Wayne Madsen believes Derbyshire have the quality and confidence to take the next step and qualify for the knockout stages of the Royal London One-Day Cup.
Madsen’s brilliant unbeaten 119 – his fifth List A century – led the Falcons to a five-wicket win over Warwickshire on Tuesday to boost their chances of emerging from a tough North Group.
A third win in the competition takes them to seven points and gives them a positive run-rate ahead of Thursday’s game at Emirates Old Trafford against Lancashire, who are one point ahead of them.
The Falcons then play their final group match on Monday at The Pattonair County Ground against Worcestershire who are another team in the running to reach the knockouts.
Madsen acknowledges the quality of the opposition but also knows they are more than capable of building on the promise of recent seasons in the 50-over format.
“It’s in our hands if we win the last couple of games but they are two big games,” he said.
“Lancashire have been playing some good cricket and so have Worcestershire and we are going to have to be on top of our form.
“But we are playing with a lot of confidence and belief in our abilities at the moment so it’s a great time to be taking on these two games.
“We don’t won’t to look too far ahead, for us it’s one game at a time, but to get to the knockout stages would be pretty special.”
Derbyshire have been in this position before only to come up short and Madsen admits it is important they get over the line.
“We’ve come close on other occasions so it is important that we go that next step,” he said.
“We’ve had good starts and then we’ve fallen away which is why the Warwickshire win was such an important one.
“We’ve had a good opening four games and then a poor last four games in the last couple of seasons so to get a win like this in one of the matches leading up to crunch time is important for momentum.
“I think the way we are positive with both bat and ball is important and we have a good fielding team which really helps when you are putting the squeeze on, especially in the middle periods when our spinners are bowling.
“We have a good mix in the one-day team and we certainly have learnt over the last few years how to win games and we are playing with that confidence.”
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