Just like one bad season shouldn’t erase the great season before it.

That’s just it isn’t it, that every single one of these players is talented enough to score runs. It’s whether their form is good enough and also whether they turn that talent into results.

Robinson has this bizarre approach that picking on name, potential and reputation is better than actual performances.
You throw enough darts at a board and eventually you’ll hit the bullseye. Unfortunately in professional sport you can’t have that approach because you don’t have time to wait for someone to find form, because you’ll get left behind. That’s exactly what we’ve seen this season and what we saw today with Yates, he got enough chances and eventually came good. But it’s too little too late and why they’re almost certainly going to get relegated.

Problem is, do we have any other options for opener? We’re not exactly awash with them. I’m not trying to defend Robinson or saying that Yates deserved to keep his place but if he was dropped he’d need to be replaced by someone.

True they can re-jig the middle order for whatever reason they dispensed with Lamb. Mouseley Bethell Benjamin Yadav etc... lots of options in there

Top order batting would either have to be a young kid from the 2nds Hamza Sheikh or Will Rhodes of the options available and neither of those options was really viable so Sibley, Davies, Yates are the go to guys for opening bat

I think you can stick with one of Yates or Davies out of form, but not both. One should have been dropped after 3 matches when it was clear both were in awful form.
Then give the other another match or 2. Or you could try Rhodes opening again.
With Hain, Mousley, Lamb, Burgess, Benjamin Bethell, plus Rhodes you’ve got plenty who can bat 3-7. So I don’t think it was a lack of options. It was a definite choice. And it’s damaged the season.

Completely agree that one of them should have been dropped. I also think that Yates should never have been moved from opening to accommodate Davies. Of course the danger with moving someone from the middle order to higher up e.g. Hain or Burgess is that it could then affect their form. Both of them have been great this season so it would have been a risk.

It all just smacks of awful man management to me. I think there were solutions there, and I suspect we all know what needed to be done. Why Robinson didn’t do it was either that he wasn’t strong enough to manage some of the situations, especially with big players out of form.
Or made a decision regarding selection, and was too stubborn/arrogant/foolish to change his mind upon realising his mistake.

Either way, neither are characteristics you want in a leader and head coach.

Somerset's bowlers currently going for close to 5 an over

They are on the beach unfortunately, we have nobody else to blame for relegation than ourselves.

Yep looking forward to the talk from management about opportunity to reset etc.

We shouldn't need a reset and overhaul every 3 seasons but another one will have to take place now..shocking if we somehow lose Burgess and OHD on top of Sibley, Stone and Hose

But the Yorkshire match looking a bit more hopeful and will show how many bonus points we need.

So if Yorkshire lose do we need 3 bonus points and a win to stay up?

Is it not 2 bonus points and a win as that would put us level but we'd have won one more game than them?

To score more points than Yorkshire it would need to be a win and 3 bonus points. But if we only got 2 bonus points we’d stay up due to having won more games.

However, Yorkshires 3 bowling points means that a draw would be enough for them to stay up. And the weather for Leeds tomorrow is rain all day according to the BBC. Which wouldn’t be helpful, as you know their ground staff won’t be in any hurry to make it playable.

All accademic as our game is heading for a draw now - only just about to bowl the 60th over of the match after a day and a half.

And it's raining again at 59 overs!!

Last chance saloon (not that we necessarily deserve one) is there an argument to declare now & see how it goes.
Regardless of anything else, need 20 wickets to have a drink in that saloon.

Good point. Perhaps throw the bat for a quick 50 or so and then declare with plenty of overs left today - weather permitting. Will we have enough DAYS left to get 20 wickets though???!!

Still two days to go. No need to go mad. 325 declare then bowl these out for 170 tomorrow then add 100 then bowl them out again on Thursday

Did I get that right?

Come back from rain, score 30 runs of 16 balls, Yates gets his ton, then off for rain again?

I'm not sure what the weather is doing there, but in London its tiny showers then sun. I suppose the view is get as many batting points as possible then hope for a route one, innings victory.

LeicesterExile wrote:

Good point. Perhaps throw the bat for a quick 50 or so and then declare with plenty of overs left today - weather permitting. Will we have enough DAYS left to get 20 wickets though???!!

Well certainly having a go and losing wickets in the process. Even Mousley ran to the wicket when he came in ! Warks certainly in a hurry now.