Thought Woakes and Rushworth were good first up. OHD and Barnard have released the pressure a bit.

As we’ve discussed on here before, it definitely says something that Burgess comes straight up to OHD. It’ll be interesting to see how Briggs goes now, but I think we also have to remember that Hants won the toss and chose to bat, so you’ve got to think it’s good batting conditions and a decent wicket.

Yes I do find it odd the comments about bringing in Benjamin to “strengthen” the batting.
A bloke that averages 25 in FC cricket, has shown he struggles unless it’s a placid pitch and who has been pretty poor at seconds.
Considering the batting has been good this season until last week, I think you give them the chance to make it right.

Doesn’t say just that he and Bethell are still out.

13 man squad announced.
Ali rested.
Benjamin, Briggs and Miles in from the other 10 who played last week.
Norwell and Bethell still injured.

I imagine it’ll depend on the pitch as to whether they pick Briggs or Miles. But from Robinsons comments about the bowling line up saying it’s usually it’s 4 seamers plus a spinner, I wonder if he’d like Briggs back in.

coolerking wrote:

I'd say so. Norwell is quicker and a better bat. Also, as metronomic and nagging and skilful as OHD is, Norwell is more likely to run through a side. I must say it doesn't sit right with me that our keeper stands up to several members of our pace attack. Burgess is doing all he can to disadvantage the batter and increase the chances of getting a wicket but it should be done once in a while, not routinely, as it's becoming. If I was facing a seamer and the keeper came up then I'd immediately feel like I didn't have much to worry about from the bowler.

I think part of it is that Burgess as a gloveman is similar in mindset to Piper and Russell. He sees it as his job to pose a threat, not just stand back and stop the ball. Which I must admit I love to watch, and he’s kept superbly so far.

But also our seam attack is very samey, so little to make a batsman have to adjust their stance etc and players seem to have started coming down to bowlers more to negate swing, so keepers have to help prevent that when the bowler isn’t fast enough to push the batsman back.

Norwell is definitely a point of difference but still seems to be not ready yet. I wonder if Woakes is rested, do we bring in Briggs and put men round the bat. Or I wonder if Miles might be considered, decent bat, and has a yard of pace on OHD and Rushworth.

Agree, why have him just sitting around? Get some overs in his legs. Get a better player back or at least a player ready for the T20’s who’s bowling fit.

The most prevalent argument I saw against 9+9 was there’s always one team in each league sat out.
But apart from the first and last week of the season. There’s always at least 2 teams sat out in each league anyway. So why is that an issue? There were only 4 sides playing in Div 1 this weekend with 6 sat out. So I can’t understand why that’s an issue at all.

I completely agree about the honesty. It’s time to admit the purpose and what the long term plan is. Then allow people to judge its success using relevant criteria. Whereas currently you’ve got people defending or attacking it using everything from revenue, attendance, tv deals, future investment, protection from IPL, keeping English players in England, basically anything.

Surrey have just been incredibly smart in their recruitment.
They’ve recruited and kept players knowing they have 2, sometimes 3 in every position. Their squad is enormous. Financially they have that ability whilst no one else does. But what it means for them is that, their overseas typically stay all year. And they can’t and don’t get overly weakened by England selections, but have international quality throughout most of the side. When England are playing they lose Pope and Foakes. But then Smith keeps, Steel comes up the order, in comes a player like Geddes. They have Overton, Roy, 2x Currans who are unavailable, and a couple players on loan but all could come in later in the year. Chris Jordan and Laurie Evans used as white ball only specialists.

Where I think they could get unstuck is if it gets difficult. Maybe lose a couple matches in a row, fall back in the table, have a couple of injuries whilst they have players on international duty. They strike me as excellent front runners. Not sure how they’d do coming from behind. You feel some of them could just check out, not be up for the fight.

I understand they’ve come out and been aggressive this morning. But we have not used the new ball well.
After all the hard work yesterday, we’ve really let them get away here. They polished us off very quickly; we’ve let them build a significant lead.

I’ll be honest, I think the difference between the 2 sides was the toss. Surrey spent much of today batting in the sun, on an improving pitch.
The bears batted under lights, in damp, tough conditions. I think they bowled very well, but don’t think they bowled better than us. I think Robinson is right, if we played yesterday, there’s no reason we couldn’t have played the first hour today, and Surrey had to bat in the gloom and damp for a bit. I agree the fact Burgess and Woakes got out in a period where we’ve gone off for similar light before is really frustrating.
The key now is take the last 2, bat well and see if we can get a draw because I don’t think the weather forecast as it is now will allow us enough time to build a big enough lead to force a win.

