SLOUGH skipper Bobby Sher has highlighted the importance of a good start to the season ahead of their Home Counties Division One curtain-raiser away at High Wycombe this Saturday.

Slough failed to win any of their first four games last term but a 10-match unbeaten run from June to mid-August saw them finish fifth in the league table.

They face a difficult start to the new campaign but Sher is hopeful his team will get something from the trip to High Wycombe to build confidence in the side.

He told the Observer: “We’re ready to go and it’s our first big game of the season so there will be a few nerves and cobwebs to blow away.

“We’re hoping to get off to a good start in the first four or five games. A good start is highly important for the team in terms of confidence levels and it gives you a little edge over the other sides.

“High Wycombe are always a good side and beat us in the first game last year, so hopefully we will come away with something because we’ve got to get off to a good start in these first four or five games.

“The weather forecast isn’t looking great at the moment but hopefully it improves and we get a high-scoring game, and both sides can enjoy themselves.”

Sher continued: “The aim for us is always to finish in the top four and I thought we were a bit unlucky last year. Results didn’t go our way and we struggled before a run of wins.

“The first thing is to stay in the league and then look to push on from there into the top four.”

Slough suffered defeats in both their pre-season friendly matches, but they enjoyed a 10-wicket win over rivals Burnham in round one of the T20 competition on Bank Holiday Monday.

Burnham were bowled out for 83 runs with skipper Harveer Gandam (35), Karan Kumar (12) and Raminder Singh (10) the only batsmean to reach double figures.

All six of the Slough bowlers took at least one wicket with Steven Green returning figures of 2-7 from his four overs.

Fahim Qureshi (17) and Yaqoot Rafiq (60) knocked off the runs inside 10 overs to secure an impressive win for the visitors.

Sher said: “We’ve been training during the winter and had a couple of friendlies, but lost both. We struggled against Datchet and were thrashed, but we did better in a good show versus Ealing, who had three Middlesex players.

"Our focus now is getting ready for Saturday against High Wycombe.”

He added: ”We’ve lost Waqas Hussain to Henley and changed our overseas, but other than that we’re unchanged.

"Zohaib Ahmed will hopefully bring a lot of experience because he is the captain of Islamabad, and good ideas as a level-two coach.

"Zohaib will open the bowling and bat high in the middle order, so hopefully he will contribute to the team and to the club."

Check out our new Observer sports Facebook page. Search Robert Observer Sport and like, follow and share the page today.