personally my choice for the QF would be

Barnard to replace Latham as the 'anchor' opener
Davies usual role
Hain/Mousley flexible to come in replacing either Barnard/Davies so if the designated quick-scorer gets out early Mousley comes in and if the anchor gets out Hain comes in for him. I personally think Mousley bats too high at 3 if the openers start well, if they do get a start we need to give Hain max time at the crease and shift him above Mousley in the order IMO. IMO we should and teams in general should be far less dogmatic and far more flexible in terms of batting orders but with Hain this season, having your best batsman at 4 and fairly consistently only having 10 overs to work with seems counter-intuitive to me.
Bethell
Garton
Booth
Lintott
Briggs
Taz Ali
Gleeson

Garton is obviously very high at 6 there (depending on circumstances i might even say bring Lintott in earlier than him and ask Lintott to play partner to whichever batsman is left in, and leave Garton to come in last c4 overs and slog for those short boundaries) but fitting Taz Ali in whilst still having 3 genuine seam options (and not Barnard as one of them) means something has to be sacrificed, and Booth and Lintott are coming into the game in very good touch with the bat and make up for that a little. Still its bowling-heavy and a bit batting-light but that's my preference.

what I suspect will happen is they will play Bethell as opener and he will swing himself off his feet trying to over-hit everything and Kai Smith will play, and I don't know if they will play Lintott or another seamer.

and I very much doubt they will play Taz Ali, I'd love to see him in there as an x-factor wicket taking option, not even necessary for him to bowl all 4 with the range of options we have in that lineup (3.5 seam 4 spin)

Andy wrote:
The numbers would suggest the batters have batted well this comp, most strike rates there look good.

speaking of opening partnerships, by the way, the more they complement each other's styles the better they tend to be and a combination of left/right hand, taller/shorter batsman, aggressive/accumulative style and front foot/back foot player, if you can tick all of those boxes you have it perfectly IMO. IMO, Latham and Davies worked so well together as they tick 3 of them. the left/right is particularly useful as they pick up cheap boundaries when bowlers don't quite adjust their lines when they change strike, but taller/shorter and front foot/back foot can be similarly useful in bowlers not adjusting their lengths. left/right is also sneakily useful in continually forcing fielding changes and ultimately putting more pressure on them to get overs in before the cut-off which could pay dividends at the end with rushed overs or extra fielder in the circle.

the above is why I'd have Barnard opening as he's much more a threat than Davies on the front foot and driving down the ground and has played the anchor role to a tee in 50ov cricket, I think he and Davies complement each other well. But with Bethell being left handed and the golden-child elect I'm guessing he will be the opener (personally i'd have him at 5 because he is by far our best bullier of spin and really the only player we have who looks like he can take spinners down for 24 off an over at will when he's on form)

Is Bethell available, he is surely away with England for the ODI's?

oh, great, I thought I'd read he was only captaining a one-off match for England but could have misremembered that

Jacob is in the England squad for the games v South Africa and Ireleand. He will be captain for the Ireland games.

Back to the 1/4 final, I do not think thast playing two wrist spinners on a small ground would be a good idea, so a decision between Tax or Lintott needs to be made, and Kai Smith should be in the side, ideally with the gloves.

Matt Henry will be unavailable for the 1/4 final, called back by New Zealand for their upcoming series with Australia.

Every little helps…

I don't know why Booth is not in the squad ahead of OHD and Miles. And garton and gleeson for that matter.

Northwalesbear wrote:

I don't know why Booth is not in the squad ahead of OHD and Miles. And garton and gleeson for that matter.

Yes seems odd. I'd expect Miles, OHD and either Malik or Hamza to miss out from the starting team.

Somerset's preview here:
https://somersetcountycc.co.uk/news/first-xi/vitality-blast-quarter-final-preview-somerset-v-bears/
They have messed up a bit on what they say about our overseas players; but interesting that they say:
"Reaching a fifth successful quarter final is a notable effort in itself."

I guess Malik, Miles & OHD will miss out.

Think Michael Booth's lack of experience in this comp goes against him for this particular game. Having said that I thought Taz (0 t20 appearances) might have atleast got in the squad...

Interesting to see who opens instead of the injured Latham, suspect it might be Yates. Barnard might go up there. Hasan a huge miss.

Davies
Yates
Mousley
Hain
Barnard
Kai
Garton
Lintott
Briggs
Miles
Gleeson

???

Hamza/Zen for Miles to get an extra batter in?

Lack of Hason Ali in this format is huge when you look at the bowling options on paper atleast.

Actually think Miles fielding has probably got him the nod over, say, Booth. We'll see.

Very difficult game against an extremely good side who look very strong even without Banton and Henry.

Madness to leave out Booth. The team is going to need a near miracle to make finals day. Fairly embarrassing that is the squad we have for a Blast T20 quarter final.

We look weak in every department.

Lets pray for that miracle.

Don't know how it could have been improved. Latham got injured, Hasan got unexpextedly called up by Pakistan to play in a series that wasn't even arranged til a couple months ago.

I was mentally noodling this before the squad was announced, only with Vani at 7 in place of Miles Could be Hamza comes in. Like you say, it's pretty much the strongest available - unfortunate no Overseas.

