We've got a 2 day (red ball) Friendly against the South Asian team starting today at Portland Road. A pretty strong lineup:-
Mousley
Malik (Captain)
Shaikh
Jani
Wylie
Dandy
Booth
Bamber
Taz Ali
OHD
Sylvester
Toss uncontested, we're bowling first.

There are also two T20 games arranged against South Asia, at Portland Road, on Wednesday - presumably to get a few who haven't played for a while (Mousley etc) up to speed for possible selection in the QF against Somerset on Saturday.

The irony of OHD playing this game as he campaigns for less county championship matches being played shouldnt be lost on anyone...

Andy wrote:

The irony of OHD playing this game as he campaigns for less county championship matches being played shouldnt be lost on anyone...

He has played 6 games for his club side this year! He could have had his much needed rest those days

Piss taker ain't he

He was being used by the club hierarchy and PCA disgracefully I'd suggest. Hope lesson's been learned and they don't wheel him out to try to put any sort of positive spin on the farcical 13 game nonsense scenario. This having to have mini pre-seasons in the middle of the summer just shows how farcical the stop-start chunked up schedule is these days. They should be motoring along at this stage of the season on 2 or 3 fronts not trying to fill fallow time with days at The Belfry or twiddling thumbs. The quarter finals of the T20 really should all be on one day which would make room for a resumption of the championship this Friday. Instead they have yet more fallow time to wade through. It's a football international break to cap the idiocy off too with no cricket to go and watch this weekend

To be fair to OH-D, he has to represent the views of his members, who not surprisingly have voted for less work for the same money.

I like Ol and I obviously understand his PCA role but he's put his above the parapet here on something totally ridiculous. I'll happily criticise Chis Woakes too for when he spoke out against the current schedule. He hasn't played county cricket anything like regularly for 9 or 10 years, he can't comment.

The_Lickey_Banker wrote:

We've got a 2 day (red ball) Friendly against the South Asian team starting today at Portland Road. A pretty strong lineup:-
Mousley
Malik (Captain)
Shaikh
Jani
Wylie
Dandy
Booth
Bamber
Taz Ali
OHD
Sylvester
Toss uncontested, we're bowling first.

There are also two T20 games arranged against South Asia, at Portland Road, on Wednesday - presumably to get a few who haven't played for a while (Mousley etc) up to speed for possible selection in the QF against Somerset on Saturday.

Mousley bowled yesterday, but has been withdrawn from the batting lineup, to be replaced by Yates. I guess, management feel Yates needs more batting time, to be ready for Taunton on Saturday. If Mousley is to play in the QF, I guess it will be primarily as a bowler and he'll bat well down the order.

Selections for the two 2nds T20 games against South Asia tomorrow, will be very interesting. A good indicator of who might start in the QF?

Seems Mousley is batting right now!
Usual format for 2nd team games is a side of 12 with 11 batting and fielding, I'd expect the OHD or sylvester wont bat.

Highveld wrote:

Seems Mousley is batting right now!
Usual format for 2nd team games is a side of 12 with 11 batting and fielding, I'd expect the OHD or sylvester wont bat.

You're right, Highveld, Yates has been added to the batting lineup, in place of Sylvester. Mousley has come in at 3. The fact remains though, that management obviously feel Yates needs more batting time, to be ready for Taunton.
We've foregone our 1st innings, to make it a single innings game. Yates & Mousley going pretty well at the moment. Chasing 323 to win, we're currently 75 for 1, off 18 overs.

The_Lickey_Banker wrote:

The_Lickey_Banker wrote:

We've got a 2 day (red ball) Friendly against the South Asian team starting today at Portland Road. A pretty strong lineup:-
Mousley
Malik (Captain)
Shaikh
Jani
Wylie
Dandy
Booth
Bamber
Taz Ali
OHD
Sylvester
Toss uncontested, we're bowling first.

There are also two T20 games arranged against South Asia, at Portland Road, on Wednesday - presumably to get a few who haven't played for a while (Mousley etc) up to speed for possible selection in the QF against Somerset on Saturday.

Mousley bowled yesterday, but has been withdrawn from the batting lineup, to be replaced by Yates. I guess, management feel Yates needs more batting time, to be ready for Taunton on Saturday. If Mousley is to play in the QF, I guess it will be primarily as a bowler and he'll bat well down the order.

Selections for the two 2nds T20 games against South Asia tomorrow, will be very interesting. A good indicator of who might start in the QF?

Well, Yates got to 50 and then promptly got out, so not great preparation for the QF! I'd say its pretty certain, he'll be given at least one more go, in the 2nds T20 matches tomorrow.

Don't think performances in this have any affect on Saturday at all. Tomorrow's t20 matches may well be telling though...

Mousley's batted 3 in the Blast, I see no reason why that changes.

Live scores link for first T20 game

https://live.nvplay.com/ecb/?tab=m_summary#mb29a7f30-4f9a-425d-aeae-9b382d70bb79

Alex Davies has taken 32 off the second over….

Pretty much what could be a lineup for the Somerset QF:-

Davies (Captain & Keeper)
Yates
Mousley
Hain
Smith
Shaikh
Lintott
Briggs
Miles
Garton
OHD

Barnard & Gleeson are the only notable absentees and I think they'd be at Taunton, in place of Miles (probably playing his last game for us?) and OHD.

A 50 from Davies and 85 (from 50 balls) from Yates. Rain after 18 overs, with us on 199 for 5. Barnard came in for Lintott and batted at 5.

The rain will probably mean we'll only play the one game today.

Rain meant only one innings (ours) was possible, but we made 241 for 6 off 19.1 overs - incredible considering we were 199 for 5 off 18 (so, 42 in the last over and a bit !) Kai put on 40 in 17 balls (with 4 sixes) and Hamza, 28 in 13 (with 3 sixes) - I guess 7 sixes in the 7 balls bowled, unless there were some extras ! As said above, Davies got a quick 50 off 19 balls and Yates, 72 off 35, before retiring out.
At least the batsmen got a good 'eye in', ready for Saturday ! I imagine, 9 of the team in the batting lineup today will be playing at Taunton, plus Lintott (who was originally in the starting XI, presumably for some bowling practice) and Gleeson - for Miles & OHD.
If they decide not to have 2 wrist spinners in the QF (as a few on here have speculated), I can see Lintott playing rather than Taz, because he knows Taunton well and took 5 wickets there, in the recent 50 over game.

Interestingly Ed Barnard played and batted.

I wouldn't say that a game on a ground with short boundaries, against a side that is weaker than most county second xi's is the best guide for selecting a team for a quarter final. I'd be taking into account previous performances in the T20 competition this season, and the Metro Bank performances too. Team selection should take into account ability, past performance and the enviromental conditions of the venue.