Davies could go out and kick his own stumps over first ball and not be dropped it seems.
What incentive is there for him to learn, improve and take responsibility?
I hope he learns and applies himself here, and scores some decent runs, but there’s limited reason for him or any player to change if their place is never under threat.

That is where the current format lets itself down.

The bears are unlucky that they play the 2 title contenders twice, and only play the 2 weakest teams, Glos and Kent, once.
It’s a distinct disadvantage.

I’d normally be thrilled, but after tea it’s worrying to see that the pitch is starting to show some inconsistent bounce. A fair few keeping low, it’ll make chasing anything over 250 very tough.

You’ve got to wonder what on earth has gone on behind the scenes.
Arguably the best bowling coach in the country left because he has issues with the head coach.
A team that was praised for its spirit this year, has struggled for it this year.
Players have gone backwards apart from the notable 3.
Players seem to be alienated by new signings and preferential treatment given to some.
New signings and overseas don’t produce.
Big name players are leaving or seem to be about to leave.
There have to be questions about Farbrace and Robinson and the captaincy.

Do we think Robinson is aware of the bowling weakness and is just happy excusing it as injuries, and living off last seasons success?
Or is he blissfully unaware of the inadequacy?

Because surely if he knew, he’d adapt the line up? Leave out Benjamin or Davies. Move Burgess up to 6 like most of last season. And have an extra bowler or someone like Ethan Brookes at 7, who can offer a batting and bowling option.

Because currently in what should be very helpful conditions. Our seam attack looks incredibly placid. With limited options because Rhodes really isn’t a 4th seamer, and all the batsmen that can bowl, bowl spin. Rather unhelpful on a greenish pitch, on a damp, overcast day.

Hopefully we use the conditions early and try force the result. But with our bowling, that’s very optimistic.

We’re a 3 man team, Hain, Burgess and OHD.
Anyone else that has a score has done it on the flattest of decks, Hain and Burgess have done it consistently in tough situations. But that first innings shows how fragile that is, Hain did well, but Burgess got a top ball early, they happen. So if 1 fails, you can’t post a good score. Same thing the other way round, we’ve seen Hain not get a score and Burgess has got a score but batting with the tail, and you’re left to wonder what would have happened if he’d been able to have a partnership with a batsman not just OHD, McAndrew and Briggs.

OHD has bowled superbly with no support, and it’s ridiculous that a club of this size, basically has 1 fit top quality bowler. He can’t take 6 wickets every innings, and that almost what’s needed currently.

Anyone else watch today and wonder why on earth Miles and Brookes are playing when Norwell and Stone have both bowled over 20 overs each in a second XI match?

Some of that bowling was shocking. A couple from Miles sprayed short and wide would be shocking from an amateur, let alone a professional player. Kent went and got Matt Henry back, we’ve done absolutely nothing to improve our bowling.

It’s easy to blame the batting often because it’s more obvious, but I still feel that the bowling is by far the bigger issue in this side.

I’d argue we’re a better batting side but they’ve made it much more difficult because we’re carrying a couple of senior players as passengers which makes the line up much more fragile.
We’ve got Benjamin and Mousley trying to establish themselves, and every side has a player or 2 like that in their lineup. And they should be supported by 5 senior batsmen.
Hain and Burgess have been superb. Sibley has had his moments. But Davies and Rhodes are total passengers, who won’t be dropped no matter what.

I’m not sure what to make of this pitch.
Seems to be offering plenty to the bowlers, and seems like it’s difficult to get in, and wickets fall in clusters but once a player has got in, they can score runs.

Rhodes’ dismissal was a shame as he was set and careless. Mousley then chased one and Burgess seemed to get very good ball early.

And doesn’t this sum up our bowling perfectly….. OHD smashing it. No threat from anyone else.
Just need to take advantage now and put themselves in a position where they are complete control.

Interesting that Ricardo Vasconcelos has stepped down as the Northants skipper in order to “concentrate on his own performances”.
Despite Northants being 8 points above us having played a game less.

From the sounds of it there was a huge negative effect from the start of the season.
By all accounts there has been a big split in the squad, with some players as you correctly pointed out, being favourites, getting priority in terms of training for different formats and are allowed to underperform with no threat of reprisal.

I’m assuming by the fact that Garrett is playing, but no Craig Miles means Miles is either playing tomorrow or injured.

Very optimistic thinking from me. But I do hope they just give Norwell and Stone, 10-15 overs each today just as a fitness check, and then let them play against Kent tomorrow. Suspect that’s more likely for Norwell than Stone. As the noise has always been that Stone probably won’t play any championship cricket this season at all. But it would be great if he did, proves his fitness and the club come to their senses and offer him a full contract and keep him.

Tough on Lamb if he is dropped, but not unsurprising as despite his season average being good, his last 3 or 4 matches have been poor. And we all suspected he was probably the most vulnerable going into the season, the management clearly have their favourites and he isn’t one of them. Strikes me more as them taking the opportunity to drop him as always planned. His early season form was probably inconvenient to the plans of those behind the scenes.

I have a feeling he was just using Warwickshire as a way of improving his price.
I have also heard that Davies was towards the bottom of the table in terms of popularity within that Lancashire dressing room, part of the reason the club had no problem with letting him go, so I’m not sure we can expect too many Lancs players wanting to share a dressing room with him again any time soon.

It definitely seems like the umpires made an “assumption” in terms of what they thought would happen if it were a normal ball.
Obviously in that situation a team would never go for a second run. But there seems to have been some naivety in not letting the whole thing play out then signalling.
I wondered at the time if they just wanted to signal and get off, as I’m sure they’d have been glad Hampshire won after the no ball signal on the original final ball.

Got to massively disagree on Banton being of value to the red ball side.
Averages less than 24, no FC century, is regularly dropped by Somerset, but keeps wanting to play red ball.
I think all our batsmen other than Hose average more than that in FC cricket. And he’s nowhere near as good a keeper as Burgess or Davies.
He repeatedly couldn’t get it done at international level.
But he definitely performs in domestic T20 around the world. He’d be a replacement for Hose in terms of T20 batting. But in theory you could say that’s what Moeen would be there for. Banton also averages less in T20 than Hose.
So if he’s coming for white ball only then fair enough, but if he’s coming on a full contract then I think my point still stands. Why not offer than to Hose? He’d be cheaper and just had a great year in T20.

It was an excellent day.
However the controversy of the final result will rumble on a bit. Lancashire never should have let it get to that, they should have coasted, but still think the umpires made a couple of key mistakes in that last ball.

If it were to happen I suspect it would be a direct replacement for Hose. However, I know Banton has been trying to play red ball for Somerset. And I wonder if he’d come on a white ball only contract, because if he was on a full contract, you wonder why they wouldn’t just offer that to Hose?

If the rumours are true that he couldn’t stand Robinson and that he didn’t want to work with him anymore, that is really damning for Robinson considering the results this year.
Welch leaves and they’ve gone backwards in the championship with the bowling clearly worse; and arguably worse in T20 as they lost in the QF’s again, but got humiliated and after they clearly prioritised the T20 this year and spent all that money on Davies, Brathwaite, Stirling, Lintott and had Stone available.