James Kettleborough insists Staffordshire must focus on the task in hand as they look to prolong their interest in the NCCA Knockout Trophy.
A victory over Herefordshire and defeat at the hands of Suffolk over the Bank Holiday weekend left Staffs with a clear-cut scenario as they bid to qualify from Group Two.
They must beat Shropshire at Shifnal on Sunday and then emerge victorious from their final group encounter at Norfolk to give themselves a chance of qualifying for the latter stages.
However, Kettleborough is also fully aware that losing at Shropshire this weekend, coupled with a Suffolk victory over Herefordshire, would see Staffs eliminated at the group stage for the third successive season.
There are plenty of permutations heading into the final two weekend of this white-ball block, but captain Kettleborough is eager to just adopt a simplistic approach to qualification matters.
“I’m not worried about the Suffolk game this weekend, it’s just about us and it’s a win/lose match,” said Kettleborough.
“It’s a tough game. Shropshire gave us a beating last season in the Trophy and have two wins from two so far this year.
“We’ve had a couple of matches and there have been loads of positives for us to take.
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“We know that if we turn up and put in the type of performance we’re capable of, then we can win.
“There’s no point in us looking ahead to the Norfolk game in the final round. We just have to concentrate on Sunday first and foremost.
“If it does, there’s going to be plenty to play for, but we just need to focus on winning at Shropshire.”
‘Good start, frustrating finish’
Staffs made an impressive start to last weekend’s double header.
Kettleborough hit 105 as Staffordshire posted 275 against Herefordshire at West Bromwich Dartmouth.
They then reduced their visitors to 147-9 before James Rudge’s 62 restored Herefordshire pride as they made their way to 215 all out.
“We showed what we can do in 50-over cricket on Sunday. The manner in which we won was pleasing,” added Kettleborough.
“We executed out plans and we’d had plenty of conversations about our Trophy cricket over the winter.
“At one stage we were 19-2 and it was just a case of sitting tight and things came off for us.
“We then had them nine down and I was always confident we were going to close the game out.
“It took us a couple of overs to be clear with our plans at the end, but I was never concerned.”
Staffordshire couldn’t make it a Bank Holiday double as they lost to Suffolk at Bignall End on Monday.
Suffolk made their way to 312-6 from their 50 overs – a chaseable score at the venue.
‘Close call’
Matthew Morris (55), Nils Priestley (50), Kettleborough (43) and Michael Hill (26) all made starts in the run chase. But wickets were lost at vital times to eventually see Staffs fall to 245 all out.
“It felt different after Monday because in the past when we’ve lost we’ve come third on the day – but we felt as though we were close,” explained Kettleborough.
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“We’ve played some poor cricket in recent seasons, but against Suffolk we had four or five batsmen get in and we just needed one of them to kick on and get 80 or 100.
“You think 300 is a lot to chase, but I was confident we were going to do it, but we lost wickets at the wrong time.
“We were always one or two more wickets down that we’d have ideally liked, but we said we wanted to leave ourselves 100 to 120 off the final 10 overs… as long as we had wickets in hand.”
‘Battling back’
Staffordshire struggled to hit their lines and lengths early on against Suffolk before they dragged matters back in the middle period.
However, Suffolk eased past the 300-mark in the closing stages thanks to a rapid 54 not out from Josh Cantrell.
“We knew it was a quick-scoring ground so if you were off, then it was easy to score runs,” said the county skipper. “Then the spinners came on and Tom Brett and Matt Morris squeezed brilliantly.
“If we could have kept them to under 300 that would have been a great outcome. We always felt we could keep them to 275 or 280.
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“It’s partly psychological. Chasing 280 seems a bit easier than something over the 300-mark.
“In the end, on that ground, 60 runs isn’t a huge amount, so it was a positive we pushed them so close.
“Ultimately, though, it was just frustrating that we weren’t able to get over the line.
“It was down to fine margins and we just need to iron out a few small areas moving forward.”
Main image: James Kettleborough is urging his Staffordshire to solely focus on Sunday’s game against Shropshire. Picture: David Peters