Application the key for Naik

Date: Friday 14 August 2009

Jigar Naik said a determination not to give his wicket away formed the basis of his outstanding maiden first-class century against Derbyshire at Grace Road today.

With Leicestershire suffering from a general lack of application in the first innings, the young off-spinner said everyone was determined not to give it away second time around.

And, although Derbyshire chipped away to leave the team on 224-7 at lunch on the final day, Naik (109*) and James Taylor (94) combined in brilliant fashion to ensure the team gained a draw from the match.

All sorts of milestones were passed along the way, including the record eighth-wicket stand against Derbyshire which was set by George Geory and Cecil Wood which had stood since 1914.

The duo then went past the all-time eighth-wicket record in first-class cricket of 172 put on by Paul Nixon and David Millns at Old Trafford during the Championship-winning year of 1996, and went on to share 195 in 54.3 overs.

Naik also went past his personal best at first-class best, which, incredibly was just 16* before this brilliant innings!

He was delighted to contribute on his return from a broken-arm and thanked Taylor for his assistance. Naik added that valuing their wickets was the key to saving the game in a battling rearguard.

He said: “It was really good – a big moment for me. Titch (James Taylor) helped me every step of the way, he showed me how to bat on that wicket and I really enjoyed batting with him.

“It was easily my best score for Leicestershire – I’d only made 16 in a first-team game and a second-team fifty before today so it’s well past my best! I’ve scored three or four hundreds in club cricket but nothing on this scale, so I’m really pleased.”

“Titch and I knew we had a big task ahead, but we kept setting ourselves small targets. We just looked to bat and bat. We broke things down into smaller targets and that helped.

“We always knew we had to keep the runs ticking over. We didn’t want to go into our shell because we knew we had to get past them and form some sort of a lead. Titch and I kept talking, passed the lead and kept going.

“It was good to bat with him. He’d just had the disappointment of the run out with Wayne White so I said it was important we concentrated on just batting and not getting ourselves out.

“I’ve known Titch for a while, I get on well with him so it was great to be out there with him. He deserved a hundred too.”

Naik said he was gutted to suffer a broken arm just as he had forced his way into the Chamionship team after impressing in Twenty20 cricket.

He added that he was determined to make the most of his first-team opportunities and was delighted to get on top of the visiting attack.

“It was my main comeback game in effect – I played last Sunday but that was the first time in almost six weeks,” he said.

“It was so frustrating when I broke my arm after getting a place in the team. I put in lots of hard work in the nets and to get the runs today was really satisfying.

“I got stuck on eleven for quite a bit, but they changed their plans for me and that helped me. As soon as they did that I thought I’d got on top. They also had a fair bit to say, but that was also good because it helped me to concentrate even more.

Naik finished by thanking everyone who has helped with his game over the years.

He said: “I’ve worked hard in the nets with Tim (Boon), Phil (Whitticase) and Lloyd (Tennant) and also been out in Australia and South Africa in the past few winters and that’s helped me no end.

“There is a lot of hard work that has gone into today so I’d like to thank everybody that has helped get me to get there.”