I don’t think the performance was any different to the Derbyshire win. The opposition was better.
And as many of us said then, good but room for improvement in certain areas. Which against teams in form can cost you.

Biggest concern for me was leadership, and I mean that in a sense wider than just captaincy.
Davies captaincy was poor, Briggs only bowling 2 for example. He seems to not adapt in game very well, and the comparison between him and David Willey as a captain was stark.
Moeen Ali had the chance to show his experience and manage the chase as a senior player should, just as it became clear Mousley was getting frustrated and he needed to take control of the chase from that point. Instead he seemed to shirk all responsibility.
And once again there seemed to be a lack of a plan, when we couldn’t smash a couple of boundaries every over or they were scoring freely.
These are things that against a lesser opponent that you can overcome, but against better teams and in close matches they make the difference. Once again, they’re not insurmountable these are issues that can be fixed if they’re acknowledged.

Can’t quite make my mind up about this team yet. There’s a great deal of promise but also clear room for improvement, as has been mentioned. Can’t help but notice the 4 teams we’ve played have been against the 4 teams below us.
The 2 we’ve won are the 2 at the very bottom of the table.
So I think we’ll learn more when we play Northants, who are obviously unbeaten. But then we play Notts and Yorkshire again, so I wonder if the fixtures work well for us to learn a lot, not play great but still be able to win due to the weaker opponents in the early rounds.

That’s a real shame. Think the move was a very smart one for him.
I always thought with him it would be a matter of confidence combined with circumstances.
Give him a flattish deck, Div 2 bowlers or bowlers just off their game, and a bit of confidence or where he’s not playing for his place, he can look really good. And he’s got that at Kent.
But against top opposition, bowler friendly conditions or when he’s questioning himself or his place in the team is under threat, it doesn’t look great, as we saw the last year or 2.

Thank god Yorkshire are rubbish.
Up there with one of the worst batting collapses I’ve seen from such a strong position.

Some iffy captaincy up until the collapse, some odd field settings and bowling changes.

Hopefully we don’t do a Yorkshire, but Latham and Davies look to be handling this comfortably.

Mousley and Hassan are massive returns.
Mousley’s bowling is really reliable in this format, aggressive with the bat and he’s an excellent fielder.
I’d go with:
Davies
Ali
Hain
Latham
Barnard
Mousley
Smith
Garton
Ali
Briggs
Miles

7 bowling options (if Garton bowls), batting ability down to 9.

Can’t say I’m overly surprised by those stats.
The one glaring issue for the Bears though is what they refer to as “execution” in the article, with both bat and ball.

Right now, we might score 90 or 250. But I’m not sure we could protect either with our current bowling and fielding.

What I would say with the 1’s and 2’s thing, is whilst they’re not match winning, it is a way to create more match winning boundaries. We all know that rotating the strike off good balls can mess with bowlers plans, captains change the field, and so more boundary opportunities arise from bad balls due to disrupted rhythm or new gaps.

For me, and it’s not ideal but, Latham can play that Joe Root or Williamson in T20. Manipulate, take the runs on offer, find the gaps etc, before you know it he’s 30 off 20 and then has the chance to accelerate, whilst others are more attacking around him. The issue is, Hain tends to take 10-15 balls to get going and those 2 together could get stuck for 4 or 5 overs.

Captaincy and tactics is an issue. I thought Moeen was there for that, but seems Davies is still running the show. They need to spend a couple of days deciding how they want to play or how they should play based on the players at their disposal, and create plans based on that. Clarity allows players to execute much easier because they know what they’re supposed to be doing. We’re seeing it currently, our players who are mentally the strongest in terms of knowing their games, their cricket IQ, their thought process when batting or bowling, the likes of Hain, Barnard, and Briggs, they’re doing the best right now.

For me the 2 games have just left me with a lot of questions.
-Why Sylvester over Simmons? If Derby are willing to let him trial and go out on loan, that suggests something. Plus he looks unfit. Why not give our own contracted player a go?
-What’s the plan, both batting and bowling? I know T20 can look like slogging but there is more to it, players have different roles, manipulate fields etc. Same with the bowling, who are the openers, are we relying on spin in the middle overs, who’s the death bowlers?
-What are our fielding and bowling tactics? It just seems to be fling to down the same way to every batsman and then change the field to chase the ball.

I appreciate there are a lot of key players, who were supposed to play a big role, unavailable for various reasons. But that doesn’t excuse some of what’s occurred so far. The other side might be more talented or execute better on the night, but there’s no excuse for a lack of planning and preparedness on the pitch, which seems to be the case currently. Luckily that can be remedied, but it requires leadership to acknowledge it first.

Considering Woakes was at 9, we had a lot of batting strength, going 160 odd for 2 to 227 all out is pretty poor.

Yates’ form is starting to become a bit of a concern.

He’s in the squad, but will he play? We know how funny England can get. Probably works in our favour England are batting today so no bowler can be injured and England request Woakes is wrapped in cotton wool.
I think he will play but there’ll be a limit on the number of overs he can bowl.

Interestingly I saw last week Woakes went and did some work with Pop Welch. I still find it bizarre the club let him leave, best bowling coach I can remember in a very long time.

