IN-FORM Pears opener Daryl Mitchell hopes to continue ‘cashing in’ while the runs are flowing after an impressive start to the season.
Mitchell hit 121 and 54 in the defeat to Sussex last weekend following on from scores of 120, 161 and 78 not out in his previous three innings in the Specsavers County Championship.
The recent rich vein of form is in contrast to just 31 runs, including two ducks, in the opening two four-day fixtures.
Mitchell was also in prime form in the Royal London One-Day Cup with three fifties in six knocks after regaining his place in the side.
However, the 33-year-old knows the importance of staying level-headed through the good and the bad times.
He said: “I think cricket is like that. It goes in phases. I’ve learnt over the years that you’ve got to try and stay level about things.
“Things are never as good or never as bad as they seem at times.
“You have to try and make the most of it when you are seeing the ball well and playing well and score as many as you can because there is always that tough patch around the corner.
“For example, I had an awful start to last season and finished very well so I was pretty pleased with that.”
Mitchell appeared to start the new campaign well with 90 in Abu Dhabi for the Pears against the ECB’s North side in their warm-up for the North v South series.
“The runs seemed to dry up when we got back to England and it was a little bit disappointing but again you have to be philosophical about early season pitches,” explained the Badsey-born player.
“We played a lot of those pre-season games in March at RGS Worcester or Taunton Vale, club grounds.
“I got two noughts and a one in my first four innings in the Championship but again you look at the dismissals sometimes and some of the balls I got were difficult to do anything with.
“There were also one or two loose shots as well but that’s cricket.
“You try and learn from your mistakes and keep improving and keep striving to do as well as you can and now things are going well.”