Kent head coach Adam Hollioake is happy to be the villain against his former county again.
Having already beaten Surrey at The Oval in the Vitality Blast this summer, the Spitfires need to repeat the feat at Canterbury tomorrow (Friday) to stand any chance of reaching the knockout stages.
Hollioake led Surrey to three County Championships during his time as captain from 1997 to 2003.
Asked whether it would be funny to be a villain against his former team, Hollioake responded: “It wouldn’t be funny, it’d be great.
“I love being a villain and I play that role well.
“We beat them up there at The Oval, so it’d be nice to beat them down in Canterbury as well.”
Spitfires needed to finish strongly last summer to reach the knockout stages, and the parallels are not lost on Hollioake this time around.
“It’s taking on a similar feel to last year where we needed to win our last two games and hope for results to go our way, it’s got that same kind of vibe about it,” said Hollioake.
“With T20 cricket, anything can happen on the night. Surrey we’ve beaten once in their home ground and we’ll be trying to do that again at home.
“We’ve beaten Middlesex already once as well. It’s happened before, it can happen again. We need to do that and hope the other results go our way.”
While Hollioake feels there’s an element of luck to T20 cricket, he conceded that prolonged shortcomings cannot be attributed to misfortune on the day.
“Sometimes there is no answer and T20 cricket can spin on a little bit of luck, but I think when you look at the results over the period of the season, it ceases being luck with the run chases,” he said.
“Our batting is following the same pattern. You’ve got to be positive as batsmen, and you’ve got to always take the attacking option.
“That’s one thing we do in T20, but I think it comes down to the choices, your shot selection, and where you’re taking those risks. I think at times we just haven’t quite got that balance right.”
