Match drawn, phew!

A (somewhat) honourable draw.

Cracking fightback and result. One thing this team is never short of is fight.

Yessssss! That will really piss Yorkshire off as all the talk from them was getting revenge for what we did to them a month ago, I can imagine JB being really red in the face and annoyed. They had 111 overs at us and we fought hard - That's when a team really does deserve their 8 draw points. When done lads, all looking very tight at the top now.

We've done alright in the end there, we'd have lost that game a couple of years ago. We'd have folded.

We bank the points and move on.

Good fighting spirit on the last day.

We were outplayed for 3 days of that game & most certainly out bowled.

When you realize that Dan Mousley has played more representative cricket than Sam Hain, you really do wonder what the England selectors have been smoking for the last few years.

Averages following the game

https://countycrickethub.net/team-averages.html?teamid=16&comp=1&year=2026

To have two specialist batsmen who are averaging 18 or less is totally unacceptable, and shows that changes in hte side are needed for the next game.

Interesting to see the averages, see Mousley only just above his career average, didn't expect Hain and Yates would be so far above theirs. WRT Davies and Malik, have the feeling the latter is more vulnerable. Can't see Davies being dropped though seeing as we need his keeping. I would think the most extreme thing that would happen for the next game is that Malik is dropped for Kai and then Davies drops down the order. But I'm not sure Kai as an opener is a great move either. That's the thing about the "drop Davies" campaign. There's no real alternative. I do recall many years ago when England were struggling with openers that Jonathan Agnew suggested Woakes as an opener (a la Shane Watson). Be worth a debate...

Selecting a special;ist batsman who is averaging 18, or less, is not sustainable, or good for team moral.
Woakes as a specialist batsman would be a good selection, the club can not continue allowing someone to make very sub standard performances without consequences.

No way Kai can open surely? Like I said earlier in the thread the likes of Hamza should knocking on the door asking for a go. Do we accept Davies keeping and batting 6/7? Or have Kai Smith's below average keeping? We're a bit stuck here.

Tayls79 wrote:

Interesting to see the averages, see Mousley only just above his career average, didn't expect Hain and Yates would be so far above theirs. WRT Davies and Malik, have the feeling the latter is more vulnerable. Can't see Davies being dropped though seeing as we need his keeping. I would think the most extreme thing that would happen for the next game is that Malik is dropped for Kai and then Davies drops down the order. But I'm not sure Kai as an opener is a great move either. That's the thing about the "drop Davies" campaign. There's no real alternative. I do recall many years ago when England were struggling with openers that Jonathan Agnew suggested Woakes as an opener (a la Shane Watson). Be worth a debate...

Hain, Yates and Barnard (recently after a slow start) have all been pretty good for us. Think Yates gets harshly lumped in with Davies sometimes, he's actually shown a lot more consistency this season thus far. Mousley have shown flashes, he's still very loose outside his off stick though.

Yup, as I say I don't think it could happen - totally not Kai's style to open and we are definitely a bit stuck. Smith's batting average, small sample size acknowledged, is good though so leads you to think that he could be part of the solution somewhere in the order. The Woakes opener is the only thing I can think of and it's probably a laugh to discuss.

Debating Davies' place in the side ad nauseum gets tedious as other than this there is no real alternative as keeper or opener. It's only half an argument.

Woakes has a hernia like condition and is only playing T20 and presumably Hundred.

Andy wrote:

No way Kai can open surely? Like I said earlier in the thread the likes of Hamza should knocking on the door asking for a go. Do we accept Davies keeping and batting 6/7? Or have Kai Smith's below average keeping? We're a bit stuck here.

Hamza will never be an opening batsman (and although he has had two good scores for the 2nds this season, going in at 3 or 4, there's still some doubt about his form atm). Kai has opened for the 2nds and done OK and has a decent average for both teams this season, I think he would be worth a go (coming in for Malik).
I agree Davies has to stay as Keeper, batting at 6.

Kai has only opened for the 2's in t20. His form in red ball 2nds batting at 3 or 4 has been up and down with only one score over 50.

All im saying is for any batter out of the side at the moment (Hamza, Jani etc), yer way in is probably as opener right now.