Ben Slater says his 110 meant a lot to him on Day One of Derbyshire’s Specsavers County Championship with Gloucestershire.
It was Slater’s third career first-class hundred, and his first this year, but fourth in all forms of the game this season. His century came off 213 balls with 12 fours, in Derbyshire’s first innings of 242 all out, and at the close Gloucestershire finished 27-1.
Slater said: “It’s obviously nice to get the first one of the summer, it’s felt like a long time coming since my last one so it meant a lot to me to get that one today.”
Slater, who opened the batting with Godleman, got off to a flyer in the morning session, scoring almost at a run-a-ball for the first ten overs, but insists it wasn’t part of a game plan.
“I don’t think it was really part of the plan, but I think looking back it was the nicest time to bat really with the new ball. It was coming onto the bat on that wicket and obviously there’s a few more gaps at the start so you can usually tend to get a few boundaries away.
“As soon as the ball got a little bit softer it made it difficult to score so it wasn’t planned but it was just one of those things,” Slater added.
Slater admits that the score of 242 was a little below par, but is confident that the Derbyshire bowlers can perform well: “It’s a little bit short of what we hoped for after winning the toss, but we got a wicket there at the end.”
Slater added: “But obviously there is still a little bit in the wicket, and as the ball gets softer it does get a bit more difficult to score; hopefully we’ll get a few early in the morning.”
“It will be an important first hour, if we can get two or three wickets it puts them right on the back foot, and it puts a different spin on things.”
