Burgess wants to extend strong start to Royal London Cup

Michael Burgess is looking forward to helping Warwickshire extend their strong start to the Royal London Cup campaign when they face his former club Sussex at Edgbaston on Friday.

Bears are one of only two teams in their group to remain unbeaten, having defeated Gloucestershire by eight wickets and then fought out a thrilling tie with Surrey at the Kia Oval.

It appeared they were heading for back-to-back wins until Surrey rookie Nick Kimber’s out-of-nowhere blitz turned the game round last Sunday. The final twist of an extraordinary game saw Liam Norwell hit back by powering a yorker into the stumps to clinch the tie and, after all the twists, the Bears were left with a satisfactory haul of three points from two games.

“A win and a tie is a good start,” said Burgess, who has continued his fine season with a combined 114 from 98 balls in the two games. “We would have preferred two wins, of course, but we have started solidly and if we can get another win against Sussex we will have a really strong foundation. Then the games come thick and fast so hopefully we can keep that momentum high.

“Having not played in the T20, I was looking forward to playing some white-ball cricket again and have really enjoyed the two games. It was something I put a lot of work into last winter and the red-ball cricket in the last few weeks has been quite tough for the group so it’s nice to have this change of pace and relax and enjoy it.

“It was disappointing not to close the game out on Sunday from the position we were in. It snuck up on us a bit and that’s something we can learn from as a team and individuals. If we are in a similar position again hopefully we can do better, but it was a great game of cricket. A lot of people came to watch and I think whoever they supported they went home having had a fantastic day.

“It’s exciting to be coming up against my old club next. The Sussex team has slightly changed since I was there and I don’t know too many people but it will be good to catch up with a few old faces.”

With India star Krunal Pandya having immediately shown his quality, Warwickshire are very much targeting a long run in the 50-over format. And success in it in could only help build confidence for the return to red-ball cricket and the fight for vital County Championship points, next month.

“Most of the group playing in the Royal London Cup are in the red-ball team so if we can get on a roll I think it will do our confidence the world of good,” Burgess said. “We have three huge championship games coming up in September and we know what we need to do, so the 50-over competition has come at a nice time to take some of the pressure off. We can just enjoy playing in front of good crowds at great grounds and hopefully get some good momentum back in the group.”