sheffield_blue wrote:

...so it's down to us beating Northants and the pears losing at Leicester. I wouldn't put too much money on us qualifying.

I think we will beat Northants but Leicestershire have nothing to play for so I would expect our neighbours to yet again have fun watching us go out.

Annoyingly, Worcestershire are playing their game on Sunday at 6.30pm. Not sure I would be happy with that if I was one of our players. Games like that are usually played at the same time. Worcestershire will know if they have to win or can lose and still go through. They should really not be in a position like that.

Thanks gents, I will definitely give that a listen.

How wonderful that yet again, the games will feature hardly any weekend cricket and a final that goes into October from Tuesday-Friday. Shows how much value is put on first-class cricket.

Exiled Bear wrote:

Highveld wrote:

Exiled Bear wrote:

Shocker of a decision for the last LBW with the ball hitting outside leg stump and also going down, but fortunately it shouldn't matter.
Having watched the replay at actual speed and frame by Frame, It looks a sound decision.
Pitching on leg and turning enough to take leg.

I also watched it frame by frame and if you line up a piece of paper along leg stump (which you can see a few seconds before) then you can see that it hit Sidebottom comfortably outside the leg stump

I thought it was poor also. I have just got back and the pitch looks bland and uninteresting, like the 1970's Worcester pitches and unlike the 'Result' rubbishy pitches they had in the 1980's.

Looks as though the batsmen are bringing their T20 form into the CC. Not good enough and we must hope the bowlers can do something special. How much time is lost to the weather is not certain but not getting at least 3 batting points is poor. I do hope after a good campaign so far, that this game isn't the one where we threw it all away.

WestHeathBear wrote:

That was a Shocking and Embarassing display to watch. The Captain won a toss for a change but decided to chase on a used strip !
And he keeps saying "We know how to play here " Really !!!!
Now we probably need to win the final 3 games to qualify which puts a lot of pressure on us.

Yes, I was also surprised by letting them have a bat first. We did that in the final in 2017 and their side was similar. Hales loves to just pile on the runs as he has no pressure and can just play naturally but chasing is different and even if we had got 155-160 batting first we might have had a better chance.

BristolBear wrote:

Was at the match today. That all came from poor bowling. It doesn’t excuse the batting, but apparently today was the 5th time that pitch has been used and it really showed.
They should never have scored more than 150. But poor bowling to Duckett and Hales, and a poor last over was the killer.
If you look at both innings the amount of players out through miss-hits, leading edges etc was really obvious. The ball just wasn’t coming on. You can go about chasing 7.5 an over very differently to 9 an over. The fact that even when they just tried to rebuild they were still struggling shows how tough it was to bat out there. Not 63 all out tough, but not 180 off 20 either.

It wasn't a great pitch, no, but we have this habit of just getting out to spinners who really are not that good. Only Ball and Fletcher are front line bowlers and both a bit over-rated but of the spinners, only Patel has experience but he never spins it, just floats it up and batsmen then hit him into the night sky with regularity. I doubt Harrison and Carter would bowl a side out in the CC but it's these sorts of part-timers who we get out to time after time. Perhaps we should try and keep it 'On the deck' a bit more when batting.

GerryShedd wrote:

BristolBear wrote:

Beating them 4 times would be superb. They are probably the least likeable team in county cricket.
Can’t stand Mullaney, Fletcher or Moores.

But on the other hand, Alex Hales is just so lovable (not).

Have to agree with you there. Fletcher tries to paint himself as a man of the people and a 'Character' but is just mouthy. Mullaney, I watched him get pinged all over the place off the first 5 balls of an over and then give the batsman a real send off when he got caught on the boundary on the last ball - That is a real irritating thing to do, he is also mouthy as is Patel. I really do not like them either.

The way we got back into the game after looking like conceding 210-220 was superb but as usual, we gave the opposition the usual array of catching practice. Every team we now have to play in the remaining games will say, "Let's practice our catches in the outfield because when we play the Bears, we will have plenty of catches coming our way". It was embarrassing and is annoying to have to drive straight from work in a hurry to get a good parking space and then have to sit through that mess.

Great to do it in style by 10 wickets than to have a great bowling performance and then mess about before getting over the line with 5 down. Too many expansive shots by Yorkshire, a bit like we were v Derbyshire.

Andy wrote:

Re. Brathwaite. He's been a pretty average cricketer for a while now.

Conway, Glenn Phillips, Finn Allen etc were all available at the time when we signed him.

