Are we getting bob the builder to stand down for 4 days next week so we can utilise one of the test strips or are we putting all our 11 point chips on a tired Hollies stand side strip again?

Have to guard against losing the toss of course

Im shit at this sort of thing, am I right in saying we need 14 points next week and no matter what anybody else does we win the County Championship?

Yes, we are 11 in front and even a maximum points win from Somerset would get them 24 points so 14 for us would mean 25 ahead. For every bonus point Somerset drop, we can afford to drop 1. So if they win with 23 points, we would need a 13 points draw. It's a strange scenario but of we batted first and got 350+ and bowled them out for a good lead, we would only need to bat and bat and bat out as long as we wanted and bat them out of the game.

Quandary for Somerset as they need to win but they need bonus points too. So a Jack Leach raging bunsen won't necessarily help them. 50-yard boundaries?

They are literally 50 yard boundaries at Taunton anyway.

If Somerset do come up with a pitch that turns square, they have to decide, do they bat first in the sort of scenarios we have seen when batting first in our games and risk having to maybe not make a big score which means they could get further behind us or do they put Surrey in and risk having to bat last. I doubt they will prepare a result pitch as they need bonus points and if they miss out and get anything below 300, we would only need 2 bonus points and a draw. We just need to prepare a good pitch to bat on make sure we keep pace with them. The main thing is we bowl Leicestershire out and whenever we bat, get to that 350 if we need to depending on what Somerset get. At some stage the weather might intervene.

If they have any sense any team who win the toss will bowl first at 1030 on September 24th!

Having said that, Essex decided to bat first against us and just as importantly, Yorkshire batted on winning the toss in the game just finished.

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

paulbear wrote:

Having said that, Essex decided to bat first against us and just as importantly, Yorkshire batted on winning the toss in the game just finished.

Not sure either decision was v clever. Certainly Essex was huge mistake. Yorkshire thought would bring their spinners into it I guess.

The Essex decision was weird if they thought it was going to turn later seeing as they had no Harmer but Yorkshire must have though Yadav was going to get help later on. He ended up bowling only 10 overs in the game as conditions were make for seam. That's the problem with starts in early April and finishes in late September, it's the same and the really dry months are taken up with The Hundread and the 50 over cup - And people in the game wonder why we have no match winning spin bowlers for England.