paulbear wrote:

Davies appears to do the same with Simmons as Chopra used to do with Rankin, keep him kicking his heels for 40 overs and then decide to give him a 'Few' overs. By that time, the ball is softer, if you have pace, surely a harder ball is better to bowl with. I would love to see Simmons given the new ball just to see what sort of pace, bounce and trouble he can cause. Why have a genuine fast bowler and keep him back. No batsmen like high pace so why hold it back.

Could this be the explanation why Simmons was held back, because Westwood remembered Chopra doing the same with Rankin? Even so, it still seems odd that he was only given 9 overs to bowl in the entire match.

I think the team has an unbalanced look about it with Malik batting at 7, I would like to see Kai Smith back in at 7 and given another chance with the gloves on Friday. I also have a feeling that Rushworth will be in instead of Simmons. Quite why Simmons only bowled 9 overs out of 143.2 in the match only Davies can answer, but if he doesn't have faith in the youngster then why play him in the first place?

I have nothing against Davies, but i honestly believe Latham would be a much better choice as captain.

Oh Sam, what have you done there?

Yes, keep the faith - we can win this!

Hoping Hain can hang around for another couple of hours, he's due a big score today.

Good effort from the bowlers so far, although surprised to see Yates bowling ahead of Simmons - what's that all about? Surely your quickest bowler should either open the bowling or at least be first change bowler?

UrsaMinor wrote:

I believe Jacob Bethell may be coming home early with the IPL suspended. Can't see how he would get in the team at present!

Play him as a spin option and bat him at 8!

Whilst we are in a very strong position so far, we don't want to take up too many of the remaining 66 overs in the day.

I reckon we'll bat for another 10 overs and get as near as 550 as we can.

Great innings from Latham, and from Barnard too.

Confirmed on the YouTube commentary that Booth has a stress fracture of the ankle - not good.

Latham is a class act. Shame both Yates and Hain got out to leg-side swipes but we're still in a god position.

Webster in at 5 maybe?

Another really good opening partnership this morning, so far this season Yates seems to be playing the anchor role allowing Davies and the other batsmen to play their shots. It's working really well so far.

Looking forward to see Latham bat this afternoon, hopefully he'll still be there at tea.

I think the team for tomorrow will look something like this:

Yates
Davies
Latham
Hain
Malik or Mousley
Barnard
Webster
Smith
Bamber
OHD
Simmons or Taz Ali

An excellent performance by the Bears! Great batting today by Zen Malik after the openers got us off to a decent start, glad he got to bat until the finish with a nice 49 not out. Webster's great knock in the first innings was crucial to our lead, Bamber bowled excellently for his 9 wickets but my player of the match goes to Ed Barnard for his all-round contribution. 3 wickets in their first innings, another 3 in the second and 41 & 37 runs scored as well. He also came in to bat both times when we were in tricky positions, particularly in the first innings at 47 - 4. Superb stuff!

Hoping our openers can bat for an hour or so today, just to take the pressure off Shaikh & Malik. Should we lose an early wicket i do wonder if Mousley might be moved up to three, he did bat pretty well for his 32 on the first day.

What an excellent day of cricket for the Bears, a really great bowling performance and Yates & Davies surviving those awkward few overs at the end to boot.

170 to win tomorrow, all ten wickets in hand, a really strong batting line-up too - we have to be favourites to win this one.

Bamber and Barnard have bowled superbly in this match - 15 wickets between them.

All out - 185 to win!

Root gone! Surely we can mop up the tail now!

104 runs behind at tea, we really need to get Root out before the close of play tonight or we could be looking at a big total to chase in the fourth innings.

I still think Taz Ali should have been selected, it would have been interesting to see him bowling this afternoon. A bit of spin wouldn't go amiss right now, maybe give Yates a few overs to see what he can do?

Webster batted superbly this morning, just a pity the other batsmen didn't stick around a little bit longer. Slightly disappointed with a lead of 48, another 30 or 40 would have been useful. Still, we've got our noses in front.

Over to you, OHD, Bamber, Booth & Barnard.

The World Test Championship starts on Wednesday 11 June, so depending on when the Aussie squad meets up for that Webster's last game for us could be as early as 31 May when we play Durham in the Vitality Blast. We are scheduled to play 2 mores games in that competition on the 6 & 8 June but he could well be preparing for the WTC by then.

The West Indies tests are scheduled to start on 25 June & finish on 16 July, if he does come back after then he could play on 18 July against Derbyshire (VB) & on 22 July against Worcestershire (CC).