Highveld wrote:

If a player qualifies for a British passport they are British, regardless of where they lived as a child.

Think this is true to an extent. But when those players have failed to make it as a pro in SA, one even captaining the SA U19’s I believe, that’s a different story than pitching up here because their parents moved.
I appreciate there are some serious political barriers to many of these players, but when did Warwickshire, or even county cricket become a charity to support young South African cricketers and address those issues?
What can’t be denied is that if these players are picked, local Warwickshire or English players who have lived their whole lives in this country lose out. Which undermines the academy system.
You might have a real gem on your hands; but you don’t know what players you have until you give them an opportunity, but that’s impossible to know if that opportunity is blocked.
And whether it’s a cliche or not, that opportunity should be prioritised for the player that’s come through the academy since he was 9 and has dreamed of this, not a player that would be just as happy at any of the other 17 counties, and is just as likely to walk away if he gets a better offer elsewhere.

When I saw Notts, Essex, Durham and Worcestershire, I wasn’t particularly optimistic.
But they got more wins in these first 10 matches than in the previous 2 seasons combined. So that’s a massive step forward.
Hopefully they can get Bresnan and OHD fit by September. Briggs back too. Get Malan re-signed and back in this form.
And anything can happen in just 4 matches and some momentum.

paulbear wrote:

How wonderful that yet again, the games will feature hardly any weekend cricket and a final that goes into October from Tuesday-Friday. Shows how much value is put on first-class cricket.

But look what happens when England get pumped in the Ashes down under. Everyone will be looking for an answer. It’ll be obvious, it’s on the ECB for mismanaging first class cricket, or the players for not performing.
But the ECB and their lap dogs like Root and Silverwood will come out and blame the counties and county cricket. They’re shameless.

This is the nonsense that the hundred created.
What the ECB fails to notice, acknowledge or god forbid correct, is that none of the other franchise competitions around the world endangers their own domestic FC or List A competitions.

I’ve even seen the ECB trying to take credit for the Pakistan series win, by saying it’s the culture. No, it’s counties producing world class players, playing in strong competitions.
How can they expect to win the World Cup again, when players won’t even be playing the format.

I think he and Rashid are similar in regards to being more effective in white ball, but for different reasons.
Rashid lacks patience, he can’t bowl 3 or 4 overs on the same spot with his stock ball. He wants to try things.
I think Lintott lacks the control to do so, which is just part of being a wrist spinner, but you can get away with it more in whit ball because as you say, players can’t wait, they just go at everything.

Agree Lamb and Yates have been good. Though I think we’re seeing why Lintott might be a white ball only phenomenon.

Briggs absence is definitely telling. Lintott in this match has just struggled to keep it tight enough for long enough to build the pressure necessary to take wickets in red ball cricket.
However, you’d think considering the state of the Durham game, the bonus points achieved here, and the growing likelihood of a draw, considering there’s going to be at least the best part of 2 innings needed in 1 day, on a pitch that’s had almost 600 runs for 16 wickets; division 1 seems to have been secured.
And that is a huge step forward, and I hope the many naysayers that regularly appear on Facebook and Twitter acknowledge that.

Seems the first day and the new ball are the best time to bat. It’s when Malan and Sibley, and Rhodes and Lamb did well. Mitchell and Libby looked set there too.
Now suddenly Libby got one that kept seriously low, and Yates turned one enough to get Fell.
I wonder if we’ll see any Sibley leg spin.

Let’s hope Lintott, and perhaps the occasional spin of Lamb, Sibley and Yates can do the job here.
It clearly started really turning for Sodhi, all but 2 wickets fell to spin.
Burgess got an absolute jaffer, pitched well outside leg, hit middle and off. Then balls later Lamb got one that did nothing. Hard to score big on a wicket like that, which means that great start, and batting first could be huge.

For Essex, I think it was all mathematical anyway. They needed a full bonus point win, plus both Durham and ourselves to only get 3 or 4 points each.
I can’t see them being awarded the win either. As in last year’s abandoned matches each side received 8 points for a draw plus any bonus points acquired.
In my mind, it’s now a case of matching Durhams points to qualify.

I assumed he’d been signed for the whole summer. Surely you sign him and say if you want to go back to SA during the 50 over comp then fine. But make sure you’re back ready to go for the red ball again in September.

Is this….is this what a top order partnership feels like? It’s been so very long, I can’t remember.

When you watch this, I start to think that our previous tactic of getting 4 down for 50 runs before lunch and hoping 5/6/7 can dig us out might have been misguided.

If one of these 2 could bat the day, and get 140+ that goes a long way to getting the result needed to get into group 1.

Derbyshire, unfortunately, look like they’re not going to put up much of a fight against Essex, However Notts haven’t got off to great start either.

For most of the players playing now that’s definitely true.

But as with all things the experts change their minds every couple of years, and now in the last few years the trend seems far more to be sticking to academy matches, school matches and men’s club cricket. Then slowly introduce them to second team cricket more gradually, when they’re around 16/17/18.
Otherwise it is literally men against boys, which I believe the most recent wisdom says is bad for development.

Anyone know what Mayers bowling is like?
If it’s on a par with Brathwaite then he can be counted as a bowler. If it’s more part time, they might have to drop Yates or Lamb to ensure they have 6 bowling options.

I feel like if they do get any play, with the amount of bowling injuries and absences we have, and the fact this is definitely going to be a draw. It would be better to declare, and let Lintott have a bowl. Potentially get Ethan Brookes back in too. Maybe even see if they’ll be allowed Bethell to come in and bowl.
Because they’ll need a spinner or 2 in the T20 and Chanpionship, so the more practice in match conditions the better. Plus Brookes seems to be the next man in line seam bowling wise.

So this comes down to getting a draw and then the bonus points now.
I think I’m right in saying that a draw and 6 bonus points is enough in basically every scenario.

It’s great if we qualify agreed.
But them winning basically guarantees their qualification. Which means they’ll have less to play for against Durham.
And it’s between 3 teams for 1 place, rather than 4 for 2.

Seeing Derbyshire collapse against Notts is very frustrating. Notts might get the win there, which would be inconvenient.
However, draw this and the next with a few bonus points, and it would be hard to see how we wouldn’t qualify.

I think getting in is key on this pitch. As they found early on, if batsmen het through the first 20 balls, wickets are hard to come by, but get 1 and it’s a very tough pitch to get started on.

We need to do what they did, bowl tight, make them fight for runs, and really bring down the run rate.
It’s fine if they bat for a session, because if they’re still below 100, then a couple of quick wickets really changes things.