I think we got a bit unlucky that they managed to build that score. Umpires screwed us badly.
Davies and Simpson were both out but not given multiple times early in their innings. If they’re out early as they should have been, they don’t bat those 20 overs between them. So De Caires and Higgins come in on a tougher pitch, newer ball etc. and they probably struggle the same way we did. It was clear it got easier to bat the older the ball got and as the pitch dried more through the day.

The keeper and slips seem to keep pointing to something Jennings is doing with feet when he’s coming down. That’s what OHD was pointing at too.

Suspect they’re all very unhappy with some of the decisions that have gone against them this morning.
Would be interested to know what it was all about.

I know it’s probably evened out because of the Wells dismissal.
But the Burgess decision was poor. Clearly doesn’t hit it.
Looks like the umpires gave into the appeal.

Been a fair few other questionable decisions this match.

Andy wrote:

Honestly irrespective of the 2 wickets, Barnard has bowled consistently very well here, beat the bat so many times.

This is probably the best he’s bowled all year. Just seems to have a bit more zip today.

I’m not sure Barnard has really hit his straps this season. Seen glimpses with the bat. Not too much with the ball.

I don’t think they will, but I’d be tempted to leave him and Bethell out. Suspect it’ll be Brookes and Bethell though.

Looks like the forecast has improved dramatically for the next couple of days.
Some interesting comments from OHD about the kookaburra ball, I’d completely forgotten we were using one. Suspect it’ll be a case of try and bat the entire day, give the bowlers some time with their feet up. Score as many as we can, not like we’re short of batting.

Not sure we’ll get much play tomorrow if the forecast is right.
But in a great position. Time to get as many batting points as possible and only bat once.

Going to risk saying this now before the inevitable collapse, but I think it’s a much flatter pitch than they made it look. They chose to bat for a reason.
Thought we bowled well on it, got some bounce, a bit of movement in the air with the new ball, but nothing extravagant or that you’d expect to leave a team 70 odd for 7. I think they batted poorly. Gave away their wickets often.
The scoring shots they managed to play from the top order and Stewart, show it’s a decent pitch. You can trust the bounce, hit through the line and it comes on nicely.
If the openers keep going like this, after tea if we lose a wicket I’d be tempted to send in Maxwell or Burgess. See if we can be level or ahead by the end of the day, and minimise the effect of the forecast rain tomorrow.

Think Lintott missing out for Maxwell says everything you need to know about how Robinson views Lintotts red ball bowling.

Am I missing something? Hain is part of the 12 named, at least the picture I just checked on Twitter names him in the squad, the website says he’s back too, it’s Mousley who’s out because of his hand.
I could see Bethell not playing with Hain back.
Maxwell fitting in at 5 or 6 instead of Mousley.

Weather suggests fine and sunny today, pretty poor the next 2 days.

Benjamin strikes me as one of those players who burst onto the scene and was great whilst people didn’t really know him. But now there’s lots of video on him, with teams doing lots of video analysis now, he’s clearly struggled a lot more.
He’s great on a flat deck, with the ball coming on nicely, not moving in the air (who isn’t), but if it’s tricky he just isn’t the guy in red or white ball.

I don’t think there’s a big difference at all between the 2 groups. If you look at the Lancashire side for example, they’re stacked but could lose to a stacked Surrey team.
We should have had the talent to win that match. I think part of it is a mental issue. After so many failures at the same stage it starts to weigh on you.
But I think it’s also the type of batsman we have. We have players who have flashes of brilliance followed by 3 games of nothing. And that means the odds of them not performing in a one off game, are much higher than them coming off. This is survivable in the group stages, but bites hard in the knockouts, especially when other teams raise their game.

Andy wrote:

Hose and Burgess played in previous seasons and previous quarter finals losses so what are you saying here averages aside? What are their strike rates like?

I think when you consider the international call ups we've had to contend with and then injuries I think it's been a great effort to make the quarter finals.

I'll make more comment on tonight's game later, my mind is scrambled!

