Rhodes: “We will all remember the last afternoon of the season for a very long time”

Will Rhodes has expressed his pride in the "great squad effort" which underpinned Warwickshire's triumphs this season.

Rhodes lifted the LV=Insurance County Championship trophy and then the Bob Willis Trophy at the end of his first full season as captain.

It was a sensational double that no-one saw coming from a squad still in its early stages of development…and one which the captain believes has its roots in a true collective effort.

“The team has been outstanding,” he said.

“I am very proud of the guys. We haven’t relied on any one individual to get us over the line in games. Yes, people sometimes won us games here and there with individual brilliance, but overall it’s been a real squad effort with people chipping in from all angles.

Will Rhodes

“It has been pretty well-documented about people not getting a certain amount of runs or wickets before the Bob Willis Trophy final and I think that proves what a great squad effort it was.”

Never was that collective effort better encapsulated than in the last two championship games. Both were must-win and both drew magnificent performances from Rhodes’s side.

The last match, and particularly the last day, against Somerset will live long in many memories but it could not have happened without the brilliant win the week before in Leeds where the Bears bounced back from a home defeat to Hampshire to beat Yorkshire in a superb contest.

“The game at Headingley was a bit of a do-or-die,” said Rhodes. “Anything other than win and we knew our season was over, so it was like one big, last effort. We threw everything into that game and got over the line and, in a way, that sent us into the Somerset game still in the race almost as a bonus with the pressure off a little bit.

“We will all remember the last afternoon of the season for a very long time but actually it was a great effort all game. People might forget that we were trailing on first innings, so to come from behind with four and a half sessions left and win was an incredible achievement.

“We knew that on day three someone would press fast forward at some stage and thankfully it was us that did it with both bat and ball.”