Kentish Express Ashford & District
Harmison delighted to finally get off mark
Ben Harmison admitted he was “chuffed to bits” to have scored his first Kent century, helping the club record their first championship win of the season, at Gloucestershire. Harmison’s imperious unbeaten 141-ball knock of 101 – which featured 12 fours and a six – was his first hundred since August 2007 and just his fourth in first class cricket, having started his career with back-to-back tons for Durham in 2006. The 27-year-old left-hander said: “It was good to get off the mark with a hundred for Kent. I was chuffed to bits. It was too hot to be celebrating and I was pretty tired after but when I had the chance to reflect afterwards, I was happy.” Harmison has come in for criticism in some quarters for his form in one-day cricket
‘I didn’t feel the weight of pressure.
I back myself’
this season and was left out of the t20 side as his career average dropped below 12 runs over 34 games. However, he added: “I didn’t feel the weight of pressure at all. I back myself. I’ve got the chance to bat five when I’ve played and you’ve got to try and score runs and I think I’ve done that all year. I have got about 400 runs in five games I’ve played. It’s nice to get a 100 but to be honest, it was nice to get 20 overs. I’m happy to be bowling again.” He added: “I’m hoping it is going to be plain sailing from
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now on but I didn’t bowl a ball on Monday which was a bit weird. I am an all-rounder. I want to bat and want to bowl. I want to bat up the order and bowl second change. “Hopefully, I am pushing my case with the red-ball to be up the order and I’m just looking for a chance in the white ball stuff. “I’m confident once I get that chance, I’ll stamp my authority and mark on it.” Harmison said winning at the ninth time of asking would stand the team in good stead for the remainder of the season, adding: “It was good to come out on top. We’ve got into those win-or-lose situations before but we’ve lost every time. “It’s nice that now if we get in that position again, we are confident know we can win a game. We want it to be a turning point. We’ve got the confidence from last week. We can do it, everyone knows it, it’s just the confidence for someone to put their hand up and do it.”