Suffolk T20 coach Tom Huggins expects the county to be challenging strongly in the shortest format of the game this season, writes Nick Garnham.
The county’s former captain, who is now player-coach at Sudbury and works full-time on the coaching staff at Essex, has been brought in as a specialist coach for Suffolk’s T20 campaign.
Suffolk will play eight T20 group games – double-headers against Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire this season.
And after witnessing Suffolk defeat Cambridge MCCU in back-to-back fixtures at Sudbury on Sunday, Huggins is confident Suffolk can enjoy a successful season.
Jed Cawkwell and Darren Batch made 53 apiece in Suffolk’s 194 for 3 and debutants Adam Ball and Jake Foley both took two wickets as Suffolk won the first match by 73 runs.
Jaik Mickleburgh then top-scored with 91 and Ben Shepperson added an unbeaten 37 before Jake Wakelin claimed 3 for 30 as Suffolk successfully defended their total of 191 for 3 to win by nine runs in the second match. Suffolk youngster Josh Cantrell struck 93 for the visitors.
Huggins said: “The batsmen did a good job in both games, with Jed scoring runs at the top of the order in the first game and Jaik in the second game.
“Then both innings had impetus at the back end from Batchy and Shep respectively to take us to two good totals.
“Sudbury is a small ground and is hard to defend, but our bowlers did well. Having Adam Ball in the side is a big plus with his knowledge of the game and his own game and the way he executes his skills.
“Today’s matches have been a really good run-out for everyone.”
Huggins said it was exciting to be back involved with the county set-up.
He added: “It is good to be back. I obviously played for Suffolk for a number of years and to try and help is exciting.
“The togetherness and team spirit is very positive – the whole team want to do well for each other.
“You take each game one at a time, but you would like to think our chances are good as we have got some highly-skilled cricketers.”
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