Hasan for the injured Rushworth.

Still no Hain? Surprised after he made appearance as sub v Durham on day 4.

Dukes ball back.

No Keith Barker. Appears Hampshire will line up with the same XI that drew with Lancashire.

A ground we've traditionally struggled on though we did win there last season.

Been bald as a coot for a while now I think

Tom Rogers

What did they look like?

Maybe he's still finding his way after injury? Don't think he's a top 5 batter at the moment.

Going forward how would people feel about leaving Briggs out of the side in 4day cricket whilst using Yates and Mousley/Bethell to bowl the spin overs? For sure they'd still be times we'd pick Briggs on certain pitches against certain opponents but we could also have the option of leaving him out and playing an extra seamer or batter.

ExiledBrummie wrote:

Andy wrote:

Incredible effort to give us a sniff, Yates outbowling Briggs.

I'm also impressed we used 9 bowlers.

Yeah I like that, if you have the resources use them, particularly with the spinners, you just never know.

Incredible effort to give us a sniff, Yates outbowling Briggs.

Have always admired Melinda Farrell as a broadcaster but she's been absolutely fantastic on ball by ball comes thus far, a real natural.

Yates is getting some turn

First thimg that springs to mind is back when Taunton had them silly excessively turning tracks I remember Ravi Patel took 7fer for Middlesex v Somerset, fairly sure that was on the first day. 2016 or 2017 sounds about right.

meashambear wrote:

Cracking partnership today. Durham have a bit more pace than most attacks and with it coming onto the ball nicely along with a short boundary, Davies looks like he is in his element.

It does have to be said that there are not many wickets anywhere today (2 for Garrett).

Yes it's very, very early days but it's nice to see George Garrett getting a few wickets. Another academy lad who never got a proper go at Edgbaston.

Yes let's enjoy it. Imagine being on the other end of that today?!

Fair play to them both.

We released 3 homegrown bowlers during the past close season and replaced them with T20 specialists. Now we're here.

Hampshire away I think

Better weather forecast.

Kookaburra or Dukes?

Durham will be a good test for us, some good players, particularly the bowlers Boland, Potts, Carse etc

Dobell said in The Cricketer that Booth was registered overseas for this game as he doesn't qualify as a local player until the end of the 2025 season.

Norwell injured and "out for a few weeks...".

I don't think the batting in the 1st innings has been as big an issue as what's been made out. Sure it would have been nice if someone could have gone onto three figures but we've made 333 without Hain and we do have a pretty long tail. We'd have struggled to make 200 last season under the same circumstances.

Bowling has been more of a concern. Lack of pace in our attack has been totally exposed. Someone on a previous page criticised the Worcestershire attack, I think that's harsh on Smith and Finch who have got pace (particularly Smith) and the whole attack is probably a little more varied than ours. We've looked pop gun. 3 more rounds of Kookaburra this season is it? We're crying out for someone with a yard of pace here.

I know praising the opposition doesn't seem to be the done thing on these boards but this is a stunning knock.