Belief is key to emulating the class of 2014

THERE’S always a great sense of anticipation ahead of NatWest T20 Blast Finals Day at Edgbas- ton.

It’s become one of the highlights of the English cricket calendar and to have the chance to play in such an occasion on home territory is a brilliant feeling for the whole Birmingham Bears squad.

This will be our third Finals Day appearance in four seasons and everyone is excited for Saturday and focused on trying to repeat our success of 2014.

There are still fantastic memories of three years ago and those of us who played that day and are still in the squad will be telling the ‘ new kids on the block’ all about the special feeling of winning a big trophy on home soil.

We are under no illusions as to the scale of the challenge and the three other teams who have qualified for Finals Day – Glamorgan, Hampshire and Notts Outlaws – are all playing exciting T20 cricket and have plenty of potential match-winners.

We, however, will also go in with a huge amount of confidence after a brilliant victory at The Oval against Surrey in the quarter-finals.

There was tremendous support from our travelling army of Bears fans who got behind the boys and were in great voice throughout the evening. It goes without saying I would have loved to have been part of the team but to witness what was a very special performance from the boys was extremely satisfying.

The power hitting of Ed Pollock and Adam Hose was brilliant to watch before Sam Hain, Grant Elliott and Colin de Grandhomme all played inspirational knocks to get us over the line.

Any time you chase down more than 200 in a T20 is some achievement, but to do it when it’s all on the line in a big game like that makes extra special.

While the Specsavers County Championship game against Lancashire – which deadlines meant hadn’t finished at the time of writing this col- it umn – has been our main focus for much of this week, come training tomorrow and game day on Saturday, we will all be ready for that semi-final against Glamorgan.

We’ve heard it’s set to be a record Finals Day attendance and we know there will be plenty of Bears fans there on Saturday cheering us on and hopefully we can give them something to remember and cherish by going all the way to lift the trophy.

It’s been a great week for Test cricket with two brilliant matches across the world, with Bangladesh beating Australia by 20 runs and the West Indies getting home in a thrilling chase against England.

Both games have gone to prove that, while the thrilling spectacle of T20 like we will see on Saturday is hugely popular, there is (and hopefully always will be) a place for the cut and thrust of five-day Test matches.