Cricket

BUTCHER'S BLOCK

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22 August 2008

ALAN BUTCHER'S VIEW

IT'S BEEN a good week on the pitch for us, but a strange one behind the scenes at The Oval.

I showed the players the letter from Roger Harman - I don't see any reason I should hide anything from them. They are disappointed it went out to members without their knowledge, but it might end up galvanising them. If it's the sort of thing that creates a siege mentality in the dressing room then it might just turn out to be a good thing.

Personally I don't feel any more pressure than before. There's always pressure in this job when you have to go out and win cricket matches and that hasn't changed.

We have not had the best of luck with injuries and illness this season. Having the captain out so long hasn't helped but I've been proud of how the guys have stuck together and continued to work hard for each other.

On the pitch I was very pleased with our performances last week, especially our Pro40 win over Northamptonshire. We batted really well and we made a great start with the new ball. It was pleasing to see both units firing at the same time for once.

James Benning gave us a fantastic start and Stewart Walters batted really well for his 91. We've been waiting and hoping for players like him to produce big scores and I just hope it's the start of something more lasting. We know how good a player he is and he has looked the part. He's faced a couple of unplayable deliveries early on and after that he's always gotten out when looking set. I want him to go on from this and cement his place in the side.

I also think Matthew Spriegel deserves a mention. He played a big part in the win, putting the breaks on in the middle of the innings just when it looked like they were getting going.

We know we've got an outside chance of promotion now, but I'm not looking at the table. There are a few teams above us with games in hand and we're probably out of contention but you never know. For now I just want to keep the players performing well and improving.

The same goes for the County Championship, though we need to win a couple of games now to get us out of trouble.
It was disappointing losing so much of last week's game to rain, but it's always going to be tough to force a result on the pitch down at Taunton. I hope for better weather for the Sussex game this week but the forecast isn't looking great at the moment to be honest. The most we can do is play well in the hours we've got.

That's what we did against Somerset in getting the bonus points. Ramps was magnificent again. He showed both sides to his game in that knock. He worked really hard for his first hundred and then just took them apart to secure the bonus points which did not look realistic at one point. I was pleased with the way the tail stuck around with him too.

Our priority for the rest of the season is obviously to stay up in the Championship. But our real aim is to play well in every session of cricket we've got left. It's all very well saying you're going to prioritise a competition but you still can't win unless you play good cricket, so that's what we want to do.

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