Not to be overly pessimistic, but do we think Moeen plays the first game? His final game in the IPL is the 25th. First Bears game is the 30th.
Wouldn’t be the first time we’ve seen a player need a “break” following arrival from another franchise tournament.
And as much as I love him as a player, I don’t get the feeling from him that he’s so passionate about the club that he’ll play no matter what.

For me, there’s a lack of consistency in everyone but Barnard and Webster this season. We saw it last year, and the consensus was that Barnard, OHD and Burgess were the only truly consistent ones. Well we’ve lost one of those, plus Rhodes who was reliable towards the second half of the year, and had the partnership breaking knack. Plus OHD has been overcoming an injury. Which means we need other senior players to step up. Hain and Davies especially with the bat.
Think there’s a few players just trying to be something they’re not, not being used in the right way, or still learning their game.

Yates is a great example, suspect for him the recent England selections that have got in his head. The idea that openers must go at it from ball one. Just puts doubt in his own mind, does he see the new ball out then attack or just attack. Seen a few shots that are inbetween and that’s going to cause him problems. Just needs to play his own game.

Similarly as others have mentioned, use Simmons when the conditions best suit him. Senior bowlers are all good enough to build pressure in those middle overs.

Davies probably has to accept that captaining, keeping and opening is too much. The best for the side would be to take the gloves off him. But who knows, it’ll say a lot about him if he continues to try and struggle on doing it if it’s having a negative effect on the team overall.

Malik, Hamza, Smith and Ali are still young and learning at this level, so you’d expect that lack of consistency.

ExiledBrummie wrote:

BristolBear wrote:

His bowling reminds me a bit of McAndrew from a few seasons back. Bowls a heavy ball, gives full effort, and he’ll be reliable, but maybe not the elite pace or skill of someone like Henry, Abbas or Roach.

Suspect he’ll replace Burgess at 7 in the order, with Barnard still 6.
As with all these things, time will tell.

Who's the keeper in this scenario and is he at 5 or 8?

I assumed it would be Latham or Davies.

His bowling reminds me a bit of McAndrew from a few seasons back. Bowls a heavy ball, gives full effort, and he’ll be reliable, but maybe not the elite pace or skill of someone like Henry, Abbas or Roach.

Suspect he’ll replace Burgess at 7 in the order, with Barnard still 6.
As with all these things, time will tell.

I think there’s a difference between players coming from those schools, and a link and using those schools.
For example I know Surrey actively fund scholarships, and have ex players as coaches in Surrey private schools.
Some counties have “centres of excellence” set up at schools to convince parents to send their kids to those schools, and have contributed to funding facilities at those schools, to use them for age group matches and winter training. Even having school coaches having a role in coaching the county age groups to strengthen the link and provide consistency.
The connection between the county and the school is very obvious and deliberately so. And schools welcome it; because it helps them bolster their reputation and bring in more potential students because parents think going to that school gives them the best chance at making it.

The private school thing is crucial. Because league cricket doesn’t produce players the same way anymore.
If you look at the likes of Yorkshire, Lancashire, Surrey, Sussex, Middlesex, Somerset even Kent. They use partnerships with schools. Sedbergh, Whitgift, Tonbridge, Cranleigh, Manchester Grammar, Merchant Taylor’s, Eastbourne, Millfield, King’s Taunton, all have strong links to the counties. They get year round coaching with top coaches, with top facilities, playing other schools with strong teams. Those counties go out of their way to get the best young players into those schools on scholarships.
It’s a shame the sport has come to this because the ECB and government destroyed cricket in the state system. But the club should have adapted like so many others.

I wonder if this is jump before pushed departure following the end of year review.
What it does do is make Robinson staying more likely. You can’t see them push out both the DoC and Head Coach close together.
Ironically I think most would have preferred it the other way round.

I think we’ve got to the point now where Robinson stays. Even if they sack him today, they’ve got to put the job out there, interview etc. by the time that’s done you can’t see someone in the role by mid-January at the absolute earliest, that’s if they turn up immediately too and don’t wait to get a DoC in first.
They then have to get to know the team, you’ve got a pre-season tour, and likely no DoC to help with any of it.
The clubs sloth like process has basically saved Robinson’s job. Which calls into question the entire leadership.

Bald_Reynard wrote:
Intriguingly one ex-bear, who has been touted as a possible new Head Coach (you all know who)! I think someone on here speculated that his international and South African work (in a lovely southern hemisphere summer) might mean he wouldn't fancy an Edgbaston return. Well ........ ?!

If they could convince him then that would be a huge achievement. I wrote him off simply because my logic would be, why earn half as much for twice the work, in less enjoyable weather conditions.
Would say quite a bit about his work ethic, how he views championship cricket and his views on the club if he did decide to come.

I think that’s going to be a huge loss. A very popular member of the team and one of the most reliable players too.

Got to hand it to him, it’s brave to take a step into the unknown like that. Reminds me a bit of Fabian Cowdrey a few years ago, an excellent county pro, retiring young and deciding he wanted to work outside the game.

Trott only signed this summer to be the coach of one of the South African IPL franchises.
Paid more for a months work there than a year in county cricket. Plus he’s “home” and the weather is nicer.
Think he’s off the table for a couple of years unless a major test playing nation game in for him. Likely only England, New Zealand or South Africa.