Big first session this morning. Get those last 2 wickets quickly, and then try not to lose many early.
Need to take advantage. As I think yesterday showed, and Yadav commented on it too, the pitch got better for batting the longer into the day it got.

I do think Sidebottom will be gone in the winter, which is a shame as he’s the sort of player you need for squad depth. But I think his lack of playing this year has been fair.
They sent him to Derbyshire on loan for a few games, but he got quite badly injured after a game or 2 if I remember correctly. He’s been unavailable due to that injury, and rehabbing and getting match fitness recently I believe.

But it does make you question why the club struggle to keep and rotate depth properly. When compared to clubs like Surrey and Lancashire. They just seem to have better depth, especially in the bowling department, so can deal with injuries and unavailability.

I felt they were living a very charmed life to be honest.
A number of leading edges, mistimed shots, plays and misses. All those ones that after lunch led to wickets, they got lucky with after tea. Thought OHD had Gregory plumb too.

I think in the greater sense of things. If you were to say at the start of the day, Somerset would win the toss, choose to bat, lose the morning session to rain, and then be 180/8 at the close; we’d have all taken that.
Hopefully get the last 2 and keep them under 200 in the morning and then it’s about batting once and building a big lead.

What this innings has shown me so far is how if you actually sign test level, proven internationals as your overseas, they will make a difference.

And it does make you wonder whether we’d be in the same position if they’d signed 2 players of this ilk at the start of the season. And not 1 McAndrew.

There’s a few very one eyed commentators on the circuit, but this season this Somerset commentator is the worst I’ve heard.

So they do go with 2 spinners.
Brookes, OHD and Siraj plus Rhodes as the seamers.
I wonder if Somerset chose to bat so as not to have to bat 4th on a used pitch against 2 spinners. Because the overhead conditions suggest bowl first.

How did Norwell and Miles get injured? Norwell was playing second team last week and was fine. Miles played in the hundred with no issues. Seems very odd.

The treatment of Lamb has been shocking. First chance they had to drop him, Robinson couldn’t do it fast enough.

Guessing the surface will heavily dictate selection, and whether we go with 2 spinners.

Good to see Kent throwing themselves back into the relegation scrap.
Considering Kent have to play Hampshire you’d expect minimal points there. And then they’ve got Somerset so either way one or both of them drops points which suits the bears. They’ve really shot themselves in the foot here as a draw in this and they’d probably have been safe.

Interesting certain players aren’t playing.
I would have thought Davies, Briggs and Hain would be in, to get back into red ball. Whereas Burgess, Yates and OHD have been netting and been looking at red ball for a couple of weeks now.

I was wondering with the latest announcements that Woakes and Stone are touring with England, might we see them in any of the last 3 matches this season?

I think he’ll play instead of Briggs, but I’d play them together. This time of year, after a hot dry summer, it’s reasonable to think the pitches are going to be slow, take turn and deteriorate.
I’d drop a batsman, put Burgess at 6, trust Yadav and Briggs at 7 and 8, then have 5 bowlers plus Rhodes.

Would be OHD over Hain for me.
Or, left field option, despite him having a poor year, Briggs is a steady wise head, might be worth it for 3 matches.

I’d worry about Hain getting bogged down by the captaincy. And I’m not a fan of a keeper being captain as it’s a lot to keep, bat and captain. Your mind never gets a rest.

Is there anywhere for Giles to jump to now? He left for the ECB, but isn’t going back there. Not sure there’s another job in cricket that he’s qualified for, that he could get or that would pay as well.

Either way, the club needs someone that’s in it long term.

With the comments in the Dobell article, plus Rhodes’ great ally Farbrace leaving, will we see a new club captain for the rest of the year? Or will a new one be appointed next year?

Not sure the list of potential candidates is that long. But would say a lot about Robinsons thinking.
Think we can safely assume Moeen will be T20 captain next year too.

The article refers to a lot of off field success, some like Portland road is undeniable. Not entirely sure about the state of the academy; however I suspect that’s more a case of long term results.

