Highveld
Member
It was an excellent bowling performance today, with Burgess doing a great job with the gloves.
Hopefully a nice warm and sunny day tomorrow, when we can enjoy watching Will Rhodes and Sam Hain batting us into a significant lead.
I am saying nothing!
Called off at 9:35 am
No play of the 3rd day, called off before 1pm. Possibly a single innings game tomorrow, but unlikely.
The RAW data will be available on several websites, I don't have the time to analyse the data now, but please feel free to do so.
In the games we have played the average opening partnership is 28, with 2 of the five innings having a partnership over 40.
Our opponents, from 8 innings, have an average opening partnership of just 7.5 with the highest being 17. Which shows our opening bowlers are very effective with the new ball.
I'm told, by a very reputable source, that the ground is very wet, and there is probably no play today.
Good to see Jacob Bethell has recovered enough from his back injury to be able to play as a specialist batsman.
It is very disappointing that some posters are willing to accept, and indeed even approve, of the consistent mediocrity, or worse, of some players.
In any workplace if people are consistently failing to perform at the required standard it puts extra pressure on the remaining team members, as well as having a very demotivating effect.
Good management ensures that the under performing members improve, to an acceptable standard, or are they are replaced with someone who can perform at the required level.
Good points from both @BristolBears & @Coolerking.
If I have time I'll look at other counties players. The main point however is the neither of our openers are really doing any better than last season, and are the main area of the team that needs improvement. The side has a great middle order, an excellent keeper and one of the best bowling attacks, it would be a shame to miss out on success due to the consistent failures of the openers.
An average of 30 is, in most places, considered to be the minimum acceptable for a specialist batsman, to be perfroming c30% below hat ism't acceptable. so to be over 60% below is totally unacceptable and should be raising questions about the players place in the side.
When looking at the championship batting averages the most consistent players are Sam Hain and Ed Barnard, indeed they are the only two who have what could be considered an acceptable average. Looking at the average minus tghe highest score, a more accurate way to show a batsmans value over the season, Sam is averaging over 41, with Ed on 28.67. Yates has a, minus best score, average of just 10.5 and for Davies it's 22.75, niether of which is acceptable for a specialist batsman.
for consistant success a much greater contribution is needed from both openers.
It gives him a good opportunity, hopefully he gets on the field and shows what he is capable of.
What does it say about the other second team bowlers that "even" Derbyshire don't want them.
The shot from Davies was totally unacceptable in the context of the score and the position in the game. He is not worth a place in the side, and the consitant poor dismissals shows he should be be trusted as vice captain.
The current opening partnership is not working, and ids putting pressure on Hains and Rhodes to rescue the side from bad starts every innings, the currents situation is not acceptable.
It is time for Robinson to make changes for the good of the entire team.
Not excusing the poor performance, