Suffolk ‘need to keep some perspective’

July 3, 2025

DAN Shanks says Suffolk need to keep some perspective ahead of their final NCCA T20 Group 2 games.

Suffolk sit in second spot in the table – two points behind leaders Norfolk and two ahead of both Hertfordshire, who they face at West Herts CC, and Cambridgeshire.

One win from the double-header should be sufficient for Suffolk to qualify for the Super 12s stage of the competition.

After four wins in their opening four matches, Suffolk suffered two heavy losses to Norfolk by 71 runs and then eight wickets at Woolpit CC last Sunday.

Shanks (pictured bowling above) said afterwards: “It was a disappointing day. We have started really well in the T20s this year, so it is quite important not to overthink it, but on the whole it was a disappointing day where we weren’t quite at it as a team, I would say.

“It is important to keep that perspective. If you had said to us at the start of the group stage that you will win four of your first six games we would have been really pleased with that and would have definitely taken that.

“We know we are a good T20 side – we wouldn’t have won four on the trot without being a good T20 side – and we just need to carry that confidence and belief into next week and believe we can go quite deep in this competition.

“As a white-ball side this year we have made the semi-finals of the 50-over competition and we had won four out of four before today, so we are doing well.

“Today was a bit of a setback, but by no means does that mean we have now become a bad side – we just need to park it and put it to one side and look to move forward next week.”

His own form was the one bright spot with the ball for Suffolk, Shanks returning figures of 4-0-15-2 and 4-0-19-1 across the two matches.

The Hadleigh seamer said: “I was really pleased. I have a different role in the T20s this year bowling up top in the powerplay and just trying to keep it really simple.

“In the first game I tried to hit the top of the stumps as often as possible and it worked. Then I tried to do the same in Game No.2.

“T20 is one of those games where you have to think, have I executed my skill and put the ball where I wanted to? If you have then great because sometimes that ball is going to go for six!

“It is not three-day cricket where if you bowl really nicely you are going to get nice figures. You can bowl well and still go the distance in T20, that’s just the way the game goes.”

The only change to the Suffolk side is the return of captain Josh Cantrell after missing last Sunday’s matches.

Suffolk: Jacob Marston, Alex Maynard, Adam Jones, Kieran Pell, Darren Ironside, Josh Cantrell (capt), Tom Harper, Henry Bevan, Alex Cruickshank, Dan Shanks, Arafat Bhuiyan.

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