We go again
We go again
Jamal is added to the squad otherwise unchanged.
I just hope, Barnard comes in for Benjamin.
"You can take the boy out of Atherstone, but you can never take Atherstone out of the boy !"
"The Bears and the (footballing) Foxes for ever !"
Derby win the toss and bat.
One change, Garton in for a Hassan Ali.
I did say a golden duck guaranteed selection!!
I am, as may be obvious from my posts, a "glass half full" man. But even I think that the continued selection of Chris Benjamin is strange and not necessarily in his interests because he must go out to bat feeling like a walking wicket.
Maybe today is the day he proves us wrong.
Wow! Gleeson's on fire!
The G-Men look like good signings.
133-7, really good bowling effort particularly from Gleeson, Briggs & Mousley.
A player who only bats and does not bowl should not be batting as low down as 6 which makes his selection all the more strange. As Gerry says let's hope he proves everyone wrong today although given Derbys' score I hope he is not needed.
Good to get the win but not a very exciting game to watch, made worse by the inane commentary from the Derby bloke and camera work which made me seasick.
Good bowling again and the spinners once more strangling the middle overs/order 11-0-64-2. Yes, Benjamin is lucky to be in but even his brief innings today didn't fill me with confidence, his inability to time the ball is worrying if he continues to get picked.
Well, we made heavy weather of that. Mousley batted well but played & missed about half-a-dozen reverse shots, while Hain batted steadily but strangely subdued. Benjamin only faced 5 balls but looked completely out-of-sorts, i really can't understand why they are continuing to select him ahead of Barnard or Burgess. We are 2nd in the table now, Northants & Worcestershire up next.
A comfortable win but felt we should have won in fewer overs.
I agree about the camera work - absolutely dreadful even missing the bowling of balls but as it's free we can't really complain!!
At least Benjamin was not out.
I thought it was a tricky pitch for batting - the fourth time it had been used.
I agree the camera work was pretty dreadful, far worse than any other recent efforts at other grounds.
A bit worried that Sam Hain seemed to be having problems with an injured leg while batting though if he has to drop out, no doubt Benjamin will step up at number four.
Just out of interest, what is considered an acceptable average for a specialist batsman?
In first class games, 40 is considered to be the figure, but I'm unsure for domestic T20.
I remember that both Trevor Penney & Johnty Rhodes played most of their careers batting at 6, in all forms of the game, and I cant recall either of them been regular bowlers.
Once you get below, say, number 4 averages become irrelevant. You'll be coming in with 20 balls to go and just need to slog everything. Strike rate will be more important than average and Benjamin used to be decent in that regard. He's having a grim season in all respects, though.
I'm not sure a 40 average is the benchmark these days for a batter playing FC cricket in the UK with half the games played in April and September and far more result pitches being prepared due to promotion/relegation jeopardy.
Nowadays in T20, I believe the strike rate is considered more of a benchmark than the average. I would agree that after 4 or 5, an average doesn't really count for much.
At the moment, Sam Hain is currently 2nd in the averages of the Vitality Blast with an average of 55 from 5 innings (165 runs). However, his strike rate is fairly low at 120.44. Not sure what an acceptable average for a batsman should be in T20, but i think as far as strike rate is concerned 150.00 would be considered the benchmark.