It's days like these that make cricket worth playing, says Ryan ten Doeschate

Ryan ten Doeschate / Ryan ten doeschate / 01 October 2009 / Leave a Comment

Essex and Holland man Ryan ten Doeschate considers this to be the most tiring season he has ever played.

"Going up means a great deal to the club, and I certainly feel a sense of prestige in knowing that we are in Division One next year. We were all in on Monday morning to discuss the challenges that next year holds and looking at ways to ensure that we are competitive next year."

In the last of his betting.betfair.com columns for the year, the Essex man tells us about his knock of 108 off just 59 balls, promotion to Division One of the County Championship and looking forward to a well-deserved rest.

Another Summer has come and gone but for me, 2009 has been both the most tiring and the most rewarding season of my career.

After five years of narrowly missing out, we have finally managed to get promoted into Division One of the County Championship. After a poor start to the year we had an incredibly tough task to get up but nine weeks of consistent performances, and the magic of Danish Kaneria, have paid their rewards.

The manner in which we won the last two matches has made it even sweeter and our celebrations on Saturday night were of rock star proportions.

A lot was made of Derbyshire's declaration on the final day of the final game. Leaving us to get 360 runs in 65 overs is certainly not overly generous and had it been at any other time of the year people wouldn't have batted an eyelid. I do feel for Northants (who missed out on promotion by one point) but ironically the roles were reversed a few years ago when they collapsed on the final day of the season to spoil our promotion chances.
Chasing over 300 is always tough in the fourth innings and, with promotion at stake and the extra pressure it brings, I think our success was fully deserved.

Going up means a great deal to the club, and I certainly feel a sense of prestige in knowing that we are in Division One next year. We were all in on Monday morning to discuss the challenges that next year holds and looking at ways to ensure that we are competitive next year. The club is very ambitious and Essex has a history of being a force in the domestic game. It's also fantastic having guys like Graham Gooch around, and it was clear to see how much Saturday's win meant to him. It was also a good chance to say goodbye to all the lads, as most of them are off for the winter.

Saturday was a very memorable day personally and it was great to play a pivotal part, with 108 from 59 balls in the run-chase, after never really getting going all year.
It was one of those days when everything worked and is often referred to as being "in the zone". It was nice batting with our captain, Mark Pettini, and we just made sure we stayed up with the rate. He's also finished the season very strongly, and it was fitting that he hit the runs to seal our promotion. The scenes that followed and the genuine sense of achievement are what makes this game worth playing.

After seven months of hard work I feel I've earned my break and I'm off to South Africa to watch the Semi-Finals of the Champions Trophy. I'm looking forward to catching up with Rav Bopara and hopefully watching England go all the way. They've done a great job in turning things around after the Australia one-day series, while knocking off Sri Lanka and South Africa are remarkable achievements. I still don't think the batting line-up provides enough consistency but a few outstanding individual performances can get them over the line and they have a real chance of winning this prize.

I'm still buzzing from the season finale but it's time to put cricket away for a while. October will be about tennis, golf, some mountain-walking and the beach. I'll then slowly start turning my attention to preparing for next year, one that holds many challenges - including the opportunity for Essex to establish ourselves in the top flight.