Got involved in a great debate with a couple of friends of mine. In county cricket is there a keeper that affects the game from behind the stumps more than burgess?
Not saying just the number of catches or stumpings. But how a keeper affects batsmen by coming up when others wouldn’t. Makes stops and catches others wouldn’t. As a keeper he seems more involved in the game. Whereas Foakes might be technically better, but does he effect games as consistently as Burgess.

The one thing that I think the ECB never acknowledged regarding franchises was that in the other big competitions of the BBL & IPL, they actually increased the number of sides. They grew the game, and have fans a greater ability to see cricket. Whereas it’s the opposite for the Hundred. They removed the premier short format tournament in this country from large swathes.

Have always thought the inclusion of minor counties would be positive, potentially even Scotland, the Netherlands and Ireland. Create some variety, some new grounds, raise the profile of the sport. You can still pump money in, insist on family friendly atmospheres, ensure that games are short enough to be on free to air telly.

I saw someone say that getting out like that was exactly what 2022 Davies would have done. But to me, it was the shot of someone not up for the fight, who got bored of being patient and decided it was easier to start swinging despite it being obvious what would happen.
It’s the sort of thing you’d hope Robinson gets on top of immediately as, it’s hardly the attitude of a vice captain. Definitely not a droppable offence, but one where he probably needs a reminder of his responsibilities.

Is anyone else starting to worry about Rhodes place in the side? Not for the first time in the last couple of years, I’m getting the impression he’s only in the side because he’s captain, especially as he’s barely bowling now.

Looking at the forecast I don’t think we’ll find out the 11 tomorrow. It’s supposed to start raining around 10 and not stop until well into the afternoon.
It’s not that great any of the days really. Perhaps handy to take a draw off Surrey at this point and then play them without Foakes and Pope later in the year.

I think from memory of an interview he did, he wanted to play red ball, but as much as anything he didn’t want a white ball only deal which is what he was being offered. He said it was too early to specialise like that, and he didn’t know in the next year or 2 if he’d still have the franchise gigs he has now.
Whereas at least at Worcestershire he still has the ability to play red ball, he seems next in line, and he’s getting paid as a player that plays all formats.

Walker made a really interesting point about the bowling. “You can’t bowl like that on test match pitches. We bowled like at Canterbury, but on these pitches they just hammered the same spot again and again and got wickets, whilst we leaked both sides of the pitch”. Just a very interesting point. And it’s true, we struggled when we stopped doing that and started searching for wickets, bowling bouncers, going too straight.

A lot of chat from sour Kent fans complaining about the Bears celebrations. Rather pathetic in all honesty, they’d be the same group who would take the first chance to complain that people don’t care enough about the championship.

None of them noticing either than Burgess and Davies went straight up to the batsmen, before celebrating.

It did seem odd to come off for light with blue skies overhead. What I hope is that they haven’t jumped the gun and that affects tomorrow as they have to go by todays reading, and it’s supposed to be dry but overcast tomorrow.

But other than that perfect day. Don’t think anything went wrong apart from Mousley not getting his 100. Took every chance, bowled well, not too many overs in the bowlers legs. 9 wickets needed.

The software on the stream is better. But if you look around, some counties are realising that this is a great way to reach fans and even advertisers.
The commentary teams some counties have put together like Surrey have just announced, Lancashire have something similar with more elaborate production are very impressive. Other counties have brought in ex pro’s, journalists or even some bloggers specifically for stream commentary.
I think Lancashire do a beyond the boundary segment during lunch where they do interviews live or that they’ve filmed throughout the year.

An injury update would be good. And to be honest the communication and social media work from the club could improve across the board. If you look what other clubs produce weekly, we definitely seem to be lagging behind.

I think I’d still drop Mousley, because of the depth with Bethell potentially at 8, and Woakes a genuine all-rounder at this level I don’t think we’d miss the batting. Plus with the forecast predicting significant time lost again, I wonder if being able to take wickets quickly might be useful considering how the lower order held us up last week after a strong start in both innings.