Matt Critchley sat down with Shiv Thakor and Ben Cotton after the pair played a starring role in Derbyshire’s opening win in Abu Dhabi.
Thakor top-scored with 56 from 41 deliveries whilst Cotton claimed two wickets as the Falcons secured a 19-run win over a combined Worcestershire and Warwickshire XI.
Critchley: First up, Shiv you hit 56 today, how did you go?
Thakor: It was nice to get a few runs. It’s first game of the tour after a frustrating start with the weather. In the last couple of days, we’ve had some really good practice and put all that hard work into practice in a match today. Tom Knight played really well today in scoring 45. It was tough early on as we lost a couple of wickets but it was good to get up to 140, which is always a competitive score.
Critchley: That partnership between you and Tom was important, could you talk us a bit more through that?
Thakor: We just tried to give ourselves a chance and keep wickets in hand, that’s the main thing. Credit to Tom for how well he played, he’s done a lot of hard work over the winter which was shown with the score he got today. We were just putting all the hard work we have done into practice, trying to keep it set up nicely for later in the innings.
Critchley: You’ve come back from the tour to Oman and Bahrain, do you think that helped you here?
Thakor: I think the conditions are different but being outdoors has helped. Playing five or six games outdoors have definitely stood me in good stead for this. It was nice to get a few but tomorrow’s another day and I need to do it again. It’s nice to start the tour on a positive note.
Critchley: Ben, you got a double-wicket maiden today which is a rarity in Twenty20 cricket. How was the ball coming out for you?
Cotton: It came out quite nicely. It was a different wicket to what we normally play a T20 on; there was a bit of grass on it and we had to adapt to that early on. We bowled to take wickets which doesn’t happen that often in Twenty20 cricket. With the double-wicket maiden, it was just about bowling in good areas and taking the chances.
Critchley: Obviously, this is a good start, are you looking to carry this forward into the season?
Cotton: Yes, definitely. We haven’t done as much as we would have liked out here yet due to the weather that we experienced. Now we just want to keep moving forward and hit the ground running when we get back to Derby.
Derbyshire are back in action on Monday 14 March when they face Worcestershire in a 50-over fixture.
Click HERE to view Episode Two of Critchley’s Tour Blog.
Click HERE to view Episode One of Critchley’s Tour Blog.
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