Warwickshire CCC unofficial fans forum
bearsfans.org.uk
Member
Joined:
Posts: 227

Yep bad finish but less than 5 an over is not too tough a target.

Member
Joined:
Posts: 258

41 off the last 3 overs somewhat spoilt the earlier work of the bowlers.

248 to win

Member
Joined:
Posts: 451

A shocker at the end undid all the good work. What should have been a comfortable target is now one that requires some real concentration. A solid opening is now required.

Member
Joined:
Posts: 656

Well, in cricket, they do say momentum counts for a lot. And a game were were in charge of has become a real task. This will be harder than Friday's game.

Administrator
Joined:
Posts: 569

Don’t think we’re going to win this, unless there’s another miracle. Those last 5 or so overs really cost us.

Member
Joined:
Posts: 451

This is worse than Friday. Why is Benjamin batting higher than Smith? 5 down with 191 still needed.

Member
Joined:
Posts: 258

6 down now, looks terminal

Member
Joined:
Posts: 656

Benjamin has gone backwards since he made his debut and is only in the team because of players who are in The Hundread, no doubt Robinson will find a place for him in the T20 quarter-final.

Member
Joined:
Posts: 258

Disappointing.

Member
Joined:
Posts: 656

Yes, they carried the momentum into our innings as we really should have restricted them to 210-215 but losing early wickets was also our undoing and in the end, wickets in hand could have won it for us easily as most of their bowling isn't exactly div1 standard but we gave too many away again and no big, nasty fast bowler to clean up their tail.

Member
Joined:
Posts: 949

The death bowling killed us.
So often you see it. The other side were expecting a sub-200 score. Suddenly they’re defending 250. Their tails are up, we’re having to reconsider how we’re going to play.

Even with that touch, a combined score of 30 from the top 4 is abysmal, 37 combined from 6 of the top 7 is just never going to win a match.
Burgess the only batter who can come out with any pride.

See this as less of choke or a bottle. Glamorgan were a side basically at full strength. The likes of Northeast, Ingram, Van der Gugten, Gorvin, Douthwaite.

Member
Joined:
Posts: 319

I like the last para of Bristol's comment above. With a massive Somerset exception the teams that have done well have kept a core side and not lost that many to franchise and reps. Any side that has lost players has become unbalanced and that's been the case with us even though we won most of our games.

Death bowling has never been great, our new ball bowling is much better, and we haven't got many batters who move the ball into space and keep things ticking over. On the whole I think we did pretty well and several players improved their reputations.

One small thing about today. Lintott had a bad day with the ball, was coming out all wrong most of the time and he did get beat up a bit. He came on at ~70/4 and they recovered a bit from there.

Member
Joined:
Posts: 1355

ODC campaign felt like a bit of a roller-coaster this season. We've done incredibly well to get as far as we did, last season we had lads back from the other comp at numerous times, this time round we had nothing like that.

Death bowling has been an issue all comp long. Its not like our bowlers in this comp are good death bowlers who bowled poorly at the death just that it's not necessarily something they've done much of before. Look at Essex away, Gloucestershire away, Surrey at home (away!) and Worcestershire at home on Friday, in all 4 games we shipped heavy runs at the end of the innings. Don't think it's through lack of application or desire, just lack of experience, maybe even lack of ability. If you're a good death bowler you're in the other comp aren't you?! Felt like the tactics today of trying to get through batter to hit towards the long boundary with fielders out there was fair enough just that whenever Booth seems to go short he does get whacked because he can't get it high enough. OHD went for his yorkers but didn't quite nail them. 30 off the last 9 balls, took it away from us, Douthwaite was great. People think bowling yorkers is just something you do. Some may criticise Barnard for not saving himself a couple but his natural length is hittable and he doesn't have a yorker either. Lintott quietly has had a very average comp overall and has shipped quite a few runs its only in the last few games where he's nipped in with a few wickets.

Teams would have known that if they can get to the last 5 or 10 overs with set batters at the crease, even ifs numbers 7, 8 or 9 etc then they could cash in.

Truth is you can see why some people aren't part of the Blast side....

Agree with Bristol Bear that this doesn't feel like a choke or a bottle job like last season v Hants, more just that we didn't have the players this time around.

Gutted after Friday, I got carried away and really believed we could go all the way!

