Slough CC must 'value wickets better' says captain Goutham Shrikrishna

Slough captain Goutham Shrikrishna wants his batsmen to ‘value’ their wicket after his side slipped to an eight-wicket defeat at the hands of an impressive

Banbury side.  

Having won the toss Slough elected to bat in favourable conditions and put together a solid opening stand of 45 between Muuz Ali Ahmed (34) and Rahim Akhtar (18) which was built on nicely by Saif Zaib (22) and Girinath Reddy Poreddy (49).

But – not for the first time this season – Slough’s innings with the bat fell away after losing a number of wickets in quick succession, albeit under pressure from some slick bowling from their visitors.

At 156-5, Slough collapsed to finish 167 all out, something Shrikrishna highlighted when reflecting on the match.

“One thing we discussed was valuing your wicket more rather than throwing it away,” said Shrikrishna.

“I think we lost because that pitch was not a pitch for 160 runs it was more of a pitch for 220/230. Credit to the way

Banbury bowled because they didn’t give us any bad balls and put the pressure on throughout the innings when we were trying to accelerate the runs.

“One of the challenges we faced was losing wickets in bunches, to be fair.

“The opening partnership stood for 20 overs but then we lost a few wickets in the matter of three or four overs.

“And then again, at the end, we lost wickets in bunches and that’s not helping us.”

That collapse meant that the less than competitive total allowed Banbury an easier chase and it was one they built towards steadily as Lloyd Sabin (74no) and Edward Philips (12) put on a 34-run opening stand before Shahid Yousaf (45) came in to get the visitors over the line.

“We are making the same mistakes and not learning from that,” added Shrikrishna.

“Not being able to build those partnerships is meaning we can’t get the score we expect to.”

Slough will need to pick themselves up and dust themselves off for another tough task this weekend as they
welcome unbeaten Datchet to Upton Court.

Slough currently sit in the relegation places in division one of the Home Counties Premier Cricket League, but Shrikrishna believes there are areas in Datchet’s game that his side can make the most of.

“They (Datchet) struggled last week,” said Shrikrishna.

“The thing is, with the long form of the game, one innings, one over, can make the difference and I’m pretty confident that we can beat any team in the league on our day.”