Bears spinner Jake Lintott has joined Barbados Royals for the remainder of the Caribbean Premier League. Here, in his first blog from Barbados, Jake reflects on settling in at the CPL...and getting Chris Gayle out on his debut.
Hello Bears fans, it’s great to have this opportunity to keep in touch with you from out here in the Caribbean Premier League.
I arrived in Barbados last Sunday night, spent three days in quarantine before joining up with the lads and have already played my first game with the second coming up tomorrow. I am really grateful and excited to have this opportunity with the Royals. They are a great group of lads who have made me really welcome and I just want to replay them with some good performances.
I was pretty happy with my debut yesterday. To be honest, I still have to pinch myself sometimes to believe what has happened for me in the last year, signing for the Bears, then having the fantastic experience of playing in The Hundred and now out here I am bowling to the great Chris Gayle in the CPL!
Jake Lintott
Until I arrived at the ground yesterday I didn’t realise how short the straight boundaries were, so bowling first up to Chris was a little bit daunting, but I did okay – 4-0-28-2. He hit me for one six but then I had him caught at long on when he went for another. That was pleasing because during The Hundred I worked really hard on my bowling length with Pop Welch and it seems to have had some benefit. All the work I have done with Pop this summer will help me become a better bowler for the Bears in season to come. I’ll be doing everything I can to improve for the Bears because everyone at the club has been so fantastic to me and I can’t thank the Bears fans enough for all the support and messages they have sent me every step of the way.
Professional sport it is all about facing new challenges and testing yourself against them. A new dimension for me out here is to be an overseas player which does bring a bit of pressure. Everyone has been really welcoming but there is a certain level of expectation on an overseas player, as there should be. I welcome that pressure…it just makes me want to deliver for the team more than ever.
The games come thick and fast in the CPL and we have another tomorrow afternoon. My debut was an evening game so it was relatively cool but tomorrow will be in the full heat of the day which is another challenge. It is far from comfortable to play in and, as a spinner, you need to keep your fingers dry, but it’s all just a brilliant tournament to be part of and good fun.
We are on the back foot a little bit in the table and need to win three of four of our last five games to qualify but we certainly have the players to do that. In these tournaments, things can change very quickly – Southern Brave lost their first two games in The Hundred and ended up winning it. So we just need to get on a roll, hopefully starting tomorrow.
A Royals win and then a Bears win against Hampshire in the championship…that will do nicely!
More from me next week.
Cheers,
Jake
