Kent Spitfires captain Sam Billings was pleased to make a positive start to the T20 Blast.
Billings never made a half-century last summer and was frustrated to score only 188 runs across 14 innings.
But he’s batting at four this year – on the instruction of head coach Adam Hollioake and batting coach Jaahid Ali – and it’s already paid off with a brilliant 84 not out in Friday night’s win over Middlesex at Lord’s.
“It was more runs than probably I got all year last year,” joked Billings.
“I obviously batted a bit lower, tried to take a bit of responsibility on that lower order. But, Smokes and Jaahid both said, ‘you’re one of our best players, face as many balls as possible and get up to four’.
“I think it’s my best spot when I bat. It allows me to give myself a little bit of time to then accelerate and I really enjoyed that.
“I’m always probably more nervous or more keen to do well in a Kent shirt and sometimes try too hard.
“Now is a really nice side where I feel like I don’t have to do everything. We’ve got such a quality side everywhere you look and a lot of experience so you’re allowed to just play.
“That’s just more on me and my mindset. It’s always nice to start a competition well.
“It might not be my day next game, but we’ve got the quality around and it was set up brilliantly by the top order.
“We speak a lot about giving ourselves a chance and setting up a platform because you look at how deep we bat and not many teams can deal with us if we get off to a solid start.”
It wasn’t a case of taking the weight off his shoulders as far as Billings was concerned.
He tried to bat lower in the order for the good of the team last summer. But Billings – with worldwide T20 experience under his belt – is too good a player to waste at the backend of an innings.
He reflected: “I changed my role, went down the order a little bit. And, obviously, as soon as you go further down in the order, it’s just way more volatile.
“Yes, you understand that you’re not going to get those big scores, but you’re just going to try and make an impact.
“Sometimes it’s just a ruthless game where you can hit a full toss to a fielder and it can change pretty quickly.
“It’s just nice to get off to a good start personally, but more importantly as a team, to get four points.”
Billings hit five sixes and nine fours on his way to 84 not out off just 37 balls.
He hit successive reverse sweeps off Zafar Gohar for six but was more pleased that work carried out on his game in the PSL came to fruition.
“Hitting over the offside against seam, I’ve been working on that hugely,” explained Billings.
“Obviously, I know that I can hit leg side and that’s a really strong area.
“But there’s something I’ve been working on in the PSL, actually, with Usman Khawaja opening the bat face and being able to access that off side.
“That was far more enjoyable, actually, just seeing that come off.
“I think in the past, especially playing on a short side, I’d probably get transfixed by that, whereas my innings was more of a true 360.”
