Bowling all-rounder Lyndon James is relishing being at the epicentre of high-pressure moments, having delivered key contributions with both bat and ball in Notts Outlaws’ successful weekend at Welbeck.
An 80-ball 76, followed up by two wickets to finish off an imperious Notts bowling display, was a defining performance in the Outlaws’ win over Yorkshire Vikings on Sunday.
James is part of a 15-man squad travelling to South Wales, taking on Glamorgan at Neath Cricket Club on Wednesday 31 July (11am), with Sammy King returning and Luke Fletcher rested.
Having bounced back from a DLS defeat to Leicestershire in their 50-over curtain raiser with back-to-back wins over Sussex and Yorkshire, James has been encouraged by the perseverence shown by his team mates.
“We’re pretty happy with how we’ve started the competition,” he said, “It was a bit of a blip in the first game at Leicester; myself included, we didn’t really bowl as well as we should have done.
“But to get two wins at Welbeck, where last year we struggled, and to be successful there is really great. It feels like we’ve got a bit of momentum now.”
The medium-fast bowler was particularly impressed with how Notts utilised their knowledge of the Welbeck surface, limiting their visitors to scores of 126 and 216.
“We’ve played there for a few years so we knew that was coming - there's a bit of nip up front and some extra bounce," he said.
“When we were four down against Yorkshire, we knew not to panic, we batted pretty deep and we knew that anything around the 200 mark would be a competitive score.”
James’ 11 boundaries with the bat - four coming in the space of one over - were a critical turning point in Notts’ search for a defendable score, and at 40/4 the all-rounder knew full well that the destiny of the contest was on a knife edge.
“I love those situations where we’re under the pump,” he said, “it’s happened a few times in the County Championship when we’ve had to dig in.
“I felt like I was in decent rhythm and that we were never truly out of the game, and that if I could bat for the majority of the innings that we wouldn’t be far off a decent score.
“There’s always much more time than you think. When you’re under pressure and you look at the scoreboard, in the grand scheme of things you always seem to have more time than you actually think.
“Myself and Tom (Moores) went about our business, tried to put them under pressure by running hard, and it felt like we built up a really good partnership in no time at all.”
James has also seen improvements in his own game since the competition began, his two wickets at the end of the Yorkshire innings - in exchange for just 11 runs - showed the seamer at his clinical best.
“In the first two games, in terms of my bowling, I was quite frustrated with myself and felt out of sync,” he addmitted.
“Especially in a lot of T20s we’ve played, I bowled a lot of wide yorkers over those couple of weeks, but I had a little session with Shiney (Kevin Shine) on the morning of the Yorkshire game to try and straighten things out, and I actually felt in really good rhythm in my couple of overs towards the end.
“I was dying to get the ball, especially when they were starting to build a little partnership. I thought, ‘get me off this field and let me make something happen’.”
Several young faces - some making their first appearances in List A cricket - have formed an important part of the One Day Cup squad, with Freddie McCann coming to the top of the batting order and spinner Farhan Ahmed making his One Day Cup debut at Grace Road.
James was quick to highlight the positive energy brought to the dressing room by the younger contingent:
“They bring a lot of energy, but the biggest trait is the absolute freedom that they play with," he said.
"In white-ball cricket it’s so easy to feel under pressure to score quickly or bowl a certain way.
“With both Freddie and Farhan being in England Under-19s, they’ve been so successful and it’s all about carrying that forward into our white-ball side. It’s a credit to our coaching staff and the environment here that young players can come in and do what they do without feeling pressure, which is when you get the best out of them.
“It’s all about giving them full confidence. When you first start playing, you want people to fill you with confidence. It’s still a game of cricket at the end of the day, and if you can deliver what you’ve delivered in the second team or in the nets then that’s what’s required of you. It’s about giving them absolute backing and trying to build their self-belief.”
Back-to-back triumphs on home turf came at an important time for the Outlaws, who now face two trips on the bounce, with a visit to Guildford (against Surrey) shortly following their contest in Neath.
Those victories will almost certainly serve Notts well while on the road in the midst of an unrelenting One Day Cup schedule, as James explains.
“It’s momentum. As soon as you start to grow in confidence, you feel like a lot of lads are delivering and the dressing room is a nice place to be,” he said.
“It’s exciting as we’ve kept ourselves in the hunt for qualification, which was the aim before the start of the competition.
“A final at Trent Bridge is something we all want to be a part of, so that’s the cherry on top of what we’re hoping to achieve.”
*******
