Hands shaken. No play 'possible'. Nice early finish for the players.

Clive Eakin on commentary doing his best Darth Vadar impressions again.

Once again the ODC produced a close finish. I reckon this competition has had much more last ball drama than the 16.4.
It's a shame the competition and the showpiece final is not promoted by the ECB. It is proper cricket and needs to be cherished.
Well done to Leicestershire, a great county who deserve the trophy.

We got over the line and it provided a tense finish. Burgess got us out of jail from 24/5. Credit due to Northants who bowled well and exposed our batting frailties.
But.... it was struggle against the worst team in the division who were missing some players. The win may have papered over the cracks but the same problems remain.
If we do not want to accept mediocrity and compete with Surrey, Essex and Hampshire then there needs to be a full review of our coaching and playing staff at the end of the season. Where are you Gavin Larsen?

Mikkyk wrote:

They aren't rally tucking into it - played themselves in. Burgess was probably slightly better than expected. Rhode was keeping to Burgess, suffice to say he won't be taking up the gloves again anytime soon.

I know it's been mentioned before but Clive Eakin's breath intakes are infuriating. It's bad enough when the game is exciting, when it's dead like this at the moment... i'm turning off because of it.

I had to turn off. I cannot stand Eakin's sharp intakes of breath. Time for the BBC to give the listeners a break and put him out of his misery.

24/5. Pathetic.

Andy wrote:

mad wrote:

Not sure it's possible to get two overseas of the requisite standard anymore. We'd probably have to get two for the first half of the season and two different overseas players for the back half

Ethan Brookes should clearly have been selected for the Surrey game

Agreed, getting one quality overseas is hard enough, so two, with the international cricket calender the way it is and franchise comps etc is going to be extremely difficult.

Re. that Robinson interview. I'm not his biggest fan but I think he's spoke ok there, not sure what else he can say under the circumstances.

He might be trying to protect the players but the supporters don't want to hear the coach after we've been thrashed saying 'hopefully we might be as good as Surrey in four years time". Utter nonsense.

Listen to Robinson's comments:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0gbrqk4

His interviews are like a Robbo Bingo card.
Disappointed ✔️
Take it on the chin ✔️
Long term planning ✔️
We move on ✔️

Heard it all before. All amounts to a coach who has lost his way trying to buy more time.
Sounds like his method is for players to take ownership of their performances and analyse themselves as opposed to offering any kind of leadership himself. He doesn't call them out though, to be fair to him
We need a fresh start and some smart recruitment.

Andy wrote:

Does Mickey Arthur still have the duel role with Derbyshire and Pakistan?

I believe he is a consultant with Pakistan.

BosworthBear wrote:

I don't know how easy it would be to sort but Mickey Arthur and Ian Bell would come over like a shot!

They are exactly what we need.

We are going backwards under Robinson. He must go.
Also, and I ask this question every year, why is Tony Frost still batting coach? Year after year our batsmen show no signs of improvement and consistently fail. He must go too.
Our much heralded director of cricket, Larsen needs to earn his money and take swift action for the long term good of the club.
I'm looking forward to Robinson's post match take. After last week's disaster he was saying we would put it right at the Oval and be "in the mix" for the title. The man is deluded.

What an abject display from start to finish.

A 34 year old batsman with an FC average of 30 recruited from division two as our mediocre season peters out. Shows where we are as a squad.
It had been plainly obvious we needed to recruit a couple of quality top/middle order batsmen over the winter, which we failed to do and look where it has got us.
The situation reminds of where we were at in 2019 when after a few injuries to the bowling unit we had to get three out of favour players to fill in on loan at Kent. Remember Toby Lester, Ben Mike and James Wainman? I can't see Surrey doing that! Desperate times.

paulbear wrote:

With Brookes, the talk was always about his 'Potential'. How long does potential last because it seems to me he has moved backwards to the point that surely the management will say, "What have we got to do to get him to be consistent and an automatic choice". Even if you kept him for just 50 over games and T20, his economy rate does not justify it.

Brookes looks like he lost a few mph after that bad injury and pace was his best attribute. Line and length is all over the place. The captain doesn't really want to throw him the ball because the batsmen can score freely.
Unless our new-ish bowling coach can work wonders its best for everyone if he moved on to a second division county. He did quite well at Derby on loan.

Henry Brookes 3 overs for 25. Well bowled.

Andy wrote:

Cant recall Surrey having an exceptional amount of white ball success and i think we've won the County Championship twice since Notts last won it. Think Essex have probably had more recent success than both to be fair.

We got Barnard in, other counties were interested. Rushworth got his contract at Durham torn up to come here. Moeen came here, other counties were interested. A very attractive offer got put Saqib Mahmoods way, he chose to stay at Lancs, that ain't on us. All within the past 12 months. We got Alex Davies in the season prior, other counties were in for him.

We recruit heavily in comparison to most other counties and we're still losing cup games so what is it?

We certainly don't have a predominantly "homegrown" squad.

The likes of Pennington, Haynes and Tongue (he'll be on the treatment table a lot, in fact he is right now) being Bears players wouldnt have changed today's result.

We have had to recruit heavily in recent years out of necessity due to the management neglecting to gradually replace an ageing squad.
It appears Davies was offered a leadership role in addition to a good salary, so that may have swung that one. Moeen was only ever going to join one county and we've hardly seen him anyway. Rushworth turned out to be a coup and I admit I was sceptical about that one.
More recruitment is needed because our best XI and those in reserve are not quite good enough right now.

Norwell's long term prospects must be in doubt. Will he ever get back to the level he was at before this injury? I sincerely hope so because he is such an asset when fit.
We really need to recruit a top quality batsman and front line bowler if we are to challenge next season. Possibly a spinner too.

UrsaMinor wrote:

I suppose I'm being hopelessly naive but is it in order to ask why we were playing a Cup semi-final on a used wicket that even the opposition knew would be difficult to bat on? Is this another example of just where Warwickshire cricket sits in the "Edgbaston" priorities?

Questions need to be asked about the wicket we prepared. The toss should provide a slight advantage but not determine the outcome to such an extent.

After today it is clearly time for Robinson to go. Who do we think should be his replacement? Allan Donald for me.

mad wrote:

The fall out from today could be massive. I know all this will have perhaps been sorted already but it will come to a head today.
OHD off to Pears perhaps Rhodes relinquishing the captaincy, what of Briggs and Burgess?

I think today is a watershed moment for some of the squad.
It would be a travesty to lose OHD, especially to the Pears.
All captains have a shelf life and Rhodes has surely reached the end of his, although we haven't got a natural leader ready to step in.
Burgess I'm not fussed if he wants to go elsewhere, his form with the bat has been underwhelming.
Briggs isn't the force of old so maybe we look to recruit a quality spinner from elsewhere. Not sure who though.
I'd also like to see Miles and H Brookes moved on if possible, as neither are good enough if we want to win things.