Super Moderator
Joined:
Posts: 1547

Well, I enjoyed my day in the Welsh sunshine but a very disappointing performance and result.
I agree about the death bowling.
As for the batting, it wasn't just that the top order failed but that they took a long time to do so. Between them, Will Rhodes, Hamza Shaikh, Chris Benjamin and Kai Smith scored 20 runs in 69 balls. In the normal course of events, you might have expected that one or more of them would have gone on from a slow start, speeded up and made a big score. On this occasion, it didn't happen and left Burgess and the lower middle order with a massive mountain to climb.
Anyway, there were positives from the competition, the Kai Smith innings being the most memorable.
Averages are here:
https://www.espncricinfo.com/records/tournament/averages-batting-bowling-by-team/one-day-cup-2024-16023?team=1479

Member
Joined:
Posts: 107

Yes obviously disappointing not to reach the final but I do like the 50 over competition. Players being siphoned off for The Hundred isn't really right but it does give you the chance to see a younger generation. For us Kai Smith was the obvious stand out, presumably / hopefully he'll play in the Blast quarter final. I thought Booth and Ali both had solid competitions, Ali seemed calm with bat and ball & like he always had a wicket in him, if a touch expensive. Hamza a tad disappointing but runs at England U19 & A team and might get a chance in next year's county championship? Theo Wylie didn't get much of a look in and will hopefully play more in next year's competition.

Member
Joined:
Posts: 451

The ECB treatment of the ODC is criminal really. It is a major form of cricket at International level and should therefore be used as a platform for players to develop and come through for international honours but that won't happen if players are syphoned off to the one competition that has no international standing. Likewise the ODC has a similarity to a single innings C/C.
I would like to see Kai Smith be given a run in the C/C given the way he played that innings last Friday.

Super Moderator
Joined:
Posts: 1547

I have no interest in The Hundred whatsoever and from a selfish point of view would love for it to disappear because of its effect on the competitions and the team that I do care about. But there is no doubt that it has found a market and achieved some of its aims.
The BBC reports today:

"The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) announced that 540,000 tickets were sold for this year's tournament, taking the total beyond two million over the first four years.
Of those, more than a million attended women's games and there were record crowds for women's matches at seven of the eight grounds used in The Hundred in 2024.
For all that the competition continues to split opinion, confirmation that 41% of tickets this year were sold to families and 30% to people new to cricket suggests it has been successful in its aim of bringing people to the sport.
Despite that, TV viewing figures were down on previous years. Although being up against the Olympics for two weeks in the middle of the tournament, perhaps that is to be expected - and the BBC's coverage of the men's final still attracted almost half a million more viewers than the 2023 final."

Member
Joined:
Posts: 268

Hugely disappointing to lose another semi final but we did well to get that far with the resources available. We struggled to get big totals on the board and really lost momentum after losing Yates and Hamza.
The emergence of Kai Smith is a big positive and both Taz Ali and Booth made strides forward.
I keep saying it, but we really need a top class batting coach to improve these players. Look at Somerset and the talent they are producing along with vastly improving someone like Andy Umeed, who is unrecognisable from his time with the Bears. Time for Frost to go.
Robinson 's job surely now hinges on making T20 finals day as a minimum requirement. And the small matter of securing our championship status.

Member
Joined:
Posts: 268

GerryShedd wrote:

I have no interest in The Hundred whatsoever and from a selfish point of view would love for it to disappear because of its effect on the competitions and the team that I do care about. But there is no doubt that it has found a market and achieved some of its aims.
The BBC reports today:

"The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) announced that 540,000 tickets were sold for this year's tournament, taking the total beyond two million over the first four years.
Of those, more than a million attended women's games and there were record crowds for women's matches at seven of the eight grounds used in The Hundred in 2024.
For all that the competition continues to split opinion, confirmation that 41% of tickets this year were sold to families and 30% to people new to cricket suggests it has been successful in its aim of bringing people to the sport.
Despite that, TV viewing figures were down on previous years. Although being up against the Olympics for two weeks in the middle of the tournament, perhaps that is to be expected - and the BBC's coverage of the men's final still attracted almost half a million more viewers than the 2023 final."

BBC propaganda. They have some skin in this game. It is cricket for those who don't follow cricket, which is fine but should not be run at a continued cost to the One Day Cup, which is the best format for me.

Member
Joined:
Posts: 451

540000 tickets were sold - does that mean that 540000 people paid the prices on the ticket or were a lot of them tickets dished out by sponsors etc.
Given who they admit the tickets were sold to why did they need to take the best players away from games played in front of established cricket followers. Surely new to the game people would not have a clue about the players.