Wakely seeks a thrill this year with too many draws in 2016
NORTHAMPTONSHIRE captain Alex Wakely is pledging more excitement from his side in this year’s County Championship campaign, starting with today’s opener against Glamorgan.
The opening-day clash at Wantage Road will be an opportunity for Northants to pick up where they left off, after they won their final three matches last season.
However, this was only enough to drag them away from the foot of the Division Two table after the T20 Blast holders went without a win in their first ten games with the red ball.
Eight of those finished in draws, which killed off any chance of Northants challenging for promotion and some of their early home matches were particularly disappointing spectacles.
But Wakely said: “In our first team meeting of the year, we talked a lot about four-day cricket – we really believe that we’ve got to start competing in that competition.
“For me, it’s all about winning games of cricket and not drawing them.
“If you look at the way that the points are split up, it’s so much more beneficial to win, but to do that you’ve also got to be prepared to lose, so I think you are going to going to see more competitive games this year.
“Maybe not setting up a result as such, but maybe declarations where you’re not batting teams out of games because I think if you win three and lose three out of six games, that’s more beneficial than drawing six.”
Two of Northants’ four victories in the Championship last season came against Glamorgan, which included a couple of spectacular bowling performances from Ben Sanderson (7-22) and Rob Keogh (9-52). And Wakely is targeting a start as strong as last year’s finish.
“If you win one of the first three, even if you lose two, you’re actually in a very good position,” added the skipper.
“I think it’s key in the Championship that you get off to a good start – we finished very well last year but the way we started was just so dull and we couldn’t pull it back in time.”
Glamorgan will be looking for a big improvement this year, after they won just three times to finish eighth last term, losing seven out of their last eight fixtures.
There will be a new name on their team sheet in the form of South Africa international Marchant de Lange, with the fast bowler available across all formats.
Glamorgan head coach Robert Croft said: “Marchant is a match winner. He has pace, aggression and he’s the right age (26) and at the right stage of his career to make an impact for us.
“When you are looking at winning matches in four-day cricket, 20 wickets is the challenge and Marchant is a wicket-taker.”