James Harris has no regrets after trying to tinker with his action, a decision that wrote off his 2014 campaign, after a record-breaking haul in Middlesex’s thumping victory over Durham at Lord’s.
The 24-year-old took figures of 9-34 earlier this week, giving him match figures of 13-103, of which both were career bests.
To put the bowling return into context, it is the seventh best Middlesex return and the second best ever at the Home of Cricket, behind the legendary Gubby Allen, who has a stand named after him at Lord’s.
Only his current bowling coach Richard Johnson has a better return than Harris since the Second World War and the Welshman had no regrets about working on a change of action with the coach before reverting back to his natural style.
The paceman said: “I’m glad we did it because if I’d always said no it would have been ‘what if’. I would have been asking: ‘How good could I have been if I had tried it?’
“It was something we needed to do and something we needed to go back to when it didn’t work.”
“We went searching for a lot of things, we changed a lot of things and we probably found the half a yard we needed, but it was to the detriment of skill and moving it around.
“I don’t care if you bowl 100mph, if you don’t move it around you’re probably not going to be too successful
“It was an accumulation. I tried to be better and it didn’t work, simple as that.
“I had to bite the bullet and go back to what I knew and what made me successful in the first place.”
Harris is not taking his form for granted and is still looking to improve as a player and wants more spells like this.
He said: “I still think I can bowl better, I will always feel like that unless it’s all 10 for not many. Okay, we got close today but there was still one wicket (taken by Steven Finn) I didn’t get and I still went for 34.
“It will be a continuation of working hard. I spent a lot of days in the indoor school, which people don’t see.
“It’s nice to get some success, but I’m keen for more.”
