Critchley praises bowlers

Matt Critchley says the strong performances of the bowling attack during his first two games as captain have made the transition into the role much easier, but he was disappointed to come away with just a point from the ties East Midlands Derby. 

The all-rounder’s tenure has begun with a win over Birmingham Bears at Edgbaston, and a dramatic tie against Notts Outlaws, in which the Falcons seemed to be heading for victory for much of the contest.

However, two clusters of wickets left them needing five to win off the last ball, with Critchley himself only able to hit a four to tie things up. This came after a second stellar bowling performance in as many nights, with Mattie McKiernan’s 3-9 in particular helping them restrict the visitors to 137-9.

Critchley says the side know they should have seen the victories through, but was keen to praise the efforts of a bowling unit which is performing well.

“137 should be an easy enough chase at the best of times, but especially when you’ve got 60-odd in the powerplay, ” he told BBC Radio Derby.

“It’s bitterly disappointing, because we’ve got a point when we should have won the game. I was still pretty relaxed when we needed 12 off three overs, I just couldn’t get myself on strike. These things happen though, we will probably nit pick every single ball from the seventh over and think what we could have done better, but we’ve still gained a point.

“It should have been four points from the last two games, with the two bowling performances, but it’s nice to get points on the board and keep ourselves in the hunt, but we need to be winning these games.

“The way our bowlers came back after Notts made a fast start and executed the plans was very good, we restricted them to a total we fancied. We’ve bowled and fielded really well in the last two games, which has certainly made my job a lot easier.”