Alex Hughes heaped praise on his teammates after their seven-wicket victory against Durham on Tuesday that continued their superb start under the all-rounder’s captaincy.
Hughes particularly paid homage to the bowling attack, spearheaded early on by Ben Cotton and Andy Carter, which set-up the Falcons’ pursuit of 217 for the win.
But he didn’t hold back the praise for his batsmen, in particular Ben Slater, and squad’s strength in depth that may throw up some challenging selection decisions in the comings weeks.
Hughes said: “The boys were fantastic today starting off with Benny Cotts and Carts. Cotts is bowling beautifully at the moment, he’s getting his just rewards for a long winter of hard work and is bowling superbly for the team.
“I think Carter got hit for a couple of boundaries early on and, at that time, I was thinking maybe we should’ve batted. But then a couple of wickets came and then we had seven down for 70 odd. I don’t think it was the pitch, it was the bowling; it was fantastic.”
Regarding the run chase, Hughes said: “Billy and Ben play a lot of cricket together, opening the batting in four-day stuff so they know each other’s games well.
“Ben’s taken to it like a duck to water in this competition and it’s testament to how good of a player he really is.
“It’s a good time with squad depth like this. It makes it difficult when everyone’s fit for selection I guess, but it’s what you want, it’s what winning teams do.
“The next game’s against Notts on Friday in the T20, it’s one of my favourite games of the year, and hopefully we’ll then get a good crowd in on Sunday in Chesterfield and they’ll get behind us, they always do.”
Tickets for the match versus Yorkshire at Chesterfield on Sunday 12 June have proved popular with supporters and the match is heading for a near-capacity crowd. Supporters can save 20% by purchasing their tickets in advance.
[ticketbuttons]
