CATER SET FOR TITLE DEFENCE

Oxfordshire will be treating every match as a cup final as they prepare to launch their defence of the National Counties T20 title with a double-header against Buckinghamshire at Wormsley on Sunday.

Oxfordshire won the competition for the first time last May when they beat Cambridgeshire on Finals Day at Tring and their captain, Jonny Cater, accepts that, as defending champions, they will be the team that everyone else wants to beat.

“We have been successful in the last couple of years in different formats and we did get to the semi-finals of the Trophy last season so we are there or thereabouts now,” he said.

“As always, you target the winners of a competition so I would imagine that other sides are going to want to beat us.

“But people now realise that we are an incredibly strong unit. We have some fantastic players and we have some individual players who can change a game pretty quickly.

“The seven-for Ollie Currill took in the semi-final against Cheshire was truly outstanding and then we have Harrison Ward with the knock he played in the final.

“So we have guys who can produce individual brilliance but we also feel that, as a team, we have a real tight-knit unit and there’s no reason why we can’t achieve more success this year.

“The T20 competition is incredibly difficult to get through. Only the group winner goes through to Finals Day from each group.

“I do feel that our group is damned tough and there are some excellent teams in there. We’ve got Berkshire, Bucks, Wales who are very,very strong with a young unit who are becoming more of a force every year.

“Bedfordshire can be a bit unpredictable but in white ball cricket particularly they can produce some excellent teams.

“I think every single weekend we go into we have to treat effectively as a bit of a cup final. That’s how we looked at last year.

“It’s so competitive and it went down to the last game in our group for us to qualify through net run rate.

It’s going to be nail-biting but hopefully we get off to a good start this weekend.”

Left-hander Ward will be available for Oxfordshire as he will not be required by Sussex and Zach Lion-Cachet, who is playing for Sussex Second XI against Kent this week, is in line to make his T20 debut.

All-rounder Currill is fit again having missed the latter stages of last season because of injury and Tom Hinley, who played for Sussex against Oxfordshire in last year’s Showcase match at Wormsley, will make his competition debut.

“Tom brings something really new to us. He bowls left-arm spin and bats in the top order. Having him around is a real benefit to us,” Cater said.

“He played for us in the three-day game against Dorset last year and we saw him last year in the showcase game for Sussex which goes to show that our link with them is working really nicely.”

Although Cater will continue to captain Oxfordshire in the T20 and 50-overs National Counties Trophy this season he will not be playing in the Durant Cricket National Counties Championship having decided to retire from three-day cricket for work and family reasons.

“It’s purely because of the amount of time I am spending on the cricket field. It was becoming difficult to manage in the end,” he said.

“I felt I wanted to keep involved and the white ball is a decent compromise but to play red ball in what is my summer holidays is challenging with a young family.”

Cater, 34, made his Championship debut for Oxfordshire in 2011 and scored 3,348 runs, including six centuries, with 113 catches and 23 stumpings in the competition.

He led the county to the Championship title in 2021 and will be succeeded, after six years in charge, as red ball captain by Oliver Clarke who has been appointed vice-captain for the two limited overs competitions.

National Counties T20 

Sunday April 16 

Group One. Sale: Cheshire v Northumberland, Moddershall: Staffordshire v Cumbria. 

Group Two. Sherborne School: Dorset v Herefordshire, South Wilts CC: Wiltshire v Devon. 

Group Three. Wisbech: Cambridgeshire v Hertfordshire, Bourne: Lincolnshire v Norfolk. 

Group Four. Falkland CC: Berkshire v Wales NC, Wormsley: Oxfordshire v Buckinghamshire.

Red = Cancelled games