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Top of the table, unbeaten in the league and showing no signs of slowing down – no wonder Firwood Bootle skipper Shaneil Patel is enjoying life at the moment.

Last Saturday’s quickfire win over Spring View was their eighth from nine playable games in Division One so far.

There’s a chasing pack of five sides within 50 points, but Bootle are out in front by 17 going into this weekend’s fixtures.

Patel said: “We just need to keep plugging away.

“It’s a weird league because there’s four or five contenders so that normal marker of 12 or 13 wins might be in question.

“It’s just a case of sticking to what we’re doing and getting results.”

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Patel’s new-look side is gelling nicely, with Steve Rimmer and Alastair Andrady adding top-order stability.

They have set a platform for the more explosive talents of South African Hermann Rolfes, currently averaging a shade under 90, and Sagar Trivedi.

The Indian has been a revelation, scoring runs at 8.5 an over and taking a wicket less than every 19 balls.

It was his 60, from just 28 balls, which gave Patel time to declare and force a win over Spring View on Saturday, despite the weather. He followed it up with 4/23.

Patel added: “Sagar has been brilliant with bat and ball, he adds a different dimension.

“We have five seamers so it’s been a bit of a battle for the new ball – Sagar has been really successful with it.”

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Left-arm spinner Patel has only bowled 19.5 overs in the league so far this season – reflective of both the conditions, and the quality of Bootle’s seam attack.

With Trivedi, Rolfes, Jhangir Liaqat, Kieron New and Jaden Rose to call on, he’s not been needed.

“I’ve not played in a side with a bowling attack as strong as this in a long time,” he said.

“There’s a lot we can do with our squad – we haven’t bowled many spin overs this year, which is crazy when you think about the league we’re in, and I think there’s a lot more to our squad than meets the eye.

“I’m really happy with the depth we’ve got.”

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Patel is, of course, taking things one game at a time, starting with tomorrow’s trip to struggling St Helens Town.

And he’s philosophical about what comes next, and confident the rebuilding project is working.

He added: “A lot of the time when you add new players to the squad, it can take them time to settle in.

“We’ve added a lot of players to the squad but I think now we’ve got to the point where additions aren’t necessary, and we can keep the unit together and play as a team.

“As long as we keep winning games, we’re going to be up there, so we just concentrate on ourselves.

“If we’re looking at other results every week, I think that’s a dangerous game to get into – you can get a bit engrossed in it.

“We’ll just play the best cricket we can and see where we are at the end of the season; obviously, if we go up then that’s great and if we don’t then we need to improve.

“We don’t want to be one of those sides who go up and then struggle in the Prem, so we know if we don’t go up, it’s because we wouldn’t have been able to compete in the Prem.”

from Merseyside Cricket Online https://ift.tt/8FfS9u5

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