SWINDON captain Liam Tucker has praised the impact made by Vibhor Yadav at the County Ground.

The top-order batsmen has been an integral cog in a Swindon machine which has appeared more and more efficient in recent weeks, winning each of their last three completed matches.

Yadav has scored 78, 99 and 97 not out in that time, providing the perfect foundation from which his teammates have been able to build sizeable totals with the bat, creating instant pressure on the opposition. And, while the former Potterne man’s form is not the only reason for Swindon’s upsurge over the last six weeks, Tucker accepted his contribution has been significant.

“You only have to look at the last two innings, where he’s got 99 and 97 not out. That’s what we’ve been craving - someone to basically structure the innings and allow people to bat around him,” said Tucker.

“When you’ve got people scoring 90s week in, week out it makes life a lot easier for everyone else. We’re thoroughly impressed with his form in recent weeks.

“I think if you look at the team performances, they’ve been a lot better as well. Yes, they have coincided with him arriving a few weeks ago but actually, if you look around, other people have scored runs as well.

“Jon Sore’s stepped up, Adam Tucker’s stepped up with runs, Marc Williamson, Pagy (Paul Paginton), myself - we’ve all contributed at different points. It has helped but the team has started to score runs as well, and we’re pulling together very well as a team at the moment.

“We’re batting well and bowling well at the moment. A settled side helps as well but we’ve just got to look to continue what we’ve been doing for the last four weeks.”

Swindon, who are unchanged for the trip to Gloucester City Winget this weekend, are unlikely to catch Glos/Wilts Division leaders Lechlade, with the Manor Ground outfit 32 points clear of Tucker’s men with five games left.

However, Tucker is hoping for his team to continue their superb recent run of results, which have coincided with the improved weather across the UK.

“It’s always more difficult to score runs early in the season. It probably coincided with the weather getting a lot drier and a lot warmer. A lot of other sides started scoring a lot of runs. In the first few weeks there were a lot of scores under 150 and now a lot of teams are looking at scores of 225 minimum,” said the skipper.

“Everyone knows May and early June are good seamers’ pitchers and then in July and August they turn into more batting pictures. The groundsmen have more time to prepare them and there’s less water about too.”