Not sure why they didn't get Sanderson to bowl the penultimate over when as their best bowler, he could have bowled a really tight over and put the pressure on us for the last over. I have often seen situations where the best bowler is given the last over to bowl with only 2-3 needed to win but glad Northants made their decision and it was one hell of a partnership and run chase.

Steelbacks are Hosed.

Not a fan of sarcasm from people who are wise after the event and just end up looking smug an self-satisfied.

Those 2 would make the side a lot stronger and cannot really see why Burgess isn't in anyway and Stirling's lack of runs means Lamb should be given a go.

The problem with Brathwaite is that his whole career was built on hitting Stokes for 4 6's in the T20 World Cup Final. After that, some stats man pointed out that he barely got past 20 in any format for well over a year. It might be that had he not had that 1 moment, he might be playing a bit of league cricket somewhere. Not sure what his record has been since last season or where he plays his T20 games but he doesn't strike me as being that good with either bat or ball and deciding to retire himself because of his poor record against leg-spin or coming in at 7 does not tell me that he has much confidence in himself.

I only go on what I see when it comes to teams/players and we can beat Notts who have been the yardstick to measure most T20 sides and who have so many matchwinners in their side but from what I have seen in our 2 games v Derbyshire, they have no bowlers that would get in our team and despite winning 4 out of 4, they look like the horrible nibbly medium pacers that counties kept employing in the 1980's and 1990's and that the TCCB hated because it stopped the nurturing of fast bowling talent. Scrimshaw apart, the rest looked mediocre which makes our defeat look even more insipid. Agree about Stirling but Lancashire dropped Steve Elsworthy (Their overseas pro) for both 1996 Lord's cup finals and we are now getting to the tight stage of the competition in a close group.

That was awful. I do not think Derbyshire are any good and their bowling looked very weak but as I have said so often over the years, we seem to lower our standards when playing sides we really should beat. Compared to Notts who we beat twice in this competition this season, Derbyshire look average. The Stirling plan is failing and it's interesting to see Will Rhodes carrying the drinks when he perhaps would be a better bet as he also bowls. Too many giving their wickets away early and if you lose 3 in the powerplay with barely 40 on the board, it always becomes difficult. Thought the umpires spent too long after the Brathwaite incident on deciding what to do. Not a necessary thing for our skipper to do but Derbyshire did try and 'milk it'.

The outfield looked like one of the 1976 England v West Indies Tests. And, I even forgot about the whole game until 10.30pm after I was engrossed in a film, I looked at the result and watched it on You Tube later but would like to have seen it live. 173* partnership in 11.4 overs, total madness.

Not sure how much rough there was as Briggs barely beat the bat or looked like he was going to take a wicket and this must be a worry going forward. At 93-4 you are in charge but it just drifted and with 150 to win I did wonder if we would ever get another wicket. We did, just the one. A major disappointment but I did wonder why we declared yesterday with just 4 overs to bowl and Norwell could have put another 20-25 runs together because unless you take a wicket in 4 overs, it's a bit wasted. We would still have had a 2nd new ball anyway and 350-360 in 92-96 overs might have been easier for us. A bit like the 2017 Headingley Test when all the journo's were saying about Root, "don't declare the pitch is too good, make them chase a bigger run rate and they'll have more of a chance to lose wickets.." and West Indies won easily. This pitch was a great batting strip and so Lancs didn't have to score quickly. I hate watching a game that goes the distance but losing it at the end after an entertaining first 3 days.

Not sure if Moeen would want to come back. He was dying to leave first time around and he would only play in the one-day games. In my opinion he is a lightweight who is never happy unless everything is just his way, one minute he is retiring from Tests and now we hear that he would like to be considered for section again because he suddenly likes the new set up. Well that being the case, shouldn't he be playing in the CC for Worcestershire. Sibley was getting nowhere at Surrey and we gave him a lifeline, not sure if I believe that he would want to leave already.

I loved the way Davies decided to drop anchor and bat time when wickets fell and as soon as he found someone to stick around Burgess/Briggs/Brookes (Should we employ more players who's surname starts with 'B'), he started to open up and it was a refreshing attitude which has put us in a good position. The pitch looks a bit dead but I suppose 30 wickets falling in 3 days suggests we could win, we are slight favourites and so much better to watch than the game v Northamptonshire on a lump of concrete which wouldn't have produced a result in 10 days.

Just seen an article on the BBC Cricket website 'What's wrong with this season's cricket balls', there was a lot of looking at the balls in both days of this game and it doesn't seem to make a difference if it's a low or high scoring game.

I love Norwell's attitude to bowling. He pounds in off the same run up without any thought to shortening it or slowing his pace down, he keeps on and is relentless. He made a huge difference and it will be an interesting game if we don't make a mess of things tomorrow. Quite surprised at Croft's innings, he was scoring at about 66/100 balls but as he was running out of partners, he didn't try and get on with it and slowed down and in the end when he decided to push it on a bit, he got out. Glad he did because he has punished us a few time before.

Well spotted GS. I often do that when 2 letters are next to each other. I do love my team but I don't think I have cried over them (Even in the 1980's) yet. You will have me worried now and checking for every word to make sure I don't make more mistakes.

A few of us on here did wonder a few tears ago that as his first-class game was so good, would playing one-day cricket change him. He then became a superb one-day player but then he suffered in the CC. Now over the last few years, he has been solid in all formats. Does England await, great for him to get picked but then again, I would really miss seeing him play for us.

Pity about the last 15 overs as I thought we might get 350+. Hain was brilliant again but Yates looks so different to last year and looked like a club player being given his first taste of CC cricket. A few bad shots with the bat leave me feeling we could be about 80-100 runs short.

Yes LE, it happened with Neil Carter all those years ago when you had the feeling that he could get out in the first 2 overs at any stage and eventually they did drop him down the order. In the very big game like finals and semi-finals, he never get us off to great starts which is why so many of them were close games.

I would like to think Stone could play and bowl him in short bursts. Not sure what the Norwell situation is but we need some oomph up front with the new ball but if Stone goes on like this and does not take much of a role in CC games then we will start to wonder what the future holds as he has been permanently injured since we signed him many years ago. What we don't want is medium paced opening bowling on what we presume will be a good batting strip and Lancashire winning the toss and batting for 5 sessions.

Awful and I am annoyed about getting there early from work to get somewhere near to park and then waiting for it to start, only to watch us self-destruct. Another Stirling duck, Bethel is opening for what reason, Brathwaite is too low in the order as is Briggs, since when are Miles, Lintott or Stone better batsmen than him. Poor shot selection and the pitch was fine and a missed opportunity to try and get a few points between ourselves and the other side near us but now it is all very close in the group.

He hit 158* and it was unbelievable to watch but as you say, not much after that. I think someone should point out to him that you don't have to hit the first ball to the boundary.