Desperately disagree with the comment on T20 success this year. We achieved the exact same result as last year quarter final exit, but in a far more embarrassing fashion, and with far more money spent.

I have a feeling he might have stayed a year or two longer if it hadn’t been for the head butting and power struggle with Robinson. We will see who was driving the recruitment and player selection now though.

Am very intrigued as to the suggestion of a change in captaincy. Would that be Rhodes stepping down, or it removed? This season or from next? Would Rhodes stay after that? Who would be the successor?

Almost a case of more questions than answers following this news.

I’m not sure I’d be writing Johal off after one poor season.
I thought he was pretty good last year. Didn’t set the world alight but more than held his own and didn’t look out of place when in the first team.

I’d more ask, why have so many of our bowlers taken a step backwards.
You’d argue the only 2 that haven’t are Norwell and OHD. And Norwell hasn’t been available. It’s noticeable they’re the most experienced, so coaching probably has the least impact on them.

Is this the impact of the new bowling coach? Maybe a full off season is needed rather than the turning up after the start of the season. Hard to work on things during the season. Not ideal to not have a top bowling coach in the off season, and pretty poor by Robinson to push Welch out the door.

What do people think of the Barnard signing? I’ll admit to not having gone out of my way to watch much of him. But what I have seen, he looks reliable if not world beating.
I got the feeling he’s going to offer the consistency Bresnan sometimes lacked in his time with us. He’s probably not going to win many games single handedly, but will always contribute something. He seems to have had no fitness issues so far, which for our bowling attack is a big plus.

I think the point about the youngsters is very poignant. We have a lot of players who we’ve seen glimpses of potential, or been told how talented they are for a while but don’t seem to get the opportunity they would elsewhere. Now obviously they can’t all play at once, but to me it seems that Ethan Brookes, Johal, Garrett, Mousley, and Bethell are all in the exact same place they were 2 years ago when we first started seeing some of them. The only one to have really progressed is Yates, and that’s been stunted this year.
It’s too early to properly judge Smith, Shaikh and Maddy, but you don’t want the same stagnation of their progress.

GerryShedd wrote:

I am amazed by some of the negativity on here. We were short (by my count) of 15 players today, had two sixteen year olds and a seventeen year old and didn't quite win.
Overall, with the resources that we had I thought we did well to come so close to qualifying - but maybe I'm just a naive fool.
Anyway, here's my report:
https://deepextracover.com/2022/08/warwickshire-v-somerset-royal-london-one-day-cup-edgbaston-stadium/

I believe between England, The Hundred and Injury Somerset were down 16 players. Also considering that we had the club captain, a test opener, 2 very experienced bowlers on OHD and Norwell, plus a player touted for an England call up in Yates, (not even counting a seasoned pro in Lamb), experience was definitely on our side. We can point to young players, but their young players outperformed ours. An 18 year old scored 90 and was the backbone of their innings.
Also factor in they had nothing to play for and had lost all their games, it’s not a pretty picture. They just played better, and considering the 2 sides, that shouldn’t have been the case.

The batting without Pandya and Burgess was rather toothless. Just really lacked any drive. Happy to stack up dots, didn’t seem to be any impetus.
It’s easy to say we had 3 teenagers, but they didn’t do much. Their 18 year old scored 90, and was the backbone of their innings.
Think we go through without the injuries, so some bad luck involved too.

As a positive now there’s a longer rest period for Burgess to be fit for the championship, plus some time off for Norwell, OHD and Rhodes. Would be handy to get the players like Hain, Bethell, Davies who are at the bottom of the hundred table before the semis and get in the nets, rather than not be allowed to be released until after the final.

This season will now be defined by whether we stay up, but it’s hard not to be pessimistic. The club seems to have no long term cricketing plan, and there’s too many rumblings from behind the scenes, and established players leaving, to think it’s just nothing.

113 off 16 overs. Up at 7’s now.
I think we’re struggling to manipulate the field, would like to see us pushing into the gaps more and pressuring fielders. Instead we seem to think we can rely on boundaries, but we’re not hitting them.