Nottinghamshire’s in-form batsman Riki Wessels is preparing for a crucial weekend of limited-overs action by ordering a new batch of bats.
The latest willow to bite the dust snapped in the 29-year-old’s hand as he attempted to launch Sussex’s Luke Wells for the maximum that would have brought up three figures in the current LV= County Championship fixture at Horsham.
It’s the seventh bat Wessels has broken this season and a new batch is on its way. However, having brandished the very same weapon of choice scoring 97 in the NatWest T20 Blast against Durham on Friday, Wessels preferred to blame himself rather than the bat for his second successive dismissal in site of a hundred.
He also insisted that he’s hoping to get it fixed in time for Friday’s match against Leicestershire Foxes and for the Welbeck Weekender.
“It’s disappointing missing out on hundreds, but it’s quite a good problem to have,” Wessels said. “I’d rather be out on the 90s than for below ten. It’s a team game and that’s just the way it goes.
“Unfortunately my bat broke at just the wrong time. I had two pieces of bat in my hand, but I probably should have kept the shot in the locker.
“It’s the same bat I used on Friday night, so it has had some good use. I’ll try to get it turned around for Friday night and hopefully score some more runs with it.
“I’ve broken seven already this season. Hopefully I’ll get a few more sent up before this weekend.”
The forthcoming weekend is pivotal to the campaign of Nottinghamshire in both white ball formats, with the final match of the NatWest T20 Blast campaign at Grace Road on Friday immediately followed by the opening two matches of the 50 over campaign.
Should other results conspire against the Outlaws on Friday, victory over the Foxes may not be enough to qualify for the last eight.
And, with a quarter of the Royal London One-Day Cup group campaign to follow over a two day period at Welbeck, the forthcoming weekend will go a long way towards deciding the destiny of Notts Outlaws' white ball season.
Wessels won’t allow himself to be preoccupied by other results on Friday and he hopes the Outlaws are peaking in the nick of time.
“It’s what we set out to do in the last four games of the T20 campaign,” he said. “We set out to win our last four games, and if we do get to the quarter-final that would be great for us.
“It’s been a thing for us where we have ran away at the top of the group, got to the quarter-final stages and things have gone wrong. This year we’re timing our run a little bit better, albeit maybe a little bit too late.”
Whatever happens at Grace Road, Wessels is looking forward to playing out-ground cricket in the north of the county when the 50-over competition gets underway the following day.
‘It’s nice and refreshing,” he said of out-ground cricket in general during a commentary stint with the BBC from Sussex’s cricket festival at Horsham.
“It breaks up the scenario of playing at the ground you play at every year. It’s nice to get away from the bigger grounds occasionally. It’s a little bit quieter and a change of scenery really.
“My knowledge of the ground so far is that Jake Ball plays club cricket there. That’s about as far as it goes for me, so I’m looking forward to the experience of playing somewhere new.”
Notts Outlaws will next be in home action with the return of 50-over cricket for the Royal London One Day competition throughout July and August starting with a weekend at Welbeck Cricket Club. Don't miss out on the next step of our summer of cricket and secure your seats now.