It is 10 years ago this summer that Daryl Mitchell came within two runs of achieving that rarest of feats in cricket – a triple century.
The Worcestershire opener scored 298 against Somerset at Taunton in 2009 – a game in which Ben Cox made his debut for the County.
The still prolific Mitchell – who has scored 11 Specsavers County Championship hundreds in the past two seasons – faced only 380 balls and struck 54 fours and one six – a total of 222 in boundaries.
But Mitchell admitted it only sunk in afterwards in the dressing room that he had come so close to reaching the 300 mark.
Here the 35-year-old, newly re-elected chairman of the PCA reflects on that momentous innings.
Mitchell said: “The stand-out thing I remember is being dropped on about 27, a pretty straightforward one to Craig Kieswetter who was keeping wicket.
“I remember scoring at a real rate and had about 230 not out at the end of the day. The way I play, that was sort of unheard of really!
“People talk about being “in the zone” but I just got a bit of a role really. It was always a good wicket at Taunton in those days, a rapid outfield, and scoring was pretty straightforward really.
“The ball raced away to the boundary and it was a good pitch. I remember scoring really freely.”
Mitchell added: “Was I thinking of 300? No. It was only when I sat in the dressing room after I had got out that I was thinking ‘I was only two away from 300’
“It hadn’t really crossed my mind.
“I remember Anul Suppiah bowled me a real long hop and I cut it and absolutely smashed it on 297.
“Unfortunately it went straight to the bloke on the boundary and I only scored one and I was bowled by Peter Trego in the next over.
“That delivery was probably a missed opportunity. I got out trying to hit Trego over his head to get to 300. I hadn’t thought about it too much.
“I hadn’t contemplated getting 300. I just got in a rhythm and kept going and unfortunately got out a couple short.”
For the record, Worcestershire totalled 571 and Somerset, who were bowled out for 280, forced a draw after finishing on 523-8 when following on.
The Worcestershire side was:
Daryl Mitchell
Stephen Moore
Vikram Solanki
Moeen Ali
Alexei Kervezee
David Wheeldon
Gareth Andrew
Ben Cox
Richard Jones
Matt Mason
Jack Shantry
