MIL 144/3 (84) vs SUL 143 (Nicholas Pooran 58(22) Sam Curran 60(39))

Sam Curran 2/2: [On working with Kieron Pollard] Yeah, there’s another guy I’ve been on the receiving end of! It’s very nice to have Polly with us. He’s very similar to me - he absolutely hates losing. He’s one of the most competitive guys you will meet. I feel very much at home with these guys and couldn’t have asked for a better start. [On Richard Gleeson’s impact] Yeah, I think while Mitch was still in, then we went bang, bang, and suddenly they were 90 for 5. That was generally our plan - keep taking wickets. They still finished decently, but I think Glees adds a really nice dimension to our attack. He’s quicker than most of us and, as you saw, he bowls that hard length which gets a bit steeper. He was joking that I bowled him 10 balls in a row and said, “I’m 39 years of age!” I told him, “Keep bowling!” [On captaining and learning from experienced leaders] It’s been nice. I did it a little bit last year alongside Bilbo (Billings) and obviously captained Surrey in the Blast and MI Emirates as well. It’s something I really enjoy. I feel I read the game quite well, especially because of my batting. I can play those different roles and anchor a chase when you’ve got someone like Nikki behind you. I also bowl, so I feel I understand the game well from both perspectives. I use Vincey a lot because he’s such an experienced player. When we got him, I knew straight away he’d be one of the key voices alongside Jacks. [On relying on senior players during the game] Massively. I said to Vincey that if he was at cover or mid-on next to me and saw anything, just let me know. He was saying exactly the same things that I was thinking - let’s try and kill the game as quickly as possible. Then you’ve got Jacks, who didn’t bowl today but will play a huge role with the ball, and he’s another senior player for us. We’ve got so many leaders that I don’t really feel like I’m captain at times because there are so many good voices around. Polly captains MI, there are so many great cricket brains in the group. I’m really enjoying it. It’s a great start, and in a short tournament it always helps to begin with a win, especially when we’d only had one training day yesterday.

Sam Curran | MI London skipper: [On where the game was won] I think it was with the ball. We bowled really well. We knew their strength was probably their top five batters, so generally in the middle overs we felt our bowling was our trump card with Rash and someone like Nathan Sowter, who I don’t always feel gets the credit he deserves. He’s been unbelievable for the last five seasons for us. He just pulls it back, then Rash comes on and Glees (Gleeson) adds a bit of pace to the attack. Looking back to the auction, I thought our planning was very good. We got exactly what we wanted - a bit of pace, a bit of slower-ball variation - and Jacks didn’t even bowl tonight, so it was pretty good. [On his involvement in the player auction] That’s definitely above my pay grade! But no, I was actually on the phone the whole time during the auction. The big plan was trying to get back as many Surrey boys as we could. We kind of had a little thing where we wanted one opener, one at No. 4, one at No. 5 and one at No. 8, trying to spread experience across the team. Obviously we got Tom, Vincey, then Pooran, who’s a class player batting in the middle. We thought he could really fill that role. We’ve always had a good opening pair with Jacks there, Rash was here last year, and Sowter was another player we really wanted because we felt that double leg-spin combination has really worked for us. [On batting alongside Nicholas Pooran] Wow! I’ve been on the receiving end of it a couple of times. Obviously we didn’t have Ollie Pope fit today, so we shuffled things around. I’m not sure Nikki (Pooran) will always bat at five, but wow, I think he’s going to have some fun at The Oval on those wickets. The ease with which he hits the ball is unbelievable. As a left-hander myself, you just watch from the other end, and the sound off his bat is different. [On Pooran’s approach at the crease] I think like all top players, once they get into that zone, they’ve got blinkers on. You suddenly look up and they’ve scored 20 off six balls and the required rate is back to nearly a run a ball. In The Hundred I said to Nikki, “Let’s finish this as quickly as possible.” Net run rate can play a big part because if you lose early in the tournament, it’s very hard to catch up.

Nicholas Pooran | Player of the Match: [On what pleased him most about his match-winning innings] First of all, we backed ourselves to chase it down. What pleased me most was seeing Jamesey (Vince) and obviously Sam (Curran) weather the storm for a bit there. As we said in the dressing room, it was nice for them to absorb the pressure. Unlucky for Vincey there, but I came in and did exactly what I had to do. [On taking the attack to Dan Lawrence after arriving at the crease] It wasn’t a conscious decision. I think the game just played itself. Sam was set as well, and we were just trying to stay as positive as we could. When the lights came on, the ball started to slide a bit. So it was all about hitting a couple to the boundary and trying to take that partnership all the way to the end. [On carrying confidence from his previous century into The Hundred] Obviously, scoring runs gives you a lot of confidence, but winning games is more important to me. I’m just happy that we could get off to the right start in front of our home crowd this season. [On chasing 144 and how the conditions changed under lights] We knew it was going to be tricky for the first couple of overs. We understood that. The wicket was a bit slow initially, and we felt that once the lights came on and we had a foundation, it would work in our favour. We actually play really well at home as well, so understanding the conditions and doing what we say is the most pleasing thing for us. Hopefully we can stay disciplined and humble and continue to play the game the right way, especially at home. [On having his wife and daughter in the stands] Yeah, obviously they missed the last couple of games in America, so it’s nice to have them here, score a fifty and send them a kiss. I know they will be really happy. Earlier this year has been a really challenging one for me personally when it comes to batting, so I’m just really happy to get the opportunity to continue doing what I love and play the game the right way.

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