Seriously, why is Sylvester in our team, let alone opening the bowling?

Just when you need some good tight bowling Sylvester goes for 21 in his first (and hopefully only) over!!

Is this Sylvester really a cricketer?

Who on earth is responsible for his signature?

Are we hiding Garton?

I feel sorry for Sylvester and I know that some on here have seen him perform well for the second team; but I thought he looked way out of his depth. He had no rhythm in his run-up and his action looked to be all over the place, with so many moving parts that could (and did) go wrong.

Can’t afford to drop catches when you’re only defending 143

Like last night, take away the rogouge over (Sylvester;s 21) and it just might have been a bit different although I suppose the damage was done in our poor batting.

Agree on last night, not sure on this afternoon, the late wickets made it look closer than it was.

Garton, strike bowler deemed 'unbowlable'? Deary me.

Sylvester, it's not just being over weight he looks generally in poor physical condition. Like poor body composition. And as Terry pointed out he's technically all over the shop, no use of the front arm and a long stuttering run up which does absolutely nothing for him. Apparently Matt Walker recommended him? I'm a bit disturbed we've signed this lad, no disrespect. If Walker rates him so highly why didn't he contract him at Kent especially with all their injury problems to seamers? Hmm. Are you telling me there's nobody in the academy or even the Birmingham League better than him? Do me a favour...

Latham, not really a T20 player is he, looks like a passenger out there.

Davies looks genuinely flustered stood with his gloves and helmet off trying to set fields and talk to bowlers. He's doing himself a disservice.

Why, even factoring all the absentees, are we not picking our best side?!

Garton not bowling was a really strange one. He’s got to be a better bet than Sylvester to open the bowling?! We’ve got too many passengers in our team at the moment and our tail is far too long.

Hasan Ali back Friday I've heard?

This was like a replay of last years quarter final, the boundaries spread as far as they can and then our batsmen giving catching practice to leave us 4-3. You wouldn't mind if you were facing demon fast bowlers or mystery spinners but it seems we are just not learning lessons from past mistakes. Someone needs to look at the team on paper and sort out the weak elements and then fill those weak elements with people like Simmons, OHD and people who must have done something at 2nd XI cricket to warrant giving them a go or this competition is gone before it we are halfway through. What a waste of a Saturday, not too bad for me as I am retired now but anyone who spent the whole day there will feel annoyed.

Why not give OHD or Bamber a chance? That was abject to watch. Some poor shot selection was our undoing. Another 25 runs would've made it interesting. We're desperately short of quality. Woakes, Bethell, Mousley, Hassan Ali, Beau Webster and even Michael Booth all missing is too much.

I wonder how Will Rhodes feels about his move to Durham. He supposedly left us because he wanted to play T20 cricket and he's in the Durham side but he batted at number 7 and didn't get a bowl.

Robinson/Davies…………Westwood/Davies!
It’s painful to watch.

Rayb wrote:

Robinson/Davies…………Westwood/Davies!
It’s painful to watch.

Is there a common denominator?

For me the 2 games have just left me with a lot of questions.
-Why Sylvester over Simmons? If Derby are willing to let him trial and go out on loan, that suggests something. Plus he looks unfit. Why not give our own contracted player a go?
-What’s the plan, both batting and bowling? I know T20 can look like slogging but there is more to it, players have different roles, manipulate fields etc. Same with the bowling, who are the openers, are we relying on spin in the middle overs, who’s the death bowlers?
-What are our fielding and bowling tactics? It just seems to be fling to down the same way to every batsman and then change the field to chase the ball.

I appreciate there are a lot of key players, who were supposed to play a big role, unavailable for various reasons. But that doesn’t excuse some of what’s occurred so far. The other side might be more talented or execute better on the night, but there’s no excuse for a lack of planning and preparedness on the pitch, which seems to be the case currently. Luckily that can be remedied, but it requires leadership to acknowledge it first.

Agreed. The dithering over Robinson's dismissal has dealt Westwood a bad hand. No one seems to have defined roles and the captain is floundering.
The last minute signing of Slim Sylvester when we have Simmons and OHD on the staff is baffling. Then we have Garton playing effectively has a batsman because they don't have any faith in him to bowl. He is a number 9 not an all rounder.
The fielding is sloppy. The body language is poor. I could go on.
The management need to regroup this week and come up with a a formula. We've been here before and found a way. Mouseley can make a big difference to the balance of the team but we require a number three batsman, either Yates or Latham to give us a platform.

We have become inconsistent after our first 4 games of the season, the balance of the teams selected since then hasn't felt right. Picking Sylvester after Friday's match was bizarre, where are OHD, Bamber, Simmons or Taz Ali? Davies is uninspiring as a captain, i've no problem with him opening or keeping wicket but for goodness sake take the captaincy off him and give it to Latham. We are starting to slip into last season's mode already and Westwood needs to do something about it asap.

Team for Friday v Yorkshire:

Davies
Ali
Latham (CAPTAIN)
Hain
Mousley
Barnard
Malik
Briggs
Bamber
Lintott
Simmons

Pathetic, does not even cover it. Planning non existent, its a total shambles.

We had the same problem last season when Benjamin kept being picked and wasn't scoring any runs. Latham doesn't have a good T20 record and is he being picked just because he is our overseas player. He as well as Moeen and Davies got out sloppily playing attacking shots when we had a big ground space to aim for, the boundaries were very wide out near the fences. We are unlikely to see Bethell so we can forget him but a specialist batsmen must be found instead of picking Garton as a batsman when he was originally picked as a bowler who can bat. We have the spinning roles covered but we cannot keep relying on Hain/Barnard to keep digging us out of holes and the runs could be a problem if these 2 get out early.