21 Oct 2014 | Cricket
Jacques Rudolph is already looking forward to a second season at Glamorgan following his return to county cricket in 2014.
Glamorgan's List A Player of the Year mixed some sublime limited-overs performances with self-confessed indifferent form in the LV= County Championship.
He was the leading run-scorer in the Royal London One-Day Cup competition - averaging a remarkable 82.14 - and was fourth-best of all players in the NatWest T20 Blast as Glamorgan missed out on an appearance at Finals Day by one run in a rain-affected contest at Old Trafford.
However, it was in the four-day game where Rudolph most significantly marked his card for the season - and a return of 857 runs at 31.74 fell below his high standards.
It was a little bittersweet in the sense that I felt I played really well in the T20s and the Royal London Cup but unfortunately struggled in the four-day this year, so that is something that I would like to rectify next season.
We need to address our red-ball cricket and specifically I would like to get the team off to better starts next year. I have found it more challenging than other county years I've played.
I want to rectify it because I do feel I am a better player than what my stats potentially suggest in the four-day competition.
Even before returning to his homeland this winter - where Rudolph will play limited-overs cricket for his home team the Titans - he has set his mind on what he must achieve at the SWALEC Stadium next year.
I've set very high standards for myself and I have some personal goals in mind that I want to try and get to, said Rudolph, who has just returned to the Titans following a well-earned holiday down the Zambezi.
His numbers in the shortest formats were untouched by anyone on the county circuit - returning 1,118 runs in both competitions at an average of 69.87.
Rudolph, who played 48 Tests and 45 one-day internationals for South Africa, believes Glamorgan's growing confidence in the shorter formats was key to his own success.
I've really had a lot of confidence going into the white-ball campaign and it also makes a big difference having good players around you, he said.
I think we are a very good one-day outfit and there is a very strong confidence in our team unit when it comes to that.
Although Glamorgan were close to returning to Finals Day for the first time in a decade, arguably the highlight of the campaign was chasing down 323 for three with time to spare at Sussex in the One-Day Cup.
Rudolph lit the way in that match with an unbeaten 169 runs from 150 balls at the top of the order - his third century in the competition and enough to beat the Glamorgan List A record set by the great Viv Richards against Oxfordshire in 1992.
I'd definitely say that was a highlight for me this year, he said.
It was one of my better innings not just from the actual score but also from a batting unit point of view, the way that we constructed that innings in chasing that total down in just over 40 overs.
I definitely felt like that was my highlight for the season. said the Glamorgan List A Player of the Year who signed a two-year deal with Glamorgan when he first agreed to join the county at the end of 2013.
Glamorgan's form in the County Championship replicated similar recent disappointing campaigns, but Rudolph has seen reason for optimism in some of the younger players coming through.
I think it will be interesting what happens over the winter in terms of where our squad is going, he said.
I do think they have unearthed good talent in Aneurin Donald and Kieran Bull and people like Andrew Salter, which I do think are players for the future.
With all of those people you have to be patient with them and you can't expect immediate results but they do have the makings to be very good Glamorgan players.