In their defence of the One Day Cup, the Kent Spitfires are on the road to Blackpool today looking to bounce back after a big defeat to Leicestershire at the weekend with coach Simon Cook determined the side do much better.

Lancashire provide the opposition and coach Simon Cook knows exactly what he would like to see from his side.

“Any time you concede a heavy defeat, you want to bounce back strong,” Cook told us.

“I don’t think it’s unusual actually and in the last two years we’ve had very similar performances at Beckenham where we’ve had to bounce back, and we have done and will continue to do so.” 

“At Blackpool, I think the wicket will be pretty similar with a slightly smaller ground so that combined with a good wicket, I think it’ll be another high scoring game. We’ve just got to embrace the challenges and meet them head on!” 

“Sunday’s result was hugely disappointing but there were some huge positives that came out of the game. I though our middle twenty-five overs with the ball was exceptional, with Parky (Matt Parkinson) and Hammy (Hamri Qadri) bowling in tandem in that middle period going at just over five in that middle twenty-five was exceptional on a really good wicket and big outfield to get in a good position should have meant that we were chasing down a score of 330/340.”

“We’ve got to make sure we’re better at the top and tail of the innings and that’s something that we’ve talked about and will be looking to address on Wednesday.” 

“With the bat, it was one of those innings of the like that you won’t see again, and we have to treat it in that way, still try to play smart positive fearless cricket and not let what happened the other day cloud our judgement, and that’s the message that’s been going out to the group.” 

“It was good to get Nathan (Gilchrist) back in the side, it’s the first time he’s bowled in a Kent shirt since the Essex Championship game earlier in the season, it was always going to be incredibly tough for him to come in and perform to a level.”

“He was really positive about how he felt in the game although his figures weren’t necessarily as he would have liked, but that was a huge plus that he’s going to be coming back into the frame and almost game on, game off, though a seven hour bus ride north and a seven hour bus ride home probably isn’t the best for him, so he’s not in the squad for Wednesday.”

“He offers wicket taking potential throughout the game and at the end of the innings he was able to get his yorkers in.” 

“Every game is crucial, last year we lost three games almost one after the other and then had to go on an extended run to get to the Final.”

“It’s not the ideal way of doing it, but it still proves that you can do it and I think this tournament, particularly with the weather around, and a lot of good teams that will be beating each other and so it will be a really tight tough group!”

“Thing is, as we saw last year, if you dominate a group, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you make the Final and win it! The challenge is getting to the Final as winning a Final is relatively straightforward, but actually getting there is the hard part and that means that you have to put in some sustained performances over a three-week period.”

“That’s what you have to look at which is why you can’t look at results in isolation, even though Sunday’s was very poor, in the bigger picture, it can be mitigated.”

“An improved weather forecast helps as we’ve had rain interruptions in both games so far, even if Sunday’s it was during the interval, when you have clarity that you’re going to get a fifty over game it helps no end.” 

Matt Parkinson and Gilchrist will be missing from the starting line-up for Kent on Wednesday but should return to the squad at The Oval on Friday against Surrey.