Andy wrote:

Think Michael Booth's lack of experience in this comp goes against him for this particular game. Having said that I thought Taz (0 t20 appearances) might have atleast got in the squad...

Interesting to see who opens instead of the injured Latham, suspect it might be Yates. Barnard might go up there. Hasan a huge miss.

Davies
Yates
Mousley
Hain
Barnard
Kai
Garton
Lintott
Briggs
Miles
Gleeson

???

Hamza/Zen for Miles to get an extra batter in?

Lack of Hason Ali in this format is huge when you look at the bowling options on paper atleast.

Actually think Miles fielding has probably got him the nod over, say, Booth. We'll see.

Very difficult game against an extremely good side who look very strong even without Banton and Henry.

I was mentally noodling this before the squad was announced, only with Vani at 7 in place of Miles Could be Hamza comes in. Like you say, it's pretty much the strongest available - unfortunate no Overseas.

Andy wrote:

Think Michael Booth's lack of experience in this comp goes against him for this particular game. Having said that I thought Taz (0 t20 appearances) might have atleast got in the squad...

Interesting to see who opens instead of the injured Latham, suspect it might be Yates. Barnard might go up there. Hasan a huge miss.

Davies
Yates
Mousley
Hain
Barnard
Kai
Garton
Lintott
Briggs
Miles
Gleeson

???

Hamza/Zen for Miles to get an extra batter in?

Lack of Hason Ali in this format is huge when you look at the bowling options on paper atleast.

Actually think Miles fielding has probably got him the nod over, say, Booth. We'll see.

Very difficult game against an extremely good side who look very strong even without Banton and Henry.

Andy wrote:

Think Michael Booth's lack of experience in this comp goes against him for this particular game. Having said that I thought Taz (0 t20 appearances) might have atleast got in the squad...

Actually think Miles fielding has probably got him the nod over, say, Booth. We'll see.

.
hmmm. I don't think Miles's fielding is that much better than Booth's, certainly not to the extent of it being a point of difference worth picking over and especially as Booth is far ahead of Miles with the bat. and what price Miles's experience in T20, given he's been going at 10+ an over in his sporadic appearances in the last couple of years? I'm not arguing with you that it may be their logic, I just think they're wrong if it is their logic, Booth is a perfectly serviceable fielder, decent athlete and mover and good enough hands an reflexes to take a superb low catch at Rugby vs Northants. and Miles's long-legged athleticism is actually less of an advantage with those much shorter boundaries/smaller playing surface., admittedly as we've said before he is a bloody good boundary-rider

But if we were needing 45 off the last 3 overs with the bat, 7 wickets down, we could look at Booth coming in an he'd have a chance of doing it. His equivalent won't be nearly as much of a gamewinning option at the end

I'm normally Mr Half Full but I wasn't optimistic about this game in any case, and less so now.

I would have loved to have seen Taz Ali but totally accept it was probably verging on the over-optimistic especially with the small Taunton boundaries

Re: Ed as opener. Hmm. that was my initial take but his experience, skill and versatility later in the innings as a 'finisher' may be more important than his ability to anchor the innings.

I have long thought that, to an extent, powerplay batting is kind of 'easy', at least in terms of not requiring too much tactical ingenuity or technical versatility, there are a relatively generic series of plans and fields being bowled to. Put bad balls away and, if you're feeling your oats, maybe start stepping down or creating room for yourself to buy some boundaries.

Once it gets down to the death, more pressure on, much wider variety of plans and fields being bowled to, its far more demanding in terms of the range of options and the pressure on execution is far greater

I mean, Yates at his best could anchor the innings (and had a decent period where he and davies had a pretty consistent if not gamechanging opening partnership).
In his wildest dreams, though, Yates isn't coming in with 8 overs to go and scoring 40 off 20 or 65 off 32 and using ramps and scoops to play to death-bowling fields like Ed can.

all in all I'd lean to giving Yates the job he is at least capable of doing at his best (and giving him the advantage of the fielding restrictions) rather than making him a fish out of water in the middle overs or beyond

also, I suspect will be very much in the selection criteria, Yates will provide both a left hand/right hand option up top, and also a tall man/short man combination, both of which can help pick up a cheap boundary now and then

Gleeson is a concern for me too. Last year he was incredibly tight and economic, this year both for us and the 100 he has been taken for 10s in most games.

anyway I will be at Taunton, for all I am going not even in hope never mind expectation hahaha. Edit: I just looked at the Somerset squad , and rather wish I hadn't! At our best I don't think our batting is that much short of theirs, especially without Banton. But bloody hell, the bowling, and the seam bowling in particular, seems a level above ours.
Riley Meredith, Craig Overton, Jake Ball and Gregory as the seam all rounder, bugger me. There is major pressure on Danny Briggs here with those small boundaries and the bowlers around him.
we really need to see the new ball off here and I'll be delighted and surprised if we do.

We have often made a total 'Balls-Up', playing ordinary sides at home and messing up big-time so no reason why we shouldn't actually win away against a side who appear to reach Finals-Day quite often. Any bowler might have a great season-best 4-over spell that is the difference between a win and a loss. We have nothing to lose and it cannot surely be any worse than that awful game last year in the quarter-final.

Yeah it feels like a bit of a free hit tonight, we've nothing to lose.