi Bopara’s 201 not in the Friends Provident Trophy in my last blog and now it’s the turn of Graham after his 152 not out against Sussex in the Twenty20 Cup. Obviously Chelmsford is not the biggest of grounds and ‘George’ acknowledged that two of his sixes wouldn’t have cleared the rope on other grounds…but that still leaves 14 other sixes to talk about!

The way ‘George’ hit the ball that evening was phenomenal. When I asked him what his secret was he just kept grinning!

I’ve always known he had the ability because I’ve seen him hit the ball a long way from Under-10s level. All the way through the age groups he would use these big, heavy bats and he had an unbelievable ability to smack the ball a long way.

I remember at an Under-14 Festival in Stowe School when he hit a six that landed on my dad’s windscreen and he shouted ‘sorry Mr Foster’ from the middle! It’s fair to say he’s not kicked on during his professional career, much to the frustration of both himself and his coaches, but timing is everything.

It’s great to see that everything has finally clicked for him. I don’t know what the key is but he’s added another two crucial innings in the Friends Provident Trophy and the T20 since so he’s clearly in a happy place. If he can keep being consistent then I don’t think England can afford to ignore him.

Speaking to my friends and family after the FPT semi-final win over Yorkshire it seems that the Sky commentators were saying some complimentary things about my performance on the day. I’ve been working hard on my skills with both the gloves and the bat and it all seems to be coming off nicely.

With the bat I’ve been working on areas to hit in the one-day format and it seems to be working nicely at the moment.

It terms of my keeping I feel I’ve got better every year and it never does any harm to have a good game in front of the television cameras. It was particularly nice to take a catch up to the stumps off Ryan ten Doeschate to a full toss – as a result I ran around like a brainless idiot in celebration so it seems the tips I got off Monty Panesar over the winter paid off!

Our next fortnight is going to be packed with Championship and Pro40 matches but in the back of our minds will be our dates with destiny on Twenty20 Cup Finals Day and in the FPT Final.

Everyone is buzzing at the club but we can’t afford to get over-excited. Our continued success depends on the way we train and our working processes in match situations. These are exciting times but there is hopefully more to come.