A comprehensive victory chasing down a target which at the halfway stage never looked anywhere near enough on an easy paced pitch with bounce and an incredibly fast outfield. A very bobbly, fast, outfield too. A mediocre, though pacy, looking Lancs attack also. I said to myself when I arrived to the ground this morning theyd be a lot of misfields and fumbles on this from just looking at it. Brilliant bowling from Taz who seemed to bowl a touch quicker, only a touch, today in order to exploit the bounce. Performing well in away game is another feather in his cap. Yates bowled a good spell unchanged too and deserved his 2 wickets.

The reply probably looked a little odd to begin and I admit I had a couple of moments where I thought "whys he done that?!" but I just think this Lancs team was there for the taking all day long and this was a good opportunity to blast the run rate. You'd like to see Yates and Barnard to go on but fair play to them on getting such a fast start that it allowed the middle order to just come in with the rest of the chase feeling a lot more comfortable. Quite unselfish really. Great to see Zen Malik and Hamza looking so confident and positive and getting rewarded with sizeable scores. Hamza looks a particularly clean hitter with beautiful timing.

Was impressed at the amount of Bears fans at New Street Station this morning.

I got into Liverpool Lime Street early and had breakfast before taking the long walk along the Mersey towards Allerton and Aigburth, was a peaceful, long, but enjoyable walk. I always find Liverpool to be a lovely city and its people to be so warm and friendly.

My first visit to Liverpool Cricket Club, it ain't the best. The pavilion is a lovely looking building but is set back so far from the playing area meaning that the huge sitescreen is quite a way in front of it which results in the view from the pavilion being quite badly restricted. However it was nice to be able to access it as a member and use the bar and toilets (the portable lavs were a shambles before the game even started and the queues during it, well...) just wish the viewing was better. Bizarre to me that they don't have a temporary stand on the side because they definitely have the space for one and it's not always nice having to try and peer between people's heads to see the game if you can't get on a folding chair at the boundary edge. It wouldn't ruin the aesthetic of the ground as its not the prettiest outground anyway.

Now on a train from Mossley Hill back to Birmingham New Street, Mossley Hill a straightforward 25min walk from Liverpool Cricket Club. Will be nice to be home a bit earlier than anticipated!

Re. Mousley, I feel like he leaves us for the Hundread with his game in pretty good shape every year then comes back looking totally out of sorts for the September run in. He either doesn't play or bats 7 and hardly gets a hit or just bowls 5 balls. He'd benefit so much more from playing ODC and batting in the top 4 for us and constructing his innings and also bowling a bit more in different game situations, middle overs etc.

I'm heading up tomorrow, my first visit to Aigburth. No temporary stand apparently which is a shame.

Oh yeah, where's that gone?!

He's been available just not getting selected. Apparently he's been sat in the 'dug out' at games with all the gear on.

Also, I don't know if its been mentioned but on social media Warwickshire put a squad up on Saturday night in readiness for Sunday v Somerset and it had Sam Hain in it. This post was removed minutes later I'm told.

A brilliant, brilliant run chase and great one for the learning curve of these young batters.

Chasing over 300 with the highest individual score being only 50 has to be some sort of record right? Can't have happened too many times before.

I thought we needed somebody in the top 5 to ton up but we had such solid contributions all the way down. We were always just about in a decent place regarding our run rate and always had just about enough wickets in hand throughout the innings. Yates showed a bit more fluency today, looks better when he drives straight and pulls off the front foot, Zen was lucky early in his innings 21 of his first 25 runs were via edges but looked better once settled, Hamza showed a bit of demonstrable quality today, you saw it for the first time that bit of class and flair, Lintott clearly in good form with the bat, an excellent display of calculated hitting, Jani 21 off 14 doesn't sound remarkable but he only took up 2 dot balls and the two boundaries he hit were vital at the time in order to get us near run a ball. Kai Smith is quite clearly good under pressure and has the ability to remain calm and work through situations. A problem solver.

Massive win from a league table perspective, had we lost today we'd have really been playing catch up.

A good team win, and not for the first time this season. We seem to have this habit of creeping up on sides. We definitely have more fight and toughness/togetherness under Westwood and are able to hang in games more and take them deep. Under Robbo we'd go behind in a game and get steamrollered. That's not always been the case this season.

Let's take this deep, come on...

Yeah fair, have been the most one eyed commentary team on the circuit for a while but they are nice people.

Bald_Reynard wrote:

Why do we persist in giving so many overs to Yates, when he clearly can't get any wickets and continually gets thumped around the ground (7 an over at the moment!). He's had more overs than any other bowler - crazy!

To be fair he was extremely economical until his last over which went for 19. But yeah he has bowled a bit more than he might have. All the spinners got banged. Can't see us getting these unless somebody tons up, which a few of our guys are capable of and due so fingers crossed.

10 out of the 11 in that Somerset side have come through their academy I think.

Fair, I must stress re. Yates. I'm not knocking the lad, he bowled well and has a very decent List A record with the bat but today he must of hit the man at point atleast 10 times. Just an example of how we need to work the ball about a bit batter. They were all guilty, just Yates an obvious example probably cos he opened. Likewise Hamza, nice to see him get a few, chewed up a lot of dots though.

It's hard to get too upset, it's just how it goes sometimes.

Have to keep in mind too that the ball just wasn't coming onto the bat either, both sides batters found that hard.

Yeah remember him, great shame. Apparently when they called him say he'd been dropped he replied something along the lines of "Thank god for that..." and hung up.

Am I right in saying we only had Imran Tahir for 1 season because they'd been some sort of work permit cock up with him at Hampshire which meant they'd confirmed a deal with another overseas for that year? I'm sure it was something like that.

