Sehmi keen to guide Cheshire to the quarters of Knockout Trophy
ROB Sehmi wants one last effort from his Cheshire side as they look to book their place in the National Counties Cricket Association Knockout Trophy quarter-finals. Cheshire have bounced back from their opening Group Three defeat at Cambridgeshire to beat Norfolk and Shropshire in their last two matches.
That leaves them in second place in the standings – behind Cambs, who have already clinched their last-eight place – as they prepare to host Suffolk at Didsbury on Sunday.
And the stakes couldn’t be higher. Suffolk are one place and one point further back, meaning that the winners will advance and the losers will see their white-ball commitments come to an end this season.
“Everything I spoke about after we lost to Cambridgeshire, the boys have delivered on,” said Sehmi,
pictured above right.
“It’s just a case of one last push from us to get over the line. Then hopefully we can look forward to the knockout games.
“We had to reset after the Cambs defeat and go again. There wasn’t any time to dwell on it, it was a case of ‘come on lads, lets buck ourselves up’.
Cheshire defeated Norfolk at Chester Boughton Hall thanks to a rapid century from Will Evans, before impressing all-round in seeing off Shropshire at Wem last weekend.
Sehmi, though believes that his Cheshire players have plenty more to offer as the competition unfolds – they just have to make sure they’re involved.
“Will Evans in full flow against Norfolk, there isn’t a finer sight watching that,” explained Sehmi.
“It was a pleasure to watch him bat in that manner. He was so free in how he played.
“We knew last weekend about Shropshire because we play them often, so we went there with lots of confidence.
“But I still think there’s more gears for us to go through.
“Out fielding can go up a notch and we’ve not had a settled bowling attack yet because of availability, so we will click when we’re able to do that.
“Batting-wise there’s no issues, we’ve been fantastic and long may that continue.”
Sehmi is delighted that Cheshire will be at home this weekend for the key encounter, instead of having to make the long journey down to East Anglia.
And he says that he’ll stick to the same formula to try and get over the line.
“It’s always an advantage to be at home and not have to travel on a Saturday night,” he said.
“Didsbury is a great ground to play at, so from pur point of view we’re going to go out and be as positive as possible.
“If it comes off, it comes off and we can look forward to more white-ball games.”
Suffolk, who lost to Cambridgeshire last weekend, bring a muchchanged side up to Cheshire this weekend.
Opener Nick Browne is required by parent county Essex, wicketkeeper Jacob Marston is injured, while Tristan Blackledge, Dominic Manthorpe and Alex Quin are all unavailable.
Darren Ironside is still injured, while Josh Rymell (Essex) and Freddie Heldreich (Northamptonshire) are required by their counties and Matt Wareing (Sudbury) and Bury St Edmunds’ Alastair Allchin are both unavailable.
However, Darren Batch returns after injury and there are recalls for his Sudbury team-mate Paddy Sadler, whose sole appearance so far came in the final fixture of the 2019 season, and Alex Oxley of Copdock & Old Ipswichians plus a debut for Josh Frame who is a former Suffolk Young Cricketer.
Adam Mansfield, who has taken on coaching duties with Suffolk’s white-ball sides this season, will deputise behind the stumps.