Following the washed out final day against Northants, Matthew Mott gave his refections on the opening game of the County Championship
THE MATCH
"They (Northants) did apply themselves well and Middlebrook in particular batted well at a stage where we thought we had got momentum back into the game and it's a lesson for our batters to go through and push on for those 60/70 scores that can be all the difference at this time of year.
"We're learning all the time, we've got a lot of experience in the batting unit, it's certainly a lot more experienced than it's been for a couple of years and I'm sure with that experience they will learn very quickly on what is a good score out there.
"Every game is important particularly when you have not had success for a long time you want to get off to a good start, but there's a lot of cricket left this season, you can't throw the baby out with the bathwater just yet, we've had a couple ordinary days with the bat, but we've had some encouragement as well some guys in good form too, Will Bragg looks in good form and Ben Wright applied himself well.
BATTING PERFORMANCES
"Every time you build up to something for 5-6 months and it doesn't come off you are disappointed, but keep things in perspective it's a couple of bad batting performances really.
"Over the course of the year I'm pretty sure this batting unit will offer enough for us and there's enough there with the ball I think we beat the bat a lot and hopefully we just catch a few edges in the next couple of games that make all the difference.
"I think the nature of this wicket and the time of the year the expectation on runs is a lower than when you get into the better weather and the flatter wickets, but we did get a lot of starts and we didn't kick on.
"You have to strip it down and if it's a judgement error or a good ball it's different than if it's a flashy shot and we didn't get out to a lot of flashy shots so you hope the guys learn from it. The conditions are definitely a bit different from last year it's not so bad batting so we need to get our heads around what's a good score and certainly in that first innings 220 plus would have been a lot more acceptable.
THE WICKET
"I think it looked like a good cricket wicket, all the guys that came off said they missed out an opportunity because it's a good wicket.
"We're always talking with Keith the head groundsman and we were mindful last year was going to be slower and lower because we had relayed the whole square and we can certainly expect more wickets like that this year as the surface is now a bit more compressed so the bounce and carry should come in to it.
"We've got to get used to those conditions we were playing on slower and lower wickets last year
NEXT MATCH WORCESTERSHIRE
"We'll sit down as a senior coaching group and captains to have a look at the team for Worcestershire, but we're not panicking at this stage as we've basically played half a game so far so you can't judge much on that.
"We all feel like the players are in good form and one poor match is not going to define our season"
"It's always a possibility (to play 5 seamers) we'll have a look at the wicket, if its similar it'll be talked about, but if this game went the duration and the rain was not a factor I'm sure you would have seen much more spin involved. You can't pick your team for weather forecasts but we'll toss it round."