Just that we have a lot of players who are very inconsistent and seem to be getting by on reputation rather than performance. And in knock out matches inconsistency is what kills you.

In regards to international call ups, didn’t we all agree we were better without Moeen? Now we’re using it as an excuse. We never have Woakes, we have accepted that same as Durham don’t have Wood and Stokes. Worcestershire don’t have Tongue. Yorkshire don’t have Root, Bairstow and Brook. It’s part of the game.
Same with injuries, every side has them. We have one of the biggest squads, we should be able to deal with it.
We need to rethink a couple of places in that batting line up. Benjamin is probably the most vulnerable.

Another year. Another choke in the quarter finals.
If Essex could run properly between the wickets it wouldn’t have even been close. Let alone their massive attempt to blow it in the last 2 overs.
The batting is just too Hain reliant. Need someone else to pitch in consistently.
Just seen a stat that sums it up really: 2 players that we let leave the club entirely and on loan this season in Hose and Burgess both averaged more than all our batsmen except Hain and Yates.
So Mousley, Davies, Maxwell, Moeen, Bethell, Benjamin, Barnard. For all the hype, this supposedly star studded line up, averaged less than 2 players we deemed surplus to requirements. That’s a bit embarrassing if you’re Robinson.
Even worse when you consider they were playing in sides that are considered weaker.

Feel desperately for Olly.
But you start to wonder how mental it is. You start looking for things that other bowlers might ignore. Struggle to bowl through minor issues because you’re scared of the huge injury.
I know there’s those that suspect that might be Norwells problem last year.

Think we’re definitely seeing why this is OHDs first T20 match of the season.
I’d like to see Davies stood up to him though. Would give the batsman something else to think about.

Out of interest does anyone know the general make up of our squad in terms of private vs state educated?

I do see the racism and sexism issues as a reflection on wider society. I think that affects all sports. You see it in all sports.
I remember, I think it was last year, Michael Chopra questioning why so few from Indian and Pakistani backgrounds played organised football and there were zero English born professionals from those backgrounds in English leagues.

The class issue I lay purely at the feet of the ECB. They’ve left a huge gulf develop in terms of coaching and funding around the age of 13. State schools don’t have the funding, and coaches will always follow the money like any other profession. And the money is in private schools because the ECB hasn’t helped keep the game alive in state schools. So players from those backgrounds develop faster, they play more, they have more access, and quite frankly kids are competitive, they want to win. And if one team of kids is training all winter, got dedicated cricket coaches, getting the best talent in scholarships because that’s the only way kids can make it professionally it seems, why would state school kids want to keep playing and getting beaten. Easier to write it off as a sport for posho’s and play football. Because they have coaches in their schools who are very good at coaching that and doing training for that.

I saw a wonderful point from someone on another site, how many dedicated cricket coaches salaries could be paid for from the wages of the players alone in the hundred. Even without the marketing and other crazy costs involved with setting it up, just the players wages could pay for hundreds of dedicated coaches to be kept in state schools and keep the game alive and a wider player pool.
But the coaches are in private schools, those same coaches are often the “pathway” coaches, and it’s easy to see how we get to where we are.
You could agree with local clubs for schools to use their nets and pitches.
Because as good as clubs are when players get to 16 upwards and adult cricket. You need to get to the players when they’re younger, and not have to make parents drive them to training at a club or to matches. Get them whilst they’re at school, they have to be there, get them into the game there. Because some parents won’t consider cricket, won’t take them to a cricket club, so you’ve got to get them into the sport at school age.

Batting on days 3&4 on that pitch was always going to be tough.
And the toss was huge. The pitch was at its best to bat on day 1, and we had to field for a day and bit, on the hottest day of the year.

I suspect it would have been different the other way round, but not sure how much so because Harmer showed the huge gulf in class between himself and our spinners.

That’s twice now Rhodes has been set, has looked comfortable, and manages to edge one behind.
At least it seemed a decent ball this time, unlike the first innings. But really needed more than 40 from him. It’s gonna be hard enough to get in on this pitch against Harmer, so got to stay there when set.