National Counties Trophy Final Preview 2022

Berkshire head coach Tom Lambert has told his side that they will need to be perfect if they are to retain their National Counties Trophy title in Sunday’s final at Wormsley (11am).

The sides meet at Wormsley for the third successive season – the competition was not played in 2020 because of COVID-19 – with Berkshire seeking a hat-trick of titles.

They romped to a 151-runs win 12 months ago but sneaked home by just one run in the 2019 final which Lambert feels is a truer reflection of the threat that Cumbria will pose.

“We don’t play Cumbria very often, apart from the 2019 and 2021 finals. Their sides were slightly different in those two games and they are a bit different again this season so we need to do some research,” Lambert said.

“With the technology available this season there is enough footage out there for us to have a look at some of the players that we are not too sure about.

“We also know a few people that play against Cumbria more regularly than us so we can find out things we need to know about them.

“This is also their third final on the trot so they are exceptionally good, otherwise they wouldn’t be here for a third time.

“We certainly saw more of that in 2019 than we did last year. But as a side that have played against us twice and lost against us twice their levels of determination will be defining in this game.

“We have to counter that because, more than anything, they will want to make sure it is not third time unlucky.

“That makes them extremely dangerous and from what we have seen they look high quality.

“So it’s a very difficult game. I hope it’s more like last year’s final than 2019 because that was a really tough watch.

“We will have to be perfect. If we are perfect I think we will be difficult to beat. If we are not perfect and we don’t bring everything we can they will be more than strong enough to deal with us.”

Berkshire’s squad this season is significantly to the one that won eight pieces of silverware in five seasons with the retirement of stalwarts James and Richard Morris, Chris Peploe and Stewart Davison.

The personnel may have changed but the winning habit remains strong under new captain Dan Lincoln with Berkshire beating Middlesex in their Showcase match at the Falkland club last month and now ending their season with two finals with Sunday’s match followed by the four-day National Counties Championship final against Lincolnshire at West Bromwich Dartmouth the following week.

Lincoln had two years playing T20 cricket for Middlesex, played a first-class match for Kent last year and has also played high level non-league football as a goalkeeper including a spell on Reading’s academy.

He will go into Sunday’s final having scored 839 runs for Berkshire in all formats this season - including a century against Middlesex – and Lambert believes he is capable of making it to 1,000 in his three remaining innings.

“He thinks outside the box and brings things from outside our world of National Counties from the different professional worlds he has played in – football and also sharing dressing rooms with some international players,” Lambert said.

“I think we have worked really well together. Sometimes I have to temper some of his ideas because they are not necessarily what’s needed at our level and sometimes you just let him run with it.

“But he was adamant when he came in that he wanted to do things his way and he wanted us to play a certain brand of cricket and we have all bought into it.

“In some ways it has reinvigorated me as a coach because I have had to do things slightly differently and we have had to have a different way of how we go about things – how we warm up in a morning for example.

“We can’t knock it, it’s working to date. We have the Western Division of the Championship behind us which is awesome because we wanted to win that back.

“We’ve got two other competitions to win. If we don’t do that it will still have been a brilliant season but we are now in a position where we want to win them.

“Dan’s form is incredible. I think he will go to over 1,000 runs for us over the next two finals which is absolutely phenomenal.

“He was always a good player but he was a player that, if it wasn’t necessarily focused around him, we didn’t get the best out of him. So the focus on making him captain was: he is the most talented player I have ever seen, if we make it about him, we will get the best out of him.

“That’s worked to date because he is phenomenal and, if he goes to 1,000 runs in a summer, that is some feat and one that I haven’t seen that done before.

“He is leading this very well. He’s changed the way we do things - for the better - with the young players we have at our disposal and his own performances have been incredible. I hope that continues, not just for the next two finals, but for the years to come.”

Berkshire have Middlesex batter Jack Davies, who played in the 2019 final, available this weekend and he has been named in a 14-man squad along with pace bowler Mungo Russell, who has been given time to recover from a shin injury.

Cumbria welcome back captain Michael Slack and seamer Paul Hindmarch from injury and they replace Nathan Waterston and Liam Grey in a 12-man squad.

Slack and Hindmarch are joined by Matt Sempill, Sam Dutton, Nico Watt, Sam Sharp and Matt Siddall as survivors from the side beaten 12 months ago.

Only Slack, Dutton and Sempill played in the 2019 final when Lincoln, Davies, Archie Carter, Euan Woods, Andy Rishton, Tom Nugent and Luke Beaven played for Berkshire.

National Counties Trophy Final

Sunday August 28 (11am)

Wormsley: Berkshire v Cumbria