Out In The Middle With Scott

Fourth Equal

Twenty20 is a game where even if you’re losing you have to keep playing without any fear.

You must try to win the game yourself, take the game by the scruff of the neck and not be timid in any way.

On Tuesday we notched up our second win and took the Twenty20 series over Pakistan at the Knights’ home ground – Seddon Park.

We really tried to put an emphasis on winning the series and winning in Hamilton.

After having as many losses as we have in the last week while we wanted to regain that winning feeling.

It was great to win the series in the first two games rather than head to Christchurch at one all and have to play really well to win.

We’ve copped a fair lashing in the media recently.

And we’re not going to hide away from what’s been going on.

Everybody is aware of what the media said, we think a bit of it is misguided and ill-informed so the guys have closed ranks a little bit and been really determined to change that perception.

And we knew the only way to do that was to win and to make a habit of winning.

So for that reason alone it’s been a great start to our home summer.

It would be very easy to admit that the Knights haven’t played that well in the last four games.

We were sitting there nicely for a while and then it’s just gone a little bit pear-shaped and of course now we’re out of the final after going down to the Wizards in Christchurch.

But that’s Twenty20 though.

For example my IPL team the Deccan Chargers won five in a row then lost five in a row.

It’s very easy for that kind of thing to happen in Twenty20 cricket.

Despite the terrible weather earlier yesterday it was great to see such a great crowd come out to watch the game.

The players are aware it’s not just sport anymore its entertainment.

People come along because they want to be entertained and it’s the players’ responsibilities to do that.

The players enjoy playing it because we’re able to have a bit of fun but we also know the spectators and the people at home watching on TV love to see the fours, sixes and wickets and you certainly get plenty of all of those in this game.

I don’t think there are many players who are disappointed that Twenty20 cricket has come along.

And we’re determined to keep the pressure on Pakistan in the last game in Christchurch.

We want to make it three - nil.

We’ve just come off two one-day series’ where we got toweled up four - nil and five – nil and we know how hard it is to come back from that.

The confidence level goes down and you wonder where the next win is coming from.

The Pakistan side have had their own issues off the field on top of that so with Test matches and One Day Internationals to come the more we can get on them early the harder it will be for them to turn their fortunes around.

Cheers, ScottY