da premier bet： Surrey coach Keith Medlycott is insisting his side are just as much a team as their opponents in tomorrow’s Benson and Hedges Cup final at Lord’s
CricInfo13-Jul-2001Surrey coach Keith Medlycott is insisting his side are just as much a team as their opponents in tomorrow’s Benson and Hedges Cup final at Lord’s.Gloucestershire have been labelled as a side without stars who play for each other while Surrey are seen as a bunch of individuals.It’s a tag which annoys Medlycott intensely, who says that though his side comprise a plethora of international stars, they still have the “all for one, one for all” mentality.Medlycott told PA Sport: “I get disappointed that within certain circles Ihear people talking about Gloucestershire being `a team’ and us being`individuals’.”That’s the way some people are billing this final and it is absolutenonsense and I also think it is such a flippant comment that is so easy tomake.”Yes, we have some great individuals who play in our team. I accept that -but we are a team and that kind of remark frustrates me more than anything.These are two very good `teams’ competing in this final.”You only have to watch our boys, watch the way we are together and worktogether. We have some big players, some confident players, some highlysuccessful players but it’s a team doing it for each other.”Saturday will come down to who does the basics very well. If we do that, itgives the opportunity for someone to produce a match-winning contribution.”But if you don’t do the basics very well, then what could have been a match-winning effort won’t necessarily win the game.”Three semi-final defeats in recent times have made Surrey determined to make the most of their appearance in the final. And they will be hoping to carry with them to Lord’s the form they showed in their Benson and Hedges semi-final performance this season, when they scored a massive 361 against Notts.”We have lost three semi-finals in recent times and really played quite poorly in a couple of them. We played poorly at Taunton two years ago and we played poorly last year at Cardiff.”In all three of those games the opposition had a batsman who scored ahundred and stats show the number of times a side wins when someone posts acentury.”We’ve been under par in those semis and if we are under par in any one-daygame and just turn in an average performance then there is a great chance youwill finish second.”You never lose feelings of what it’s like to lose – or to win – and you needto have those feelings inside of you. You need to remember what it feels like.”What we need is a repeat of our showing against Notts in this year’s semiwhen we played in every department at the highest level. It will up to us toemulate that on Saturday.”Medlycott went on: “We have a lot of respect for Gloucestershire. Theyplay one-day cricket exceptionally well.”Their bowlers have worked out lines, how to control the game, how to putpressure on the opposition. They work exceptionally hard in the field and theirbatters tend to give them enough runs to defend.”They’ve worked their system out but what I will say is that if we play tothe best of our ability, as a side and as individuals, then it will take a verygood side to beat us.”Surrey skipper Adam Hollioake said the Lord’s confrontation was a clash of the heavyweights. “It will be like two world championship heavyweight boxers coming together,” he said. “It’s the ultimate test for us.”I’m not going to go into what I think are Gloucestershire’s strengths andweaknesses – and in any case people should know them by now having seen them winfour trophies – but they’re undisputed champions at the moment.”They have proven themselves the best side in the country in the one-daygame. They are obviously doing things right.”They’ve got two or three of the belts and we’ve got one of them which wewill bring to the party on Saturday. It’s a fantastic and a really big challengefor us.”We are really up for it and, aside from the fact it is a final at a fullLord’s with a trophy at stake, the fact Surrey and playing Gloucestershire meansit should be a big occasion.”We haven’t played them for two or three years since a Super Cup meeting andwe threw down the challenge to them over the winter and were due to play them achallenge game in April at The Oval but it was rained off.”We’ve been talking about it for a while. We want to play them. No doubt theyare the favourites – but we have to come out and wrestle those belts offthem.”He said: “I think any captain would back their team – and I wouldn’t changethe players I’ve got for the world.”They’re fantastic, proven players. I know them inside-out. I’ve captainedthe team for seven years and I’m more than happy with the side I’ve got.”In the semi-final against Notts we played at our best. That was a very goodunit playing at its best. People don’t want to be playing against us when we areplaying at our best.”But it is about on the day and anyone can turn up and win. People say we’velost three semi-finals in the last three years but if you play in as many as wehave then you are going to lose some.”