Nick Gubbins has reflected on the day that saw Middlesex win their first County Championship title in 23 years against Yorkshire at Lords’ last Friday.
The opener’s breakthrough season not only concluded with a championship medal around his neck, but 1409 runs at an average of over 60 in what was a breakthrough year for the left-hander, who forced his way into the England selectors' discussions after Alex Hales’ refusal to travel to Bangladesh.
Gubbins hit 125 in the first innings of the final game of the season whilst wickets were tumbling around, him before adding 93 in the second innings; falling just seven runs short of a second century in the match.
Great form continues
The 22-year-old explained: “I can’t put it into words, most blokes wait their whole career for a trophy like this and I’m very lucky that I could get it at the start and it just makes you want more.
“We have to give credit to Yorkshire for doing what they did, they kept on going for it and it was a great advert for the County Championship.”
Gubbins was already dismissed when Adam Lyth and Alex Lees starting offering lob-ups to the Middlesex batsmen, but he admitted he was more than happy to be sat watching from the famous Lords’ balcony.
Gubbins pleased with batting performance
“It’s quite easy to get out as we saw with some of the dismissals!” Gubbins added.
“It was nice for Steve Eskinazi to get a nice 70 not out, but it’s probably not what you want to be facing.”
After adding 218 runs in the game to take him past 1400 for the season, South Africa-born Gubbins was far from disappointed that he missed out on a pair of centuries to cap his season off in style.
He continued: “It’s hard to be disappointed because I did a job for the team and I was happy with it, obviously I would have liked to get a century but it doesn’t matter at all now!
“This is what you dream of when you start the season so to be standing here with the county championship now, what a year 2016 has been.”