I think Thomason was his own worst enemy though. By all accounts Gillespie at Sussex, was not a fan of him because he didn't want to put in the work be it in the nets or on his own fitness. Which were the rumours here when he was released. Liked the lifestyle, not the work, which is why he seemed so much better in the shorter formats.
I suspect with Brookes, it's a case of working on his batting more than his bowling, and that he'll find that natural balance as he gets older.

ajones1328 wrote:

Was looking forward to watch but the stream provided by the club is abysmal compared to Notts, it seems worse than against Derbyshire.

I only watched the first hour did it improve I.e did the camera show the ball once it left the bat ?

No it was fairly poor all day. At times it simply froze, the sound quality was not good, replays didn’t actually show what happened.
It has definitely taken a backwards step since Derbyshire. Against Derbyshire, it wasn’t as good as Notts’, but it was more than passable. Not sure why it’s worse.

After our excellent catching in the last 2 matches, 2 catches down in the slips in this match is annoying.

Anyone else finding the audio quality on the stream is very poor? Or have my laptop speakers given up on me?

interesting we're going in with a batsman less. Has Bresnans display, given them confidence that he can be a true all-rounder? Do they think the tail with Miles, Stone and Briggs is stronger than before? Do they think Vihari will step up this time? Or is it about conditions, and they think it's going to be easier to bat?

For me, I'd have still gone with the extra batsman, but only time with tell.

Only that Sibley is definitely out for the next 2 matches.

I think Stone will be left out on ECB orders. They’ll be controlling the number of overs he bowls. Which suits us reasonably well as it allows us to manager Norwell too.

If Malan does have a visa now and can get tested etc in time he has to come in. If not, Mousley in for Sibley. Go with more batting again until the pitches start to get flatter.

Absolutely superb result.
What this match has highlighted to me is that above all else I really enjoy that the people that contribute to this forum are people that have some humility, perspective, and enjoy polite, reasoned discussion about cricket.
Whereas I hope the naysayers and doom mongers on the Facebook posts that the club put up are now just as willing to eat their words and be as positive about the team when they do well, as they are negative when it’s not so great.

The shame of this, no matter how it does turn out, if we’d had Sibley, and Vihari or Yates had stuck around in some way, I most definitely believe we would have won this comfortably. Just like 2019 build a platform let Burgess and Lamb go finish it.

I honestly don’t know anything about the Indian central contracting system. But English centrally contracted players get paid when in the Big Bash or IPL by their franchise. So I’d expect the same for an Indian playing over here for a county.

On the Vihari matter, I do feel that he’s in an impossible situation regarding succeeding for the team. He was never going to do well this match. He’s not going to determine the long term success of the side. Overall whatever he does it’ll only be 3 games.
From a personal and Indian standpoint however, this is a great success no matter what. He’s going to get 6 innings, obviously he’d prefer to score runs, but it’s more about getting used to English conditions. Facing Broad is a bonus so he has some exposure in English conditions.
Do I blame him, not at all, but I get the feeling the club were so desperate they’ve allowed themselves to be used.

Can think of at least 3 LBWs other than Rhodes’ in this match where the umpires seem much keener to raise the finger than I would like. 2 of these are Notts wickets. Seems the benefit of the doubt is going to the bowler whereas I was always taught the other way round.

**ajones1328

This is spot on...the batting needs to change/improve but who would you take out? Lamb was decent last game..Hain this one. Yates will open now Sibley is injured.

I think Highveld is right, I think a short term overseas is nearing pointless. If Malan is actually coming they should have picked Mousley or Hose for these games, and created true competition for places which I don’t think there really is batting wise. What changes can you make?
Rhodes - captain, can’t drop him.
Yates - only other opener left, so can’t drop him.
Hain - just scored 70 can’t drop him
Vihari - you can’t drop your overseas you’ve paid huge money for.
Lamb- just scored 50 can’t drop him.

So you’ve got your top 5 of underperforming players who are basically undroppable. Of the English players, they’ll all come under pressure at some point, get a score to buy themselves some time and the cycle will repeat itself.

If you don’t count Sibley who I suspect we won’t see again for a while this season, of all our English batsmen there’s only 3 who average over 30 in first class cricket: Rhodes 36, Hain 35 and Burgess 35. That means you’re hugely reliant on your overseas performing all season, which is unlikely considering he’s only here for 3 matches.

Streetly_Bear wrote:

When I first became a member we had Tim Ambrose, Rikki Clarke, Jeets, Keith Barker and Chris Wright. All of those could (and did) contribute to runs. We miss that so much.

But I think those roles did contribute today. Briggs, Burgess and Bresnan scored almost 90 runs combined, not enormous but when you think the top 5 batsmen combined scored 100. That’s a decent contribution.
I think we’re looking at this wrong. It can’t be acceptable for the top 5 to score 100 runs, but also the bowlers can’t allow a side to escape from 119-6 to 273.
Same as last year, the top 5 need to put big scores on the board and the bowlers need to finish teams off.
Could Burgess and Bresnan have got more, sure, but Bresnan got a good ball and I think Burgess got a poor decision. Either way we’re back in the same place we were last year. Wondering why the keeper and all rounder can’t save us, yet we’re chasing 75 more than we should and the batsmen only get a decent score once every 5 or 6 games, enough to keep their place but not enough to help us win.

Bald_Reynard wrote:

BristolBear wrote:

I think what we’ve seen so far in both matches is that, we get starts but don’t go on. That’s mental, and I’d hope Trott will help with that.
In tough conditions, Derbyshire batsmen were getting 60/70 when in. We got 20 odd and only Lamb got 50.
Today Hain should have gone on to 100. Can’t expect more from Briggs. But Yates, Vihari and Lamb all out for low scores and average shots. Rhodes the only one who can say he’s unlucky starting again the next day and got a good one from Broad.

Has JT now got a Coaching role at Edgbaston ? I'm not doubting you, but I haven't seen it announced anywhere. I mean, great, if its happened. Long overdue - (poor old) Frosty has struggled with the Batting Coaching needs for far too long now. Great bloke, but a better Groundsman imo. The standard of batting technique of so many players over the the last couple of seasons, clearly needs a beefed up Coaching set up in that area, as far as I can see. JT has both the technical knowledge and the mental discipline skills that could be invaluable to the team.

They confirmed it on the radio commentary, Frost is still the batting coach, but Trott is working as a batting consultant.

Shame is ended as rapidly as it did. Bresnan got an absolute snorter, and I’m not convinced Burgess got a great decision.
Annoying that we finally play 7 batsmen and one of them gets injured.

I think what we’ve seen so far in both matches is that, we get starts but don’t go on. That’s mental, and I’d hope Trott will help with that.
In tough conditions, Derbyshire batsmen were getting 60/70 when in. We got 20 odd and only Lamb got 50.
Today Hain should have gone on to 100. Can’t expect more from Briggs. But Yates, Vihari and Lamb all out for low scores and average shots. Rhodes the only one who can say he’s unlucky starting again the next day and got a good one from Broad.

Here we go again..... still no Sibley too.

Anyone know why Sibley isn’t batting?

This has definitely been our problem the last 2 or 3 years, a lack of killer instinct. Get in a good position and let sides get 50-100 runs too many. Or collapsing and let sides back into games by scoring 50-100 runs too few.