I'm hoping to attend for the first time this season (for a Warwickshire match) tomorrow, and it's also the first time in a while that I'll have been without being a member. Does anyone know if it's cheaper to buy a ticket in advance or if it's the same price on the gate?

In fairness to Barnard, he is averaging 37.75 with the bat, which is third best for us if you don't include Lintott and Maxwell who only played one game. And he's got a wicket today!

mad wrote:

Interestingly from one of Maxwell's comments in that BBC comms piece it does appear to be the case that they sounded him out about possibly playing in the Essex County Championship game - the one that followed the Blast away games at Durham, Yorkshire and then the Friday night Bears v Pears derby.

Slightly disappointing to hear he rebuffed the idea - seems to suggest he's gone "no chance am I playing a short game Tuesday, Thursday & Friday and then a proper game Sunday to Wednesday".

Was that before he got pulled out of the Hundred? I can understand him not wanting to potentially jeopardise his presumably well paid contract by getting injured. It sounds like he was keen to play against Kent.

I'd be happy to have him back next season, and it sounds like he enjoyed his time with us. I know he wasn't at his best with the bat but he seems to have made a very good impression off the field. Interesting to hear him say that he doesn't like the sound effect that gets played when someone from the opposition bowls a wide!

A shame Essex won today but otherwise a pretty good set of results with the other three matches drawn.

Now we just need to hope that Notts can at the very least get a draw against Surrey and we’re very much back in the title race

Another superb day. Let’s hope that this one doesn’t go the same way as the Notts game, though we’ve got a lot more time than we did then.

The rain tomorrow looks like it is going to be fairly patchy and light, so hopefully we will be able to get a decent chunk of play in if we’re lucky.

Or you could have both group winners automatically qualifying for finals day, 3rd and 4th play each other from the other group, then the winner of those two matches play 2nd place for a spot at finals day. Really incentivises finishing top then. Keeps the same number of matches as now too

The issue is that if he was needed by England today, then he should have been needed yesterday as well. It’s also the inconsistency - we all know that if it was the other way round and Woakes wasn’t playing for England, that he wouldn’t have been able to play for us. I know woakes has a central contract, but that shouldn’t make a difference in this situation really.

BristolBear wrote:

Andy wrote:

Hose and Burgess played in previous seasons and previous quarter finals losses so what are you saying here averages aside? What are their strike rates like?

I think when you consider the international call ups we've had to contend with and then injuries I think it's been a great effort to make the quarter finals.

I'll make more comment on tonight's game later, my mind is scrambled!

Just that we have a lot of players who are very inconsistent and seem to be getting by on reputation rather than performance. And in knock out matches inconsistency is what kills you.

In regards to international call ups, didn’t we all agree we were better without Moeen? Now we’re using it as an excuse. We never have Woakes, we have accepted that same as Durham don’t have Wood and Stokes. Worcestershire don’t have Tongue. Yorkshire don’t have Root, Bairstow and Brook. It’s part of the game.
Same with injuries, every side has them. We have one of the biggest squads, we should be able to deal with it.
We need to rethink a couple of places in that batting line up. Benjamin is probably the most vulnerable.

Most of those are expected international call-ups though, which you can plan for. I don’t think the impact of Hassan’s unexpected call-up can be overstated. I think without that, we make finals day. Our pace bowling attack has definitely been our weakness this season and needs to be addressed.

Ultimately, as others have said, we have been shafted by the format of the competition where you could win 14 out of 15 games and not make it to finals day. I know that we benefitted from this in 2014, but that doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t change.

“Dan left the field on Sunday and didn’t return after getting struck on the right hand whilst bowling,” said Larsen.

“He required stitches between the webbing of his ring finger and little finger and will be closely monitored by our medical team. We remain optimistic about his availability for Thursday’s quarter-final.“

Doesn’t sound like it’s certain for Mousley.

Mousley split the webbing according to Rhodes.

I think with Worcestershire and Durham tying and Lancashire being washed out, we are guaranteed a home quarter final no matter what happens here…

Will we be helped or hindered by DL here? It’ll reduce the number of runs needed but also increase the RRR

Yep, same umpire and I’m certain that wasn’t out. Literally the ball before we saw how much it’s swinging, and it’s hit him outside leg stump. Very poor call.

Fair point. Hales was out by that point though. Anyway, going much better now

Why not give Mousley or Maxwell a go though, as we have in other matches? They’ve usually been successful in the powerplay

Why is Brookes bowling two overs in the powerplay?! Ok, he got a wicket but he has consistently shown that he can’t bowl 6 good balls in a row.

In fairness, I think the club have been ahead of other clubs on the diversity and inclusivity front for a few years now. I’m sure there’s more that could be done though.

It’s a bit frustrating, as it seems like we weren’t far off being in a winning position. 50 more runs in the first innings, or 50 less for them and we’d have had a shout.