Essex captain Ryan ten Doeschate praised his bowling attack for their part in the 22-run victory over Somerset on Thursday evening. The skipper stuck with the same bowlers from the games against Surrey and Kent Spitfires and the performance all came together to record a first win.
He said: “Mohammad Amir showed he’s world-class, he went for 17 there. Harmy bowled nicely, a tad on the expensive side, but crucial wickets. It was always going to be a challenge to defend with that short boundary and Ravi deserves a special mention for bowling his four overs all from that end as well.
“In fairness I think we misread the wicket a little bit. I don’t think it was a 185 wicket. I certainly felt at the halfway stage a little disappointed. But you saw the ball stick in the surface a tiny bit and I thought we exploited that very well. We held our lengths well. It wasn’t a typical Chelmsford wicket where you can hit through the line because the boundary was too small for that, so it’s probably balanced out quite nicely.
“I’d like to see the top-order get going a little bit. It’s crucially important in T20 cricket. In a perfect world myself, Ash. Fozzy and Paul Walter would just deliver the finishing touches. But we’ve relied heavily on the top three in the past – someone like Tom Westley has been leading run-scorer at the club for the last three or four years. It’s great to see Ravi in the runs again, his consistency is starting to come through there.
“It’s all looking all right, but there’s plenty of room for improvement. The second half of the game with the ball was our best showing for a long time.”
Tendo was pleased with the win after falling short in the opening two games, and added: “We’d put ourselves under pressure by losing the first two but we kind of embraced it. Certainly, going three down in a 14-game competition would have given us a lot of work to do. But if you win half your games you’ve got a chance, but Sunday [against Glamorgan] is a big game for us to go two in two.”
