Pope dominating.

Re. Barnard, irrespective of whether he should have been bowling or not, when yer defending 19 with a guy who hasn't faced yet on strike, you simply have to be defending that. You could just tell from the way he was running in he was in a mess. Wide ball, slot, full toss on the pads, slot, length. I like the lad, fantastic cricketer, but I'm afraid he's bottled it massively in a big moment there when a lot of the other lads had been putting a shift in up until that point. Maybe does raise a little question about his character when under the pump, we'll see...

Won the toss bowling.

If Kai isn't injured then this feels a little harsh...

Come on you Bears let's rock the boat this week...

Pumped again yesterday I see.

2.3 -0 - 37 - 0

The rest of the Kent seamers

10 - 0 - 47 - 5

Re. death bowling generally, we shouldn't have this issue next season because if fit Jordan Thompson will be doing it.

I dont know mate, we scraped through the group in 2014 when we won it though and I don't remember anybody trying to give the trophy as we didn't deserve it. Likewise nobody deferred their finals day place to us the previous 2 seasons when we smashed the group either.

Re. players on white ball only deals, yeah I agree we could do with moving away from that. The odd one yes but not 3 or so.

Ton

I've always gotten over it pretty quickly, almost instantly, whenever we've been knocked out of the Blast as its the format which matters least to me. Last night I was totally gutted though as I thought we'd played pretty well considering we were missing our overseas players and I really thought the game was ours to lose on numerous occasions.

We got a rollicking start, phenomenal really, 9 4's in a row at one point, Somerset bowled so poorly in the PP though it almost rendered the conditions meaningless, i don't think the pitch was necessarily a road, very fast outfield and obviously short boundaries though. We also managed to run quite a few 2's (Mousley though only a brief innings was good for this) which is hard to do at Taunton. Regardless of the pitch considering the momentum we had and the platform that had been set by the top 3, Hain, Barnard and Kai at numbers 4, 5 and 6 simply have to do better than they did. Yes Somerset adapted to a pace off strategy that worked but 64 off 55 deliveries from those 3 stalled the innings when it looked as though 215 minimum was an achievable target for us. Sam Hain, clearly a terrific player and has been a very long time, almost epitomises our struggles in Blast quarter finals. He's a machine in the group stages, literally nobody scores more runs, but time and again he looks like a rabbit caught in the headlights when we reach the knockouts. Has he ever made a score in the quarter finals? Great catch to dismiss him mind.

We fielded brilliantly I thought, particularly Yates, we looked to be fielding so well it was actually making a difference, we attacked everything.

With the ball when OHD got TKC and only conceded 1 run in the over then Briggs only went for 4 the next, i thought we were turning the screw on them. We're normally good at squeezing teams when we defend. Like has been said that over from Garton which went for 17 just gave Somerset a glimmer, got the required rate below 12 and got Dickson going. Davies, who I thought got his fields right up until then, seemed to panic a little too and brought Gleeson back earlier than he liked searching for wickets. Those wickets came from OHD though and at this point it really was ours to lose.

The last over. Why oh why was Barnard given that last over?! He's a good bowler, we know this, but he's no death bowler, he's been absolutely pumped before a few times at the death (Glamorgan away ODC last year, Notts home Blast this year are notable examples), his natural length is in thr slot, he doesn't bowl yorkers and he doesn't have good change ups. You use him in the middle overs or up front. Im reluctant to be too critical of Ed Barnard, who I think is a brilliant cricketer and person, but once he was given that over (rightly or wrongly) yer arse cannot go like his did. You've got 19, nineteen for goodness sake, to defend. He clammed right up, look at how much his run up slowed, breathing heavy etc. Wides, full bungers, slot balls. Why would you bowl middle or middle and leg to a player as bottom handed as Dickson? It was a shocker. Can never be allowed to happen again.

Fair play to Dickson though, to come in during the 11th over with the opposition a good bit on top and make 71 from just 26 is absolutely clutch. He was unstoppable and single handedly won it for his side.

Ultimately we didn't do a lot wrong but the 1 or 2 things we do wrong, boy did we do them wrong. ..it does seem to be a bit of a thing with us I must say.

Hope Northants win. I'd be ok with Lancs. Please not Somerset or Hampshire though.

Alex Davies top score much to the disappointment of the forum

Great start from Yates.

OHD playing his first T20 match since the quarter final loss v Essex 2 seasons ago.

Yeah it feels like a bit of a free hit tonight, we've nothing to lose.

Hello Richard

Don't know how it could have been improved. Latham got injured, Hasan got unexpextedly called up by Pakistan to play in a series that wasn't even arranged til a couple months ago.

Think Michael Booth's lack of experience in this comp goes against him for this particular game. Having said that I thought Taz (0 t20 appearances) might have atleast got in the squad...

Interesting to see who opens instead of the injured Latham, suspect it might be Yates. Barnard might go up there. Hasan a huge miss.

Davies
Yates
Mousley
Hain
Barnard
Kai
Garton
Lintott
Briggs
Miles
Gleeson

???

Hamza/Zen for Miles to get an extra batter in?

Lack of Hason Ali in this format is huge when you look at the bowling options on paper atleast.

Actually think Miles fielding has probably got him the nod over, say, Booth. We'll see.

Very difficult game against an extremely good side who look very strong even without Banton and Henry.

Just read this. Very worrying indeed. Apparently some counties who were dead against a reduction in the CC are coming around to idea of a reduced schedule. What was once a 'hard no' is now a 'soft no'. GD on X thinks its gonna be very close.

Laces a wide on to backward point 58 (40), played well to be fair.

He's no bowler but he's a great chance of tonnin up here...

I feel like he gets whacked almost everytime he bowls in all 3 formats.