By and large the opening weeks of the season have belonged to batsmen and Derbyshire’s Chesney Hughes has certainly impressed.
The 25-year-old took advantage of what play was possible on the final day of last week’s rain-hit game with Sussex to score an unbeaten 58 and take his average for the season to a shade over 116.
After missing out by four runs on a century in the first innings at Bristol, the left-hander made an unbeaten 137 in the second and scored 109 not out in the next game at Northampton.
“I’m in a purple patch and I feel in good nick at the moment so I’m just looking to do as much as I can to keep it going for as long as I can,” Hughes said.
“I try not to change too much, I look to score and even if the situation demands we need to block out, the best way of defence is to be positive. I’m just looking to do more of the same and play each game as well as I can.”
Reflecting on the fixture versus Sussex, he added: “The first morning went against us in terms of them electing to bowl in favourable conditions which set us back and then when they batted, it flattened out.
“In different circumstances the game could have gone differently but having said, that we do need to improve in small areas but I don’t think we are too far away.
“Essex are playing very good cricket so we need to up our game a little bit. We are doing a lot of things right but we are letting ourselves down in small areas.
“I think we can do better. We haven’t batted particularly well in the first innings of games and we could have got more runs.
“In the bowling we haven’t managed to hold pressure for long enough. We’ve had good spells but then we’ve released the pressure and allowed teams to get away and we’ve had a lot of runs scored against us by lower order batters.
“If we can sharpen up those areas and bowl well at the tail and be more street-wise in the first innings I think we will be on our way to playing some good cricket.
“We will welcome the challenge against Essex who are a good team but we are a good team and we’ve got a lot better in us so it will be a good game for us to put everything together.”
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