COUNTY CRICKET: Jimmy Adams opens up on Hampshire cricket

4:08pm Thursday 26th April 2007

Initial success raises the roof!

At last, we're off and running and what a great way to start - a comprehensive win and a nice confidence boost to take into our first championship game against the Brown Caps.

There was the usual mixture of nerves, adrenalin and excitement leading into the game but also some apprehension (for a few of us anyway) due to the expectations around the Rose Bowl.

So, together with the fantastic winning feeling, I also experienced a strange sensation of relief as we belted out the team song in typically unmelodic style (I'm no music guru, my musical ability stretching to a few dodgy opening bars of Stairway and pressing the demo button on the keyboards at school, but even I can tell that we must be pretty ordinary to listen to).

A relief that we had managed to start well, that everyone's hard work in the build-up had been rewarded, that as we had said in pre-season, we had hit the ground running.

It is one of the best feelings in team sport, when you can sit down after a game and enjoy the team's success, hopefully your individual success and most importantly your team-mates' success. On the flip-side one of the hardest things to do is to pick yourselves back up after a defeat, which is why on Sunday evening a fair number of us sat back in our changing places and were quietly relieved that we had got off to a good start.

In the game itself, we lost the toss and were put in to bat (I am not sure what we would have done if we had won it - it's amazing how much less you worry about the toss when you're not opening the batting) and got off to a good start against a side who had spent much of their previous four days chasing leather at Taunton.

Nic Pothas and Michael Lumb (59) added 106 for the second wicket and with the middle order batting around Nic, who scored a brilliant 114, we managed to post a sizeable 294 for 6. Middlesex looked in the game for a while with Shah (32) and Smith (59) at the crease but the introduction of spin quickly extinguished their hopes (Warne 3-16, Udal 2-51, Lamb 1-29) and they faded to 203 all out.

We had spoken about our approach to one-day cricket for the season and last Sunday we were able to carry out our game plan successfully - one of our top four batsmen stayed at the crease for a hundred and allowed us to set up a good platform from which we could accelerate with wickets in hand at the end.

On the bowling front, we made early inroads with the new ball and then squeezed them with our spinners, helped by a good display in the field.

If we can find a level of consistency that has been missing in our one-day cricket since the C&G success and with some of, arguably, our most destructive one day players still to return to the line-up (Ervine, Mascarenhas, Carberry and Tremlett), there is no reason why we can't deliver in the one-day game and in Twenty20 where, I think it is fair to say, we have under-performed recently.

In Michael Carberry's absence, Nic Pothas, pictured right, has taken up the opening role in the one-day format, a tough ask for a keeper as you often get little or no rest time between innings. Skeg, as he is affectionately known (something for the surfers amongst you) has opened successfully before (the successful C&G year springs to mind again) and on Sunday did an awesome job.

When Nic first arrived we were slightly taken aback by his rather unusual habits' (they are not superstitions) and meticulous preparation.

However, it soon became apparent that there was a method to the perceived madness of the Mad Russian', as his good friend and comedy sidekick Paddy Farhart referred to him. There was the sound of seeds blending in the early hours in your hotel room, the strange mannerisms when he batted, the strict diet (apart from Sundays) and the need for the velcro on his pad straps to be perfectly attached, amongst many other things. However, all this quickly became irrelevant (though still a source of amusement) as he continued to churn out runs and provide a great role model for the younger players.

His hundred could not have been more deserved, I've never come across someone who works harder at his game and yet he still finds time to help others, luckily I've had the pleasure (and subsequent pain) of training with Skeg over the past two winters and it was fantastic to see all his efforts reaping rewards. Let's hope it continues.

Expectations are high for the Championship as well this week when we travel to The Oval where we hope to pile on the misery for Surrey after their loss to Yorkshire last week. Then we move on to Chelmsford for a one-dayer on Sunday before returning back to the Rose Bowl next Wednesday for our first home Championship game against Michael Lumb's old club Yorkshire.

A good first month will be important for our title aspirations, especially with Sussex getting off to a flyer.

Finally, a little off the subject, during a quieter moment I was looking through a fantasy cricket section and found myself wondering how much attention the people that devise these things pay to the sport itself.

I noticed they had Michael Brown down as a keeper (occasionally maybe), our other keeper Tommy Burrows as an out and out batter and Michael Lumb as cheap as chips For what it's worth (not much judging by my fantasy football team) I would recommend spinners (Mushy to be more exact, he's already taken a 10-for) and batsmen playing at Taunton or other flat ones in the second division.

As for myself, I'm over-priced according to a couple of good' friends!