“Personal reasons”.

I wonder if the repeated volleys of abuse Sussex launched at Leicestershire might have something to do with that.
Or if he realised Leicestershire weren’t in as bad a place as he thought when he chose to leave earlier in the season.

Problem with Yates is it’s either feast or famine.
He doesn’t get a 30 or 40, and see off the new ball.
If he doesn’t get a decent score it’s typically single figures in 3 or 4 overs. He hasn’t quite mastered the battling part of opening, protecting the middle order.
He’s been the best of the top 3, but the top 3 hasn’t looked good for most of the season. Until recently Rhodes has been poor, Davies has been really poor other than that first match. Too often they all fail.

Have just been told by someone within the club that the players end of season bonus will be roughly a couple grand more each for finishing 3rd instead of 4th.

So I was totally wrong about it not being motivation. That’ll definitely get a few of them pushing harder on the last day.

I think the players care about finishing as high as they can, but it’s not a motivating factor if that makes sense.
You don’t give pre-match speeches about finishing 3rd typically. It’s not something that will be putting pressure on them like previous last matches of the season. If we get third here you won’t see huge hugs and players charging around.

When it was announced before the 3rd ODI it only mentioned sides in must win matches like Surrey and Kent.
But Lancs have brought Hartley back in, and they’re basically guaranteed 5th.
Not sure there’s much to gain for us, let Hain start his holidays early. Think his parents had flown over to watch him in his international debut, so maybe he can spend some time with them.

He must have one hell of an agent. Considering he’s been poor in the blast and hundred for 2 years it’s a great deal for him. I wonder if he counts as a South African domestic player, and that’s helped his cause.

Davies getting more luck in this one innings than some players get all season. Won’t complain though, about time some luck went our way.

ajones1328 wrote:

Some really positive batting from the tail enders, Wagner was very impressive. Always been a fan of his, would like him as our overseas for next year.

Not sure the bowling was that bad, notice we are a very quiet side, bit of pumping each other up might have kept the momentum going.

I think the quietness has more to do with the fact that realistically there’s nothing on the line for either side. Hard to get up for a game where it’s cold and damp, you expect it to be a rain effected draw, and you’ve nothing to gain from it. To the players third, fourth or fifth makes very little difference.
Seen them noisy as a group before, but typically when they’re still challenging for something.

Do think we’ve bowled well though. Some good balls keeping up pressure, aided by 2 shocking leaves.

I do believe sometimes teams get caught up in thinking too much about hypotheticals, potential scenarios, and the forecast. Instead of just deciding to do the obvious best thing in terms of the current weather and state of the pitch.

They clearly never learn, the drainage issue at the start of this season was caused by work they carried out too late last year.
A Somerset friend of mine said they dug up part of the outfield, but took too long or did it too late, so when they relaid the turf and sowed the grass seed, the grass didn’t take and grow properly. And that’s why it was so sandy and drainage so poor in that specific part of the field for our match at the start of the year.

One thing that was abundantly clear from that match is that Eoin Morgan does not like Hain.
No idea why, because his supposed issue of “starting slowly” left him with a higher strike rate than Jacks. And never stopped Morgan picking Livingston or Root, who both have a history of chewing up balls early on. Wonder if it’s more personal than performance.

I think we’re going to get stopped by the weather. Though maybe not if we get this last one quickly.

Goes both ways though, we got robbed by the rain and drainage at Somerset, but saved against Lancashire.

The problem is, we’ve seen other players hired off the back of 1 or 2 good performances in the seconds, or who have done well in second team cricket and not made the leap. Just look at Chris Benjamin, Johal, Ethan Brookes.
Also the time of year means the bowling attacks in second XI cricket are very light. Clubs dealing with injuries after a long season, 2 squads worth of England call ups, retirements, plus you’ll have older players already hanging it up for the season and being told they don’t need to play.

Suspect it’s a case of just getting the batting points because unless the track completely changes overnight, a draw looks the only likely result. So get as many points as possible.

Can’t see us bowling them out currently for a total we could chase. And they won’t risk losing whilst Kent are doing poorly. So for them to get enough runs to threaten declaring they’d need to bat too long for it to be possible to bowl us out on a pitch only getting better for batting.

Good for Rhodes to get his century. Shame he got out so shortly after but imagine he was very relieved he finally turned threatening to do well in the last couple of matches into a decent score in this one.

I do wonder what Middlesex’s approach will be now. They’ll know that they can’t afford to have a worse result than Kent.

Tayls79 wrote:

Raining now and that'll finish it so not sure the bad light for 15 minutes will have made much of a difference. In any case, another 72 runs would be great here. Allow Rhodes and Briggs to get centuries, two batting points and still five sessions plus to bowl Middlesex out for under 180 with the odd shower delay. It will just have to be tomorrow I guess...

No you’re right 15 minutes won’t make a big difference in the scheme of things for this match. It’s just more a wider point in general, it’s a frustration of mine, that cricket always seems to shoot itself in the foot regarding time played or not played. There’s a million laws and regulations about when not to play, yet nothing that allows common sense to prevail and increase playing time when possible.

Why are we off for bad light, the batsmen had no issue. They were flaying it to all parts.
It’s now going to rain for the rest of the day. Seems a poor decision by the umpires.

Watching this I’m wondering why Murtagh is retiring.
He’s bowled some absolute beauties.
The balls to Barnard and Burgess were gorgeous. They’ve pitched in almost identical places, ones jagged back, the others moved away. Not just a little bit of movement either. Superb bowling.

Feels harsh on Johal. Looked really good the last time he played first XI. Hasn’t had a chance since. I appreciate he hasn’t really earned it in the seconds, but seems like he has the ability.