Essex centurion Matt Critchley hailed their performance in the Metro Bank One Day Cup against Worcestershire.
Critchley and captain Tom Westley both hit tons in a total of 376-5 to pave the way for a 107-run success.
And Critchely said: “As much as you feel you should defend 300 in one-day cricket, we felt we had left a few out there in the last two games. So to get a score like that and essentially bat a team out of the game was pleasing. The way we went from start to finish was a pretty complete innings.
“Tommy played beautifully for his hundred and Noah [Thain] has been playing brilliantly all competition, he sandwiched our two hundreds in the middle. It was great to be in there finishing things off.
“Whether it’s that Tommy and Noah have a good understanding [when they bat together] or whether it’s two very good players, I’m not sure what the formula is. But they’re both batting well.
"Tommy has played well in this format for years and Noah has now got his chance at the top of the order and it looks like he’s played there all his life, it’s only a good thing going forward for him. He’s looked like a natural up there in this format and hopefully it can transfer into the other formats as well."
Mackenzie Jones added another three wickets to his tally and earned praise from Critchley, who added:
“Mac is going from strength to strength. He’s not played for us in the red-ball this year, but when he gets his chance in the white-ball he’s bowled nicely.
"He’s getting better with each game. It’s been brutal with four games in seven days and we want to keep Ports and Snates fresh – they have bowled a lot of overs this year.
“We’re now doing a tour of the country [Cardiff to Darlington and back to Chelmsford] to play three 50-over games. But it’s easier when you are playing well.
"We were obviously disappointed to lose three in the middle, but we’ve been playing good cricket so that makes it easier. Hopefully we can take this momentum and get through to the final stages. Last season we won the last five but didn’t manage to go through, but hopefully we can get that momentum this time.”
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