I just hope we pick a balanced side for the first time in a while.
Can’t keep going in a bowler light, it’s been a classic Robinson approach. Uses the injuries to avoid making the hard decision which batsman misses out (or the personally inconvenient one) but makes the side weaker.

The death bowling killed us.
So often you see it. The other side were expecting a sub-200 score. Suddenly they’re defending 250. Their tails are up, we’re having to reconsider how we’re going to play.

Even with that touch, a combined score of 30 from the top 4 is abysmal, 37 combined from 6 of the top 7 is just never going to win a match.
Burgess the only batter who can come out with any pride.

See this as less of choke or a bottle. Glamorgan were a side basically at full strength. The likes of Northeast, Ingram, Van der Gugten, Gorvin, Douthwaite.

Superb work.
Thought we were toast when Rhodes barbecued Burgess.

Great knock from Smith.
Time for a rematch with Glamorgan.

This is where the decisions of Benjamin and Smith are going to hurt us.
Hayes and Moore’s know they should just go along at 2/3 an over and put away the occasional bad ball. That’ll mean they’re in it with 5 to go. Make us get them out, instead of giving it away.
Whereas Benjamin and Smith didn’t just bat and put runs on the board.

Par score is 81.
Plus they’ve faced 10 overs. So if they didn’t come back on, we would win.

There’s definitely plenty in it for the bowlers.
The spinners seem to be benefitting from the batsmen being unsure if it’s going to grip or skid on.

Bit unlucky with the dismissals of Malik and Rhodes. Thought Barnard and Burgess got good balls.
Benjamin and Smith need to have a good look at themselves. Stupid decisions that showed a lack of maturity, or not interested in buckling down and doing the hard work.

Welcome to county cricket Zen Malik. You’ll get plenty more of those sort of decisions if you have a long career.

I’m hoping this pitch turns out like the pitches early in the year. Too slow to be a good bowling track, but there’s already been some movement off the pitch and some inconsistent bounce.

He’s back again. For all the remaining ODC and county championship matches.
Was pretty handy before and it’s better than nothing.

I do think out grounds are a good thing. Spread it around the county. Most counties do it now, and it’s a really good way of getting youngsters into it.

The point about the pitches and the facilities are relevant though.
Most clubs have 1 place they go; where they know it’ll be up to standard: Kidderminster, Beckenham, Guildford, Cheltenham, Newport, Scarborough.
That being said there are some shockers too, Merchant Taylor’s for Middlesex is awful, Notts had 1 a few years ago that was pretty poor too.
Most clubs seemed to have realised now that they need to put on a decent provision.
And that they need to provide help in regards to the square, sending groundsmen to assist and provide advice, rather than just leave it to chance.

They did bowl well. But just looking at the wickets and when they fall, for both teams. It’s definitely a case of you can’t trust the pace of the wicket. Mostly when batsmen seem to try and play a more aggressive shot or try force the ball into a gap, they get the timing slightly wrong.
And that’s exactly what you’d expect for a wicket used twice, a bit tired, not as much pace, a bit dry too.

I’d put it this way. You know it’s not a batting wicket, when on a small ground, on a hot summers day perfect batting conditions, the visiting team would rather bowl first than put a score on the board.
It just looks like a pitch where it’s not coming on.

Such a shame. He had all the tools to be a considered a Warwickshire great. He had some great spells in him, and stepped up in the big moments. From what I’ve heard, this could very well be it in terms of career, but you never know, I hope that’s not the case.

Hopefully the club go out and recruit hard now. See if we can get a big performer in red ball.

Did it not start like that for most streams, people had to sign up to access it?
Then it moved to YouTube for ease, primarily due to away fans.
But if it meant not having to pay, I’d rather sign up to 9 other counties streams and have them have my email and details, so they can claim greater revenue from advertising.

Think what most counties need to remember is that if they’re making people pay, for most counties the quality needs to be higher than it is currently.
At the moment, if the commentary is rubbish, the camera angle is poor, the picture is grainy, the sound is out of sync or the feed drops out, most people think “it’s free what do you expect”. But if you’re paying for it, that attitude changes, and there’ll be expectations that cost money.

Not to dismiss the talent that Shaikh is, and a number of others in that squad. But if you’re not first choice for your county, you shouldn’t be playing for the lions (let alone the full England team).
So many under 19’s there, I’m assuming in part due to the fact that the ECB can only take so many players away from the counties right now.

I think this season is the perfect representation of what a few of us have been saying for some time.
The club is definitely tilted towards white ball. The depth of players in those competitions is clear to see. We have a 1 day team with 5 batsmen who would arguably be playing T20 at another county. So whilst the results in white ball have been good so far, it is definitely at the expense of the championship team.

We’re a bit thin on the ground for bowlers, which is in part due to the fact our recruitment has concentrated on white ball specialists who either aren’t effective in the red ball or who don’t play it at all. Which has left a heavy burden on the rest of the bowlers who are unfortunately for the most part an aging and injury prone group. Plus the well known overseas issues we’ve had. Which all has resulted in the number of injuries we’ve seen.

The batting is an interesting one. I think the averages are a bit misleading, not just for us but across the entire country. There’s a number of top order players who’ve got highly exaggerated averages because they scored huge runs in the first 2 rounds playing with the kookaburra on slow pitches. Other batsmen didn’t get a chance.
Apart from one absolute shocker, we’ve been less prone to collapse, and have set up winning positions the bowlers couldn’t take advantage of. We are still prone to being 40 or 50 for 3 though.
The backend of the season decides whether it’s a successful season, staying up and winning a white ball trophy can be considered success.
Just escaping relegation and not winning anything is a failure. Simply because you can’t build a team like this for 3 years and not win anything, especially when you’ve decided not to strengthen a championship winning side in order to concentrate on T20.

It was going to be a real 50:50 shootout if we played, and you never know sometimes with DLS you can get a stinker of a score for no apparent reason. So in the end, taking the point and remaining undefeated isn’t too bad.

Net run rate will be huge if both teams don’t lose again. But both teams still have to play Yorkshire, they have Leicestershire and we have Notts.

Fisher probably suits Surrey because he can be rested and rotated better.
But a seamer of that calibre should be high on the list.

Who’s reporting Benjamin to Kent?

I’ll never turn down the signing of a promising player. But I’m not sure, another fringe batsman trying to break into the side is the best use of resources.
Yes, Rhodes is leaving. But with the likes of Benjamin, Shaikh, Wylie, Khan and Smith, already part of the squad and not playing in the championship, I think I’d prefer the club to concentrate on top quality bowling options.
Seen reports today that Surrey will be signing Matt Fisher from Yorkshire. Not sure why we wouldn’t pursue a player like they.

Agree about Bristol.
It’s a ground that had lots of potential but the thought and planning seems to be very disconnected and haphazard. Lost the charm it once had.

Not sure this pitch is what either side expected.
Definitely seems like it’s one you need to get yourself in on. Then you can accelerate.