It’s one of those things where the rules are in place but so difficult to enforce. Clubs can’t ‘formally’ approach until that date, but everyone knows conversations occur. Comments to agents, casual chats at matches.

I think this will play out like Barker. The club has assumed Burgess will stay. They’ve prioritised elsewhere, and now the players wondering why he wasn’t given the same respect. He’s been discarded for T20, and I suspect he’d be very attractive to a lot of sides, you look round and you think there’s only a couple of sides that wouldn’t be better with him in it, and he’d play all formats. As Farbace said about his move today “he’s been the standout keeper in county cricket for the last few years”.

I’ve heard rumours he’s annoyed the club have messed about and delayed his contract offer. Not dissimilar to what happened to Keith Barker.
He’s seen plenty of extensions handed out, Warwickshire haven’t been fast enough with an offer and now he’s going to hit the open market.

Interesting that Barnard and Lintott are with the seconds today down in Taunton.
Suggests for Lintott that perhaps his place might be under threat for Friday. Especially as Mousley bowled well, plus long term Moeen coming in and can be a front line spinner.

Hains class the difference today. Which considering the batsmen out there today, says a lot about just how good he is.

Slightly concerned about Lintott. Got Malan but went at 15’s. Just wonder if teams have worked him out, as he went off the boil a bit the end of last year too.
Left arm leggies are very rare, so wonder if he benefitted from that for a couple of years but he’s been seen enough now to be less of a mystery. Without a hundred place too this year.

Shame he is seen as white ball only now, as in 2021 he bowled really well and was excellent in tandem with Norwell.
Not quite sure what’s changed for him to go from all formats and performing well, to white ball only and on the edge of selection.

Least the umpiring is working both ways. Doubt Essex will be thrilled by that Lawrence decision. Thought it was going down.

Watching us bowl now, and how they bowled this afternoon, this pitch seems to be very overhead condition dependent.

Sunny this morning and Rhodes and Hain were comfortable, the ball did very little in the air or off the pitch. Since it clouded over after lunch it’s been going off the pitch and in the air. And apart from the last wicket partnership, it’s looked very tough to bat on.

This reminds me a bit of Surrey last year.
Lose a couple of quick wickets, compounded by a couple of shocking decisions.

Both Briggs and Burgess didn’t look out. Burgess was clearly less than happy about it, and if you’re taking that long to give a cleanly caught catch behind, you probably shouldn’t be giving it. He’s bottled it under the pressure of the celebration.

Deeply disappointed there are no comments about the openers.

Though I will say, that catch by Burgess was spectacular. That would be hard enough off side, but down the leg side that’s simply stunning.

What has to be considered too is that we’ve only batted 5 times in 4 matches. So naturally taking out a batsman’s highest score at this stage of the season will do that.
What’s important is that as a lineup they are currently able to put scores together. That might change, then questions might need to be asked. But currently, it’s early season, the ball has moved and seamed, batting has been hard and the bears have by far the most batting points of any side in Div 1. So there’s room for improvement, but needs to be in perspective too.

Think the best thing for me is that unlike last year where after the first loss we spiralled, this year we’ve seen it as a wake up and reacted to it.

Also this side is probably the most balanced side we’ve had in quite some time. Not just in terms of batting and bowling but also youth vs experience. I’d definitely say a more well rounded squad than 2021.

Plenty of bowling options, plenty of different ways to take wickets, lots of options that could be brought in.
In the batting we haven’t quite got the same depth in the squad, but we’ve got a lot more players in form than we’ve had for some time. I mean, we’ve only batted twice in one of our 4 matches so far.

Rushworth is doing a Norwell.

In a situation like this let’s be honest, if the bears have to bat again by bowling them out, Hampshire haven’t scored 300+. If they’re 3 or 4 down early, they’ll remove all risk, try take time out the game. So the awkward chase at the end is more likely to be a case of, do you have the overs left to score 60-70.
Whereas declaring overnight, means even if you bowl them out cheaply, you give Hampshire something to defend. So less brave, more stupid.

Looks like today is a total washout. Shame, as I suspect that robs us of a chance to get a win unless something very dramatic happens.

Excellent work by Hain, Barnard and Burgess.

Hain seems to be batting much slower this year. But Burgess and Barnard really upped the rate, got the 2nd and 3rd batting bonus points. Hopefully we get some play tomorrow, these 2 continue, get a 200-250 lead and we’ll see what happens.

Either way this is a great response from last week against a decent team and one of the best attacks on the league.

With Rhodes at 3, we’re basically 2 down every time we lose the first wicket.
I get he’s a championship winning captain etc but he hasn’t scored good runs for 2-3 years now. He’s being carried, and you can’t win anything carrying a player like that.

A great day. Think that last session shows that it’s a good batting pitch, and the bowlers did really well to get Hampshire out cheaply.

Considering Abbott and Abbas are two of the best bowlers in the league, and there was plenty of cloud cover, it’s an even better outcome.

I think for me it’s a perspective thing from the toss. The pitch looks pretty true, decent pace, good for batting. They chose to bat, and if we get them out for under 250, we’d have definitely taken that at the start of the day.

white-lightning wrote:

BosworthBear wrote:

Meanwhile Henry Brookes has 5-8

Not a good decision to let him go on loan?
I know it's a Division lower, but 10 overs and 13/5 is some going!

I suspect it says more about the division and how rare speed like his is in Div 2. Henry has been given chances the last couple of years and has been wayward and not always that threatening. But good to see him doing well. Maybe it’s a confidence thing.

Wicket for Coolerking