Seems like a bizarre decision to include Tongue ahead of Woakes, to me.

Well at least we haven’t yet collapsed in the second innings as I expected us to. The turn that Critchley and Harmer are getting is worrying though!

It’s ok, this is all a tactic so that we’ll be able to bowl last on this pitch - get bowled out cheaply, follow on, get a lead and then skittle them…..

Wouldn’t surprise me if they select him for the Lord’s test, given his record there. Not sure how that would affect his Blast availability though.

Hassan for Brookes the only change? Win this and we must be almost guaranteed qualification and a home quarter final

Yeah unfortunately I just have no faith in Brookes at the moment. Even when they needed 24 from 4 balls I thought he would bowl a full toss above waist height that would be hit for six, and then we’d lose. Fortunately we scraped over the line but that might not happen next time.

You’re probably right, I was only half watching! Either way, it’s not great

A weird innings. Some big overs but quite a few with very few runs as well.

On a separate point, we need to get much better at leaving the ball when it’s wide. Could probably have had another 5 runs if we did, there were two in the last over alone that would have been wide if left.

Benjamin continues to look horribly out of form. Only one run off the last over of the powerplay, atrocious

(Hoping this anti-jinxes him)

paulbear wrote:

Nothing worse than seeing a side scrape into the quarters and get to finals day and win it.

I dunno, I enjoyed it quite a bit when we did it 😁

I think a return to one division would be a huge backward step as by the halfway point in the season most matches would be meaningless. If there’s nothing to play for then the players aren’t going to play with the same intensity, thus the matches are more likely to be boring.

There were many potential turning points (as there always is in a test match) but bowing 23 no balls is unforgivable.

Let’s not forget Briggs at the end there as well - that six off the last ball of the penultimate over took a huge amount of pressure off the last over.

…and he has now been called up by Pakistan. He leaves on 3rd July. I wonder if we’ll try to get a replacement, as we’ll miss him in the championship unless Norwell is fit soon.

That’s a good win. Didn’t realise that we hadn’t won there since 2017!

England 3-2. Can’t see there being any drawn tests unless the weather intervenes.

Lumley598 wrote:

mad wrote:

Yes we might not finish in the top two now

There's still a lot of cricket to be played yet, Warks have a game in hand on Surrey and the immediate teams below us. 32 points behind with 8 games left is going to be difficult to make up but not impossible.

Agreed. I think we’re still in a good position for second at least, and the game at the Oval may end up being important as well. The weather could also have an impact at any stage.

This feels like a potentially huge turning point in the season

No protection for the bowlers run-ups seems “convenient”

Looking at the radar, I think that could be it for the day. A big thunderstorm moving in