Live scores link

https://live.nvplay.com/ecb/#m4760a2fe-7ac0-4abb-a807-2d64d4286ce3

No Lamb in the Seconds team then ? Very strange. I wonder if he's actually injured ?

Devastating opening spell of bowling, from our 'forgotten man' - Ryan Sidebottom - 5 overs, 4 for 21, so far !

Sidebottom finished with 6 for 28 off 8 overs. Great figures. Why hasn't this guy been anywhere near the 1st team this year? Presumably, like Lamb, he's another one soon to disappear from Edgbaston.

I do think Sidebottom will be gone in the winter, which is a shame as he’s the sort of player you need for squad depth. But I think his lack of playing this year has been fair.
They sent him to Derbyshire on loan for a few games, but he got quite badly injured after a game or 2 if I remember correctly. He’s been unavailable due to that injury, and rehabbing and getting match fitness recently I believe.

But it does make you question why the club struggle to keep and rotate depth properly. When compared to clubs like Surrey and Lancashire. They just seem to have better depth, especially in the bowling department, so can deal with injuries and unavailability.

We just about squeezed a win - in a low scoring game - by 2 wickets. George Maddy saw us home with an unbeaten 41. Benjamin (29), Mousley, Amir Khan and young Gunarathne did OK, getting into double figures, but no one else.
On the bowling side, our Spinners performed well, with Bethell and (Captain) Lintott, both taking 4 wickets in their 2nd innings, fairly cheaply.
I think we aren't that far off the top of the table with this win. I'll check, when the updated 2nds table comes out.

We officially finished 4th - 151 points from 9 matches - 3 points behind Middlesex (also playing 9 games). In effect, we finished 3rd - Notts were 2nd on 159 points, but played 2 games more than us. The Championship winners were Glamorgan, they played 10 games, but finished on 175 points. So, working on (the old system) average points per game, Glamorgan still win, but we move ahead of Notts. Not bad, given how badly our First team did this season and perhaps indicative of the fact that many of the players who should have been playing for the 1sts far more than they did (Lamb, Mousley, Hose, Benjamin, Bethell, Lintott and Sidebottom, to name but a few, but even Stone & Woakes), turned out for the 2nds.

Looking at the Seconds Championship Batting averages, Mousley finished on 83 (from 4 matches), Lamb 67, Woakes 67, Hose 43 and Benjamin 39. On the Bowling front, Sidebottom was top of the averages on 9 (admittedly only one match - the Northants game above - but obviously he did contribute a fair bit for Derbyshire), Stone & Bethell on 17, Lintott on 18 and Mousley on 19. All that, beggars the question, "how much better would the Firsts have done, if these guys had played more?!"

I’m going to say that from what I’ve seen of Bethell and Mousley, the reason they do well at second XI is because at the moment that’s their level. They haven’t succeeded despite opportunities in the firsts. So they’d do no better.
Benjamin similar but at least has shown some promise. Lamb plenty good enough and everyone knows he’s been treated poorly. No idea why Hose wasn’t given a chance.
But Robinson refused to drop certain players who were horrifically out of form. And Rhodes didn’t have the decency to handover the captaincy.

I don’t think Lintott is good enough for FC cricket. Because players don’t have to go after him.

But also it’s always so thought judging on 2nd XI cricket because some weeks you get the opposition putting out a very strong side, other weeks you get a bunch of 16 year olds.

I had forgotten that Hose was still here. Forgotten man.