I appreciate the hardness of the new ball might be problematic when defending but I think you gamble and take it here and hope Woakes and OHD can nip a couple out.

Conceding a boundary almost every over.

BristolBear wrote:

If we lose this, it can all be put down to that bizarre hour or 2 when Hain came in, forcing the rate to a near stop. Then Mousley and Barnard feeling like they needed to force the issue and getting out. Making Hain hit the breaks once more.
If he and Rhodes had batted normally for those 15 overs around tea, got at 3 or 4 an over with little risk, the target would have been 470-480.

Agreed, Rhodes and Hain played like shit yesterday after being given a superb platform by our openers. Totally let Somerset claw their way back into the game.

Right now however, if Woakes can come to the party in any kind of way we can still put the brakes on them.

Somerset, as I type, will be sniffing a win here.

Almost exactly 24 hours ago we had Will Rhodes and Sam Hain scoring 15 runs in 10 overs before Tea so Somerset are racing along in comparison to that!

Lunch.

Evens?

Have to get a tune out of Woakes here...

Overton has bowled garbage and is, as i type, 4 for 52.

I don't know, it wasn't like we were 30 for 2. The openers had put on over 100, they'd done the hard work. We were 240 odd on when Yates got out, deep batting line up this week, not like Essex away when Che and Rae were 9 and 10. Instead we're here looking at equations and wondering if we can get 10 wickets in 90 or 80 or 70 overs. Should have been 410 lead and having 45 mins at them tonight. 15 runs in 10 overs before tea was outrageous.

There won't be many teams who are 150 in front with 10 wickets in hand at lunch who proceed to crawl along at under 3 an over at 6pm.

Yates and Davies did the hard work before lunch seeing off the new ball then steadily upping the rate afterwards. Perfect, and Somerset were looking a bit ragged. The middle order have rendered it pointless though. Rhodes and Hain 15 runs in 10 overs before tea killed us.

I'm normally positive but it feels like we've bottled it a bit.

We still might win!

Hain has stuffed Barnard there.

Feel a bit sorry for Mousley there having to force the issue due to the pedestrian stuff that happened before him either side of Tea.

Mate you could stick Banton (Tom or Pato) and Kohler Cadmore on here and we'd still be going at 3 an over!

Picked a bit now. Surely we wanna be bowling tonight?

Davies and Yates set a lovely platform for them. When you bat as deep as we do this game (Woakes 9, Booth 10) you can afford to have a dip, particularly walking out there with 100 on the board on top of a 120 lead.

Hain and Rhodes will need to accelerate a bit after blocking the shit out of it for half hour like this...

Why does it always rain, or be forecast to rain, when we're getting on top!

Could do with a tune out of Woakes...

Highveld wrote:

Booth has made an impressive start, and looks like he could develop into a really useful player, in all departments of the game.

Surely it would be better to concentrate on his development, than waste money on two overseas players who have been injured more time than they are available?

He is an overseas. But no I agree with you.

Brilliant last session, to score 370 odd after losing the toss and being 40/4 in tough conditions is terrific.

Our session, Somerset a little bit wayward.