“I’m feeling the most confident I have in my whole career.”

That was Will Fraine’s assessment of the state of his game at present after hitting a stunning 143 to underpin Yorkshire’s opening day Royal London Cup win over Northamptonshire at York.

A 33-run success on DLS was secured by the Vikings as they rode on a dominant batting display which saw them amass 353-5 in 46 overs following morning rain.

Fraine shared 209 for the first wicket with fellow centurion Harry Duke, who made 111, before making way for Will Luxton to come in and whack 84.

Fraine, 26-years-old, has enjoyed an excellent month, started by a crucial 32 not out in the Blast quarter-final win over Surrey at the Oval.

He hit 53 in the first innings of last week’s Championship defeat against Hampshire, impressing against a bowling attack which many believe is the best in the country.

On Sunday, he hit 88 in the RL50 warm-up win over Northumberland at Gosforth.

And today, he hit 12 fours and eight sixes in 107 balls.

In explaining his aforementioned comment about sky-high confidence, the Huddersfield-born right-hander said: “I’ve felt really good all year. My scores don’t suggest I’ve felt amazing, but I really have.

“I’ve worked hard all year, and everything has clicked into place for me.

“I saw it alright today. It was a really good pitch – it always is at York. It was just one of those days where my rhythm was pretty good and I found the middle of the bat more often than not.

“We were going to bowl first because conditions this morning were pretty nasty. The pitch had been under covers a lot.

“We didn’t really know what a good score would be. We knew it would be quick-scoring with small boundaries.

“Myself and Dukey talked about not going too hard in the powerplay and not taking too many risks because it was nipping.

“The scorecard throughout the game showed that no one really started that cleanly apart from Will Luxton. There was a bit of seam movement. But the deeper you took it, the easier it got.

“I was as selective as I’ve been today, I made good decisions, and that’s why I ended up getting a big score.”

On his opening partnership with Duke, which started successfully in last season’s RL50 and is looking good again this, he added: “We complement each other quite well. He rotates the strike more, and my strength is more boundary hitting.

“We communicate well together and work well as a pair in that controlled aggression type way.”

Yorkshire are back in Royal London Group B action on Thursday when Lancashire visit Clifton Park. Their opener against Essex at Sedbergh today was washed out without a ball bowled.

An image of Lauren Winfield-Hill and Adil Rashid, with the Yorkshire logo and Northern Diamonds logo in the middle

Sign up to our newsletter

For all the latest news, previews, ticket, membership and Premium Experiences information and more exciting content from Yorkshire Cricket and the Northern Diamonds straight to your inbox, subscribe now.

To view our privacy policy, click here.