ITE7376 wrote:

paulbear wrote:

I enjoyed Imran Tahir during 2010, strange that he had 1 season and had an agreement to go back to Hampshire after his time with us. Wickets, and then you would have to try and see which direction he was racing off to.

ha. It would get to a point when he got on top when it would seem like every ball was an event, scooting off inside or outside edges or up in the air, thudding into pads, and all accompanies by his fervent dramatic pleas to the umpire, slumping knees to the ground, asking the uncaring heavens how fate could transpire against him so cruelly

his season with us was basically his break through season, I had a theory on it. His wife was literally one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen. Jaw-droppingly beautiful.

My theory was he was on a 'reward' deal with her, you know, in terms of marital relations, like 'no wicket no poom-poom', hence the fervent histrionic appeals and the desperate visible disappointment when the ump turned one down. And a hat trick? Just imagine what Mrs Tahir must have promised him if he got a hat trick, a whole weekend of 'poom poom' for you Imran.

Lol, animal

Frustrating, is what it is. A dry, worn wicket (the same wicket we used Wednesday), the longer our innings went on the bigger the Middlesex total looked. Ball not really coming on, nobody looked totally comfortable for long, the odd one keeping low aswell. Massive toss to win from Middlesex perspective, the ball was really starting to grip and hold up in the 2nd innings. Wonder what the reaction would have been had we played on such a surface at Edgbaston? I'm not necessarily against the odd pitch like this in one day cricket, can make for an interesting game but I can imagine what would be being said...

Yates battled well but he literally didn't score a run for about 25 mins at one point. Don't think the sweep is his best option either, seems to play it pre meditated but seems to be ridiculously slow in getting down to play it. He's had a decent couple of games though. Hamza showed impressive intent and confidence from the get go, looked stylish, that dismissal was poor however. Just feels as though a few too many of our guys have not really experienced that sort of run chase on a pitch like that at first team level so will be interesting to see how we go if/when we're here again. Remember Trott, the master of chasing these sort of totals, used to just bat through for 80 runs and walk off with us as winners.

What was up at the end? OHD looked most disappointed with his dismissal, was he insinuating the keeper knocked the bails off with his gloves?

Fair play to Lintott, it's interesting people have picked up on his body language etc as I've often felt his action falls away a bit when his low on confidence and he almost tries to bowl a bit quicker (overtrying?) and he drops short. He's not a massive turner of the ball so relies heavily on getting his lines right, having little margin for error. I was pleased to see him get a haul though as it felt as though people's opinions were maybe starting to turn on him a bit. Hopefully he can get back in the groove.

I appreciate and support Westwood trying to get everyone a game and rotate the bowlers to keep them fresh but I feel strongly that we should pick our best available side on Sunday which would mean Michael Booth coming in. But for who? Sylvester? Hmm. Sunday is an important game against a decent looking Somerset side.

Another good day was had though with excellent warm weather in front of a good, enthusiastic crowd. A larger crowd than Wednesday but not quite as large as last Sunday. Nice to see a few Middlesex supporters in as it was to see a good number of Northants supporters in on Sunday. Was probably a handy little trip on the train for Middlesex supporters.

What's the situation with guys getting released from the Hundread? I thought if a player missed 2 games in a row then that player could be released to play for his county? Happened with Brookes, Briggs, Bethell and Davies in 2023. I notice Freddie McCann and Liam Patterson-White were released to play for Nltts the other day. I'm not a close follower of the comp at all but I'm under the impression our guys haven't really been playing in that comp thus far?

Yeah Zen's got a bit of credit in the bank. Anyway, Lintott and OHD for Booth and Bamber. As indicated by Westwood after Wednesday we are rotating the bowlers.

Yeah I think that's fair. He spent time in Pakistan last winter didn't he? And time with the England squad I think.

Don't think yer as devastated as he is.

Yes I think the fact that Taz is fairly tall means that he can get above the eyeline without appearing to get too 'loopy' or floaty. It's the way he's getting his wickets too which is impressive, he's outfoxing batters as opposed to relying on batters to make mistakes. And his googly is well disguised, there's no obvious tell.

Like I said he's picking up some decent scalps. Kent looked short on seam bowlers but had a useful batting line up. They seem to have been ravaged quite badly by the Hundread. Irrespective, it's always good to give those tories a smashing!

Another good win. We won 1day games like this around 2014 when we reached the final, made decent, but not overwhelming, totals when batting first but putting the squeeze on the opposition when we defend. Good again from Taz Ali, the ball to get Leaning was magnificent and he did what all good leggys do by blowing away the tail. Definitely a ploy to hold him back for when the ball got a bit softer. Kent definitely a couple of bowlers short but they had some decent batters playing so it's a good win. Without trying to get ahead, way ahead, of things I'd expect Taz to be in our Blast side next season, in fact could he even gatecrash his way into the side for Somerset on Sept 6th?!

Sylvester bowled accurately, he's definitely an aggressive character, thought he may have been a case of him being a bit nervous when we witnessed him doing all that sledging when he played in the Blast but it seems its just the way he is. Be interesting to see how it goes for him because when he chirped Haynes and Clarke v Notts they laughed at him and promptly took him to the cleaners. Today it went for him, got a big wicket (Finch).

Much smaller crowd today, on Sunday there was quite a few Northants in as it being a local game for them, but today's smaller crowd made for a nice, relaxed atmosphere in more brilliant weather. What a summer we're having. Another good day.

BosworthBear, are these opinions acceptable?

That ain't a bad move, extensive playing career, come up the 'hard' way, plenty of experience to share. Probably worth chucking into the 1st XI if we encounter a green seamer under leaden skies with the Dukes ball. If fit!