At the moment Durham, Lancs, ourselves & Northants have 28 points, Leics & Notts have 24. Lancs currently look as though they will lose to Yorks.

Durham, Lancs & Leics have 3 games to play, ourselves, Northants & Notts have 2.

To play::

Durham: Lancs A, Leics H, Northants H

Lancs: Durham H, Yorks A, Notts A

Bears: Northants H, Derbys A

Northants: Bears A, Durham A

Leics: Worcs A, Durham A, Yorks H

Notts: Worcs A, Lancs H

Notts have just beaten Durham - that puts them 4 points behind us with two games to play. On the other hand it keeps us on the same points as Durham, although they have a game in hand.

Northants win as well, puts them level on points with us. Tasty game coming up on Sunday!

I think Bethell will come in for Miles or Gleeson (if he needs a rest again) - possible team:

Davies
Latham
Mousley
Hain
Bethell
Barnard
Yates
Garton
H Ali
Briggs
Gleeson/Miles

Exiled Bear wrote:

Bethell is back in the squad!

Davies
H Ali
Barnard
Bethell
Briggs
Garton
Gleeson
Hain
Latham
Lintott
Miles
Mousley
Smith
Yates

And no Moeen Ali! It's starting to look like a really decent squad we have now for the Blast.

ITE7376 wrote:

Devon_Bear wrote:
. Why they think he's better off sitting in the pavilion kicking his heels for 5 days instead of playing for his county side i do not know.

What, you don't think he will grow as a cricketer and, indeed, as a man, just having the chance to be around the stardust-sprinkled charisma, leadership and tactical nous of England's Talismanic Captain, Ben Stokes?

Maybe young Bethell can practice sitting on the balcony in his shades, putting his feet up and looking totally disinterested in the play that's going on in front of him.

Surely Bethell could be released to play for us tomorrow & Sunday? Also, unless Pope fails miserably in the current test, i just can't see how Bethell is going to get picked for the England team this series unless someone gets injured. Why they think he's better off sitting in the pavilion kicking his heels for 5 days instead of playing for his county side i do not know.

A really excellent performance last night. What i noticed was there was a real togetherness about the team, a real determination in the batting, bowling & fielding - it was great to see. Mousley, Hain & Barnard were superb with the bat, while Garton's first two overs were incredible - getting rid of their three most dangerous batsmen in 12 deliveries.

Hopefully we can take this performance into tomorrow night's match at Worcester, 2 more wins should put us through to the quarters.

TEAM:

Alex Davies (c), (wk),
Tom Latham
Dan Mousley
Sam Hain
Ed Barnard
Rob Yates
George Garton
Hassan Ali
Craig Miles
Richard Gleeson
Danny Briggs

In terms of our younger players, apart from Kai Smith, they are just not given a fair run in the team. As soon as an overseas player or an experienced player are fit again, the youngster is always the one to drop out.

Look at Taz Ali. I thought he showed real promise in our first two games of the season, first up against Sussex taking 3 wickets in their first innings and another in the second. In our second match he took 4-66 in the first innings against Durham. Both these games were played on pitches that didn't give much help to the spinner, yet i thought he bowled well in both matches. We had a good start in our first 2 games, winning one & drawing the other, but in our third game of the season we played Notts and Taz was left out to accommodate the return of OHD. Fair enough, but why not drop Fernando who was unimpressive in the first two matches and a complete waste of money for the 3 matches he played in. As soon as he departed then Beau Webster came in, so what chance does Taz have in a team that doesn't commit to playing it's youngsters for more than 2 matches at a time?

As for Che Simmons, what is the point of picking our quickest bowler and then waiting until 2.30 to bowl him? What is the plan here? What must Che be thinking? I bet he would love to open the bowling or at least be first-change bowler. I find it hard to believe they even think about picking crocks like Rushworth over Simmons. It wouldn't be so bad if we were challenging for the championship but we're not, we are a mid-table team so give the youngsters a run in the team for the last 5 matches of the season. If they prove their worth then great, but even if they don't it would still be good to see Westwood showing some faith in them and at least give them a chance.

A disappointing result today, although we gave it a good go in the chase. Ultimately, Mousley's 2 overs for 31 cost us in the end.

A strange looking team selection today, with Yates batting at 6. He's hardly the type of player to come in and smash a few sixes about, is he? We'd be better off with Hassan Ali coming in at 6, or Davies dropping down the order.

Weather forecast is for rain this afternoon in Durham, hopefully we'll get some cricket.

Lintott back in for Garton or Yates maybe?

GerryShedd wrote:

Surrey are supporting the retention of a 14 match County Championship but will be voting for a reduction in T20 Blast games.
They say of the County Championship: "We have seen crowds double in just five years here at the Kia Oval and huge numbers of younger fans come through the gates and learn to love the format." That's not something that Warwickshire could say.
https://www.kiaoval.com/statement-on-the-domestic-schedule/

What are our attendance stats for the cc games at home this season, do you happen to know? Are they down on the 2021 season or are they more or less the same?

I think Mousley has great potential, i would certainly select him over Malik for the remaining CC matches. Potentially, they both could play although it would probably mean leaving out Smith and letting Davies take the gloves.

It was an excellent performance last night, some good bowling and sensible batting in the run chase. Young Mousley played a couple of streaky shots early on, but settled down to play a disciplined innings. There's no doubt batting with Hain was a big factor in his this. I would like to see Mousley bat at 5 in the CC, batting in between Hain at 4 & Barnard at 6 would help him no end. I would really like to see him selected for all the remaining CC games this season, he needs a decent run of games instead of playing 2 or 3 & then getting dropped.

Gleeson in for Lintott maybe?

Davies
Latham
Mousley
Hain
Moeen Ali
Barnard
Smith
Garton
Hasan Ali
Briggs
Gleeson

Our next 3 games are against teams directly above us in the table - Leicestershire, Durham & Lancs. I reckon we need to win at least two of these matches to stay in touch with the top 4., a couple of defeats and we could be out of it. As for the team, i think we'll stick with the 11 who beat Worcs a couple of weeks ago.

So what is Sussex's plan for the rest of the day? Carry on plodding along until they get a lead of 200? Or do they play a few shots after tea, get a lead of around 175 and then have half-an-hour to bowl at us tonight?

Highveld wrote:

Concussion subs are allowed, for a like for like, player, in some competitions, but some sides and countries have blatently abused this rule.

As Rushworth has, another, leg injury, it's unlikely his brain is concussed!

Ha! Mind you, whoever assessed his fitness for this match might have had their brain concussed!

Highveld wrote:

No, Laws of the game and playing conditions allow a sub fielder only.

I thought there was a rule that, if both captains and the umpires agreed, then a replacement for an injured player would be ok. Is that not the case or is it only a certain criteria that applies in these cases?

Are we not allowed a replacement for the injured Rushworth?