Ben Duckett: 'I've certainly had setbacks but they've made me who I am'

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

Notts batter eyeing England after righting some wrongs during last summer’s T20 Blast triumph

George Dobell09-Jun-2021Life doesn’t always present second chances quite as neatly as it has for Ben Duckett.A year after Duckett had, in his words, “messed up” at the key moment of the 2019 Vitality Blast semi-final against Worcestershire, he was back at Edgbaston again, though this time in the final. And this time, he hit consecutive boundaries to finish 53 not out and win Nottinghamshire the title with 16 balls to spare.”I will remember that match against Worcestershire for the rest of my life,” Duckett says now. “It was a big learning curve for me.”The whole game rested on me, and 99 times out of 100, I’d get the team over the line there. But I messed up in that last moment. I could have been the hero, but I missed that last ball and yeah, it was a bit of a shock. I made one mistake and it costs us the competition.”But when I look back on it, we – as a team – messed up the game long before that. We should never have been in the situation where it went to the last ball. I think we needed 11 from the final two overs. But we lost three wickets in the penultimate over through some brainless cricket.Related

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“Everyone had my back. Until that moment I’d actually played a decent innings and I think we understood that it was a learning moment for us as a team. I knew afterwards that, if I had my time again, I would have taken a risk in that second last over and tried to kill the game.”I’ve certainly had setbacks in my career. That was one of them. They’ve made who I am.”A great example is Ben Stokes. Look what happened to him in the final of the World T20 in 2016? Like me, he wants to be there in the big moments. And if you are there in those pressure moments, sometimes you won’t get it right. But he bounced back from that and won England the World Cup final a few years later.”Thankfully, 12 months after that Worcestershire game, I had another chance and I got us over the line.”Duckett and co. will have another chance to “get over the line’ when their Vitality Blast campaign starts on Wednesday with a televised fixture away against Worcestershire. They have lost their captain, Dan Christian, Pakistan allrounder Imad Wasim and Chris Nash, the top-order batter, from the team that won last year. But with Alex Hales and Joe Clarke joining Duckett in an eye catching top-order, they are quietly optimistic they could become the first side to win the title for two years in succession.