Ryan ten Doeschate doesn’t want the Essex players to be fixated by the six points needed to secure promotion to Division One of the Specsavers County Championship.
Essex can wrap up the Division Two title with a game to spare if they dispose of Glamorgan at Chelmsford, starting today, in the same ruthlessness manner with which they dealt with Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Worcestershire in their last three games.
Only Kent and Sussex can stop Essex realising their season’s target, and even their closest challengers require the equivalent of snookers and a catastrophic collapse by the league leaders. Kent trail by 20 points, with a game to play, and Sussex by 43, with two games left.
“It’s a great position to be in,” admitted ten Doeschate, the Essex captain. “The secret is not to focus too much on the six points. Obviously there is the temptation just to go out and get the six points, but we’ll approach the game like we have every game this season.
“We’ll try and set the game up and push things on the first two days. If we follow our processes, and play to our ability, those bonus points should take care of themselves.
“You can’t not acknowledge the fact we only need six points, but we’ll try and steer away from thinking like that.”
For some time it looked as if the battle for the one promotion spot would go to a ‘cup final’ against Kent at Canterbury next week. But Northants all-but made that equation redundant by beating Kent at Beckenham while Essex were sitting out the last round of fixtures.
Ten Doeschate said: “At one stage we thought it was going to take 230 points to win it, and up to three weeks ago there were five teams still in there.
“But our results against Leicestershire and Worcestershire put them out of contention. Kent have applied pressure all the way through, but then slipped up last week.
“Before then we thought we would have to win this game [against Glamorgan] and go to Kent and get a result. But for Northants to do the job for us is obviously great. We still have a little bit or work to do, but we’re delighted with the position we’re in now.”
The batsmen have laid the foundation for Essex’s success with a plethora of big totals, but ten Doeschate said: “Probably most importantly, and least noticed, has been the bowlers who have come on and mopped up a second innings, which is always tough.
“You look at all the county games this season and see how many teams have got into good positions and couldn’t finish it off.”
Promotion almost achieved, Essex have not let the grass grow under their feet. Already longer-term contracts have been completed with key members, and old boys Varun Chopra and Adam Wheater added to the squad.
“Certainly the plan from Silvers [head coach Chris Silverwood], and even above Silvers, was to prepare for Division One cricket and we were always looking to strengthen. Getting our own guys, Chops and Wheats, back is great and we are on the look-out for bowlers to go with the exciting potential we have in Beard, Dixon and Quinn.”
Chopra and Wheater are likely to make their debuts against Glamorgan, and ten Doeschate admits: “There is a strong keenness to get them in, but at the same time we want to play our best team, one we think is going to win this game.
“The sentimental thing is that it will be hard to leave out the guys who have performed so well so far, but I think the squad understands that the primary goal is to win another game of cricket.”