Sibley returns to the squad:
https://edgbaston.com/fixtures/first-xi/leicestershire-vs-warwickshire-14-august-2022/#match-match-previews
I hope the bowlers are suitably rested after their efforts in the heat.

I really don’t want this to come across as a go at the player or anything like that. It’s not his fault, he’s doing his job. But I really hope they don’t pick Kai Smith again.
I’m sure he’s talented and a great kid. But if he’s going to bat 8 or 9, only bat once out of three matches, not keep, doesn’t bowl, why pick him? Pick an extra bowler. You’d have more overs up your sleeve for later on, so can rotate seam bowlers better, and can keep Pandya back a bit if necessary. Because they clearly struggle with bowling in the last 10 overs, and it’s almost self inflicted if they keep picking Smith.

I agree about Kai Smith. If the coaching staff believe he has the ability to play as a batter, he needs to be in the top 6 (or just maybe at 7). Hiding him away at 8 or 9 does him and the team no favours. Hamza Shaikh, aged 16, was thrown in to open and did well until Yates ran him out. It would be a shame if he goes to make way for Sibley and Kai Smith stays but continues to bat at 8 or 9.

GerryShedd wrote:

I agree about Kai Smith. If the coaching staff believe he has the ability to play as a batter, he needs to be in the top 6 (or just maybe at 7). Hiding him away at 8 or 9 does him and the team no favours. Hamza Shaikh, aged 16, was thrown in to open and did well until Yates ran him out. It would be a shame if he goes to make way for Sibley and Kai Smith stays but continues to bat at 8 or 9.

You just wouldn't credit it, but Kai Smith STAYS in today - again at number 8 ! And Shaikh has been dropped for Sibley. Just what are Management thinking of !!

It’s just bizarre at this point. You’ve got Shaikh, Sidebottom, Simmons, all sat there ready to offer something and yet they insist on playing a specialist number 8. Just one of a number of bizarre selection decisions this season by Robinson.

You wouldn't mind if the management could actually explain the decision but we would like to see the local media ask the questions of them in the first place or are they not paying attention.

Only thing I can assume with Simmons is that he has been struggling for the 2's and the u18's lately.

And if so, fair enough. But we saw Johal perform well last year.
This game is just another example of the limited bowling options causing issues. Brookes obviously isn’t seen as a true 6th bowler, so if they can steal a couple of overs from him and Yates, great. If not, it’s the same 5 bowlers having to bowl no matter what. Which is never great in limited overs cricket. And I’m not entirely sure Rhodes is particularly good at rotating his bowlers and changing his plans depending on the circumstances.

It’s clearly a flat pitch and fast outfield so a 300 plus score is to be expected. But from 200-5 with 15 overs left, you’d have though they’d scrape 300, not motor to 340.

This outfield is absolutely scorched.

I'm generally the first to say conditions are the same for both sides but I think the toss was a huge win for the Foxes. All eleven of our players wilted in that sunshine as Leicestershire built this huge score. The scoreboard will help keep the home team fresh.

Absolute ridiculous run out for Lamb. There was an easy single to take when he hit it to deep mid off, Pandya didn't even move ! One less chance for Matt to impress and if I was him, I'd begin to suspect that his time at Edgbaston might soon be coming to an end. So sad. He's a decent batsman who just never seemed to be given the opportunities that others have had. And of course he's still second in the our first class batting averages this season (on over 48, with 2 centuries) - Yates (who is languishing on an average of 12), is given chance after chance.

Shame to lose this one as we often fail against a side who are generally talked about as a weak county but we appear to make them look like world-beaters when we play them.

It’s one of those days where Leicestershire played it perfectly.
Win the toss on a flat pitch, let the bears cook in the field, build a big lead, and then bowl to defend rather than take wickets, as they knew chances would be created by scoreboard pressure. It was Englands go to approach under Eoin Morgan so often, build huge scores and let the opposition implode under the scoreboard pressure.

I will say though that chasing 300 out there would have been much easier than 340, and I hate to flog a dead horse but picking Kai Smith instead of Simmons or Johal has arguably resulted in a tie and a loss from 2 winnable matches.

But also apart from Burgess and Pandya, if sides bowl defensively, we struggle to find the boundary. Rhodes and Lamb of late have especially been guilty of this, chewing up balls, and dragging the scoring rate down.

Agree with all of the Bristol assessment. It does become painfully obvious how difficult we find it to hit the boundary compared to the opposition. When Burgess went the Leicestershire commentator said that it was a result of the previous over and Burgess was forced to adopt a more aggressive approach, in fact it was the result of the previous 3 overs where Rhodes had appeared to shut down, giving away dot balls. Ironically Rhodes was then forced to try and adopt a similar level of aggression and perished in exactly the same way. Very disappointing but fair play to Leicestershire (and their seamer Wright, where did they find him) who having won the toss executed their game plan perfectly.

Yep pretty much agree with all of what's being said. It was major bat first conditions as it did appear as though the pitch was breaking up as we batted on it. You get games like this sometimes, people get in and get out. Definitely needed the extra bowler. Reminded me of the one day game we lost away at Leicester in 2019 where they batted first on a scorcher and racked up a sizeable total and we never really looked like chasing. Probably got 50 too many today. Lamb looks like somebody who hasn't really batted in a good while, he's getting bat on ball but his timing looks off, he did well in this comp last year though so should be persevered with. I think Rhodes has been OK, if you cramp him though he can't manufacture any room and rotate the strike, his get out is to try and go big. Leicester bowled well at him.

Leicestershire look a handy white ball outfit to be fair. Very close to making the knockouts in the T20, they were unlucky not too actually, and they've won 4 out 5 in this comp. It's no accident.