This is embarrassing

My pre season prediction was for us to finish 5 or 6.

I'd be delighted with that at the moment!

Does Farbrace still have the receipt for McAndrew?

there's grim reading, then there's this scorecard.....

The odd thing about looking at all the other scores is thy so many captains who won the toss chose to field but have hardly made any inroads on the opposition.

Apparently the ball this season is a bit different - the seam is less pronounced. This is one theory as to why scores so far this season have generally been high

If that's true then at least it'll show who the good bowlers are.

There used to be an old saying about winning the toss. Considering fielding first - then think about and then decide to bat first! Certainly it looks like another wrong decision to field first

The bowling lacks any real menace. What is the issue with Norwell? A really poor day against one of the weakest Counties.

It is bad enough when you look at that sort of score. It is even worse when you have taken time off work to watch and you get to the ground during the 2nd over and you see Northants batting and you say "Ah well, I suppose you would bat with a straw coloured pitch and nothing overhead to make you bowl first". Only when you hear the bloke in front of you say at 228-0, "This is rubbish and to think we put them in..", do you then start to think NOT AGAIN WILL WHAT ARE YOU PLAYING AT. Making a dumb mistake once is bad enough but to do it twice (and with the same result) without learning the lesson from a few weeks ago is just plain STUPID. Did he consult the groundsman at all or was he just convinced it was a day to bowl. I pointed out how many times we have lowered our standards against poor opposition and now we have done it again. Do I go tomorrow and sit to watch them declare or get bowled out for 550-600. Not much fun in that with a bright sunny day in prospect. The bowling was awful, too many short balls that their openers could just rock back to and crack away for 4. The fielding was sloppy at times and we looked very ordinary with Miles, looking like a totally different bowler and even during his 4 wickets v Essex, he looked poor. We cannot keep watching opening partnerships from the opposition, mount up and whether or not we need to try other bowlers is up to the management but something needs to be done. If Will doesn't make runs here, he will be under more pressure than he already is. We look insipid and on that performance, you would be hard pressed to convince anyone who didn't know, that we are the current title holders.

Struggling for positives here but at least they've brought the run rate down a bit and McAndrew has some more wickets under his belt.

Glad I decided not to go as 600 looks a good bet now and then we see what our batsmen are made of, having to probably bat for 140-150 overs just to avoid the follow-on.

I'm not just saying it because we're behind in the game but this is really boring.

This is poor. Injuries aside, I wonder if Pop Welch leaving has had an affect on our bowling? Doesn't seem the same with new coach Matt Mason. I'd rather have Allan Donald as the bowling coach....

I think what we’re seeing is the effect of not having 2 top level opening bowlers.
OHD and Norwell were excellent last year. And then when OHD got injured Woakes played a couple. And by that stage you had Miles full of confidence, Rhodes bowling far better and Bresnan being at least economical and also getting some key wickets.
We didn’t replace Bresnan, and we’ve got no Norwell.

You see plenty saying we’ll make it look like a mine field, but actually, you’ve got bowlers who have been well rested for 2 days with loads of confidence and a big total behind them, against batsmen who have been chasing the ball around the pitch, tiring themselves out in the field for 2 days. It’s going to be really tough.

The other way to look at it is that our batters can bat for as long they like now. This is a golden opportunity for some of them to spend plenty of time in the middle and play themselves into form. It will be all about determination.

I don't recall anyone saying that we will make it look like a minefield. They have no Sanderson who is by far their best bowler and looking at the rest, we should be able to make runs on this pitch. It's all about patience and with it still being hot and dry, it would be nice if we make Northants chase the ball around the outfield.

To suggest the batsmen aren’t determined enough is like saying the bowlers aren’t trying hard enough. That’s an attitude issue, whereas this is a physical issue.
The concept of poor effort or attitude is almost an irrelevance for most players at this level. Because you don’t get to this point without 100% effort, determination and competitiveness.
Batting is 3 things, technique, decision making and execution. Being physically and mentally fatigued dramatically effects all 3 of those.

It’s the same way bowlers rarely do well in a second innings after being bowled cheaply, because they’ve not had enough recovery time.

I’d like to see us have a good opening partnership to set the rest of the innings up. A lot of batsmen out of form so fingers crossed that they can get themselves in and make some runs.

I really don’t want to see Davies get a quick 20 odd (or less) and then get out.

paulbear wrote:

I don't recall anyone saying that we will make it look like a minefield. They have no Sanderson who is by far their best bowler and looking at the rest, we should be able to make runs on this pitch. It's all about patience and with it still being hot and dry, it would be nice if we make Northants chase the ball around the outfield.

The minefield comment was just what I’ve seen on social media rather than on here. Plenty giving it the “Can’t wait for it to turn into a minefield when we bat”