Looking at the table, Somerset need a win today to stay in touch with Surrey, who are currently in a strong position to beat Lancs. If we can get a lead of around 350, then we could potentially have 70 - 75 overs to bowl at them and dangle the carrot - they really have to go for it.

Should be an exciting days cricket ahead.

What an absolutely astonishing innings from Kai Smith - take a bow young man! Credit as well to Will Rhodes for sticking around with him. Just brilliant!

If Birmingham Phoenix lose tomorrow night's match, they will be out of The Hundred. Could Ali, Bethall or Mousley possibly play on Friday?

I'm pleased we've got Rae back, i think he will be important for us in the remaining Championship games.

I think the one day team have done superbly, 3 wins in 5 days and all away from home - thats just brilliant.

Also great to see youngsters Shaikh, Smith & Ali get game time and for the next match Benjamin should be left out with Smith taking the gloves and Wylie bought in. Benjamin has played 14 T20 games & 3 one day games and i believe his highest score is 21 - enough is enough.

To close for comfort! Well done to Lintott & OHD for seeing us through at the end.

Bit harsh that lbw decision wasn't it? Rhodes wasn't convinced.

Two wonderful shots from young Smith - keep him in the side!

This was a great opportunity for Benjamin to get his head down and play a decent knock. If Burgess still can't keep wicket in the next game, give it to Kai Smith.

Crikey, looks like we're only going to have to use 3 bowlers in this match!

BristolBear wrote:

The Barnard & Burgess partnership is a very strong 1 for us. Seen it a few times in the championship, now in the 50 over.
If only we could get to see it in T20.

Exactly, it's frankly hard to understand why they are not regulars in T20. I just can't fathom out why Benjamin is preferred to Burgess as a wicket-keeper in T20, it's a nonsense. Hopefully, both Barnard & Burgess will be selected (if fit) for the quarter-finals in September - they both deserve to be involved.

Inside-edge wrote:

Jayden Seales was with Sussex for the first half of the season and I believe he is keen to return there next year. He was due to join them in 2023 but was injured.

Thanks for the info and fair play to Sussex for signing him up. We could do with a young, quality fast bowler for next season.

Good to see Chris Woakes taking a few wickets, hopefully he can regain some form now. I like the look of the West Indies fast bowler Jayden Seales, he's only 22/23 & i wonder if we could get him for next season in the Championship? We desperately lack a real quickie in our line-up, and I know he would be more costly than the usual overseas bowlers we normally end up with, but it would be great to sign someone of his calibre, it would be a real boost to us if we could land him.

How come we are away for 4 of our first 5 fixtures in the One Day Cup? This coming week we're having to travel to Chelmsford, Leicester and then Hove all in the space of 5 days, that must be a bit of a disadvantage to us in the early matches due to all that travelling.

I thought that Chris Benjamin might have been selected for this game, to give him a chance to score some runs. It will be good to see Che Simmons back, he looked promising at the start of the season.

GerryShedd wrote:

Regarding Chris Benjamin, there is only so much a coach can do to help someone who is totally out of form. It's not a matter of technique, more an inability to time the ball and (probably) a major lack of confidence.
What was most surprising to me was the decision to promote him to Sam Hain's slot at number four. If (for whatever reason) he was to be preferred to Burgess as keeper, I would have thought that he would have been hidden somewhere in the lower middle order.
Am I right in thinking that he is no longer in the Birmingham Phoenix squad for The Hundred this year? If so, that may mean that he will play in the 50 over competition.

Birmingham Phoenix squad:
Chris Woakes, Tim Southee (o), Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Ben Duckett, Benny Howell, Adam Milne (o), Jamie Smith, Louis Kimber, Sean Abbott (o), Tom Helm, James Fuller, Dan Mousley, Jacob Bethell, Aneurin Donald, Rishi Patel.

No Benjamin then, but a tasty looking squad!

Congratulations to Hamza for his century and also for captaining England to victory. Hope he gets a chance to play for us in the one day matches or even in the Championship.

Regarding the Benjamin situation, just what is the batting coach doing with him during the week? He hasn't improved at all, in fact with every game he looks worse and is clearly out-of-sorts. Surely there has to be questions asked about why he has been so poor and why there hasn't been any improvement from him all season.

Moeen's innings has been superb, now that was a good decision to have him open the batting!

It's clear for all to see that Benjamin has no confidence whatsoever, why on earth are they putting the poor bloke through it every week? It's become embarrassing. And how do they justify putting him ahead of Bethell & Barnard in the order?