Nottinghamshire fast bowler Dane Paterson is raring to go against upcoming LV= Insurance County Championship opponents Somerset, despite a sizeable chunk of time away from red-ball cricket during the height of the Vitality Blast group stage.
The seamer is included in a squad of 13 for the fixture, with Liam Patterson-White continuing his recovery from a hamstring injury.
Paterson insisted that any rest period, regardless of length, is handy for a bowler in the four-day game: “It’s good to get rest and it’s important to stay fresh as four-day cricket is really hard on the body. Whatever rest we can get is crucial.”
The South African was welcomed back into the side with the visit of Warwickshire to Trent Bridge - a tough outing for Nottinghamshire’s bowlers as the visitors piled on a first-innings total of 571 before enforcing the follow-on, in a contest which ultimately found no winner thanks to a sensational record First Class knock from Joe Clarke to keep Notts out of danger.
Paterson admitted that the bowling performance fell below the Green and Golds' own exacting high standards.
“It was disappointing, myself included, but you have to give credit to Warwickshire who batted well," he said, "it would have been nice to keep their score limited to somewhere between 350 and 380.
“That innings from Joe was unbelievable. To get such a big score as an individual was brilliant; he pulled the rabbit out of the hat and saved us the game.”
Paterson revelled in his last visit to Taunton, taking seven wickets for a neat return of just 88 runs in Nottinghamshire’s County Championship win back in August 2021.
With an average of 12.57 from his various visits, the first being his T20I debut for South Africa, he evidently enjoys bowling on the Taunton turf, albeit this game will be played with a Kookabura ball, an implementation for the recent High Performance Review.
“That Somerset game was actually my first time playing there with the red ball,” he said, “with (Kevin) Shine being a former player there, he knows how to bowl on that pitch. The advice he gave us as a bowling unit allowed us to operate well on it.
“It’s usually quite a flat pitch, but there was something in the wicket - it was turning a bit. It was all about putting balls in the right areas and keeping pressure on the batsmen.
“I’m hoping for more of the same again this year.”
The official half-way mark of the four-day season is on the horizon, with Peter Moores’ side sitting right amongst the chasing pack in fifth in the Division One table.
A lot, however, can change in the second half of the campaign, says Paterson.
“Conditions change, spinners come into the game more, and it can be harder to get a result.
“We’ve got a lot of important games coming up and we are trying to take as many points as possible off the teams above us, as you never know what might happen come the season’s end.
“We’ve set high expectations for ourselves - silverware in the four-day game is what we want, and we will be working hard towards that. The boys are looking forward to the challenge ahead.”