I maintain we haven't had a properly good overseas in T20 since Shoaib Malik in 2014.

Didn't we have some bloke called Jeetan Patel as an overseas player, I hear he was pretty good.

It all looks a bit predictable and it seems as though if Hain cannot get runs, we cannot win. Was Brathwaite picked on reputation alone. After his heroics in the last T 20 world cup final, he barely got the ball off the square for the next 2 years. I haven't seen his figures since but he needs to get some runs under his belt or he will have been another bad signing. The most annoying thing is that just like Thursday, we gave the opposition some catching practice in the outfield, we are not learning from the mistakes of previous games.

Curran's figures are poor for a player who is constantly picked in so many formats. 44 wickets in 21 Tests and very expensive in other formats like O.D.I's with an economy rate of 6.14. The selectors keep picking Chris Jordan with a T20 economy of 8.81. It is like the bad old days of Jade Dernbach who used to turn up to be flogged to all parts.

Agree about what has been said in the last 2 posts, OHD has often been the difference in the T20 and 50 over games. Sidebottom has not bowled much in any one-day games so perhaps a chance to give him a go. As for his batting it might not be up to much but if we have to rely on him it's only because the batsmen are not doing their job.

GerryShedd wrote:

Maybe the ECB are secretly congratulating themselves that it really is possible to attract people to cricket who don't like cricket, which is the whole basis of The Hundred, otherwise known as Cricket, Re-hashed And Pimped.
What a shame that there isn't a handy acronym that they could use.

As far as I am concerned, the ECB have done the job. Over the years the T20 Blast ahs attracted bigger and bigger crowds so the goal has been achieved. The only problem is the people who watch it are only interested in T20 and nothing else. A visit to a CC game would frighten the life out of them. It seems to me as though the Hundred is a way of trying to create a Big Bash/IPL scenario and I do not think it will work. If it does, it will be the boorish lot I saw last night who will 'watch' it.

Andy wrote:

That was all just bizarre regarding them students. Heard a couple of people (genuine cricket fans) got hurt from things being thrown too which is terrible.

If the club are gonna continue to peddle this 'FORTRESS EDGBASTON' moniker though and show videos on social media of beer snakes and people all dressed up getting lairy at Test matches, other people are gonna wanna come down and do the same as they think it's fair game...they've created a bit of a monster.

The game, it's incredible we even got 167. Literally only Pollock, Lamb, Burgess and Brez got any runs. Derbyshire's extra pace was a key difference, they fielded very well. So did we though. I do worry about Brez with the ball in this format, he's hittable these days. I said this at the start of the comp. Don't think we'll see Norwell again in this format, bowls both sides of the wicket. We're missing H. Brookes on those type of pitches.

Thought we'd pulled it out the fire when we got them 5 down!

I still enjoyed it.

You're right about the reputation and people like Vaughan always praising the 'Beer snakes' as though it was great fun would change their minds if that had to sit through 3 hours of it. I am glad I don't sit in the Hollies stand when T20 games are on.

Reabank wrote:

Thanks both. All seems unsatisfactory to me. I appreciate just turning up might not be possible with coronavirus but it should be easy for members to get tickets they have already paid for via the subscription.
RB
Once you have decided what ticket/seat you want, then it should come up as £0.00 on the total and then that way, you know you have got the right ticket and have not paid for it.

A poor night altogether and spoilt by morons running onto the field and makes you wonder if they will get a £1000 fine, if so then you can bet it's the last time they will ever do it. It looks like the student element, large groups of them in the family stand (Some smoking) and then they disappeared as the Hollies stand then got bigger. Do not know why most of them come as they are drunk when they arrive, dress up in stupid garb, the female element wouldn't be out of place on a street corner, hardly seem to watch any cricket so why not spend the money on staying in a bar/pub so we don't have to put up with them here. The calls to stay in your seat and not move about are a waste of time. As for the cricket, we gave Derby catching practice and a few more cautious shots might have got us to 180+ and there was no need for it as Pollock as going along alright, all the others needed to do was keep it on the deck and stop trying to hit every ball to the fence. The early bowling was awful, halfway down the track or misdirected. Brathwaite and Briggs the only ones who did a good job.

Woakes sounds like he is being diplomatic but really wants to have his say about the stupid rotation system, his constantly being overlooked to play by the much less talented Sam Curran and all the travelling without actually getting a game. He is too nice to 'rock the boat' but you get the feeling he could blow his top if they keep treating him so badly.