\u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to do it\u201d:\u00a0Lategan\u00a0loving life at the top\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
A week on from\u00a0his first appearance opening the batting\u00a0in red ball cricket\u00a0for Worcestershire, it is safe to say Dan\u00a0Lategan\u00a0is fulfilling a long-standing aspiration.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is\u00a0good fun.\u00a0I\u00a0really\u00a0like to do it.\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0always wanted to be an opener\u00a0because I think\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0a\u00a0good\u00a0challenge,\u00a0obviously I\u00a0like the\u00a0hard\u00a0new ball, but it was\u00a0a\u00a0tough\u00a0one\u00a0up-front\u00a0last week.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Having featured in the final three Rothesay County Championship fixtures in the middle order for the Pears last September,\u00a0Lategan\u2019s\u00a0promotion to the top of the batting card coincided with two superb\u00a0visits to the middle in the 2026 opener against Derbyshire,\u00a0last week.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
A composed and patient first innings display saw\u00a0Lategan\u00a0get within touching distance of a maiden first-class century, only\u00a0to be denied in the cruellest of circumstances as he was run out just 11 runs short of the milestone.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
An assured 49 in the second innings saw the left-hander set his side on their way to an impressive fightback in the\u00a0match.\u00a0Not\u00a0content with just playing his part, the desire to improve and lead his team radiates from the teenager.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFacing\u00a0Mo\u00a0Abass,\u00a0who is a\u00a0very, very experienced bowler\u00a0was\u00a0quite a challenge, but I\u00a0would\u00a0say\u00a0it\u00a0was\u00a0good fun\u00a0because\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0a good challenge.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cProbably for\u00a0a\u00a0red ball opener,\u00a0I play\u00a0a lot more than other openers would.\u00a0So,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0about trying to rein that in and just try and get in before I start\u00a0stepping through the gears.\u00a0I have\u00a0had\u00a0to work on it a little bit,\u00a0things like\u00a0getting in and leaving\u00a0the ball\u00a0a bit better.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, it was very disappointing to not get that first\u00a0100, but for me it was\u00a0more disappointing in the fact that I was not\u00a0there for the team, especially in the second innings.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI would\u00a0like\u00a0to have stayed\u00a0there\u00a0for longer\u00a0and not have to get the lower\u00a0order involved,\u00a0but\u00a0ultimately,\u00a0I\u00a0am\u00a0happy with how the game ended up.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to do it\u201d:\u00a0Lategan\u00a0loving life at the top\u00a0\u00a0 A week on from\u00a0his first appearance opening the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522096,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-522095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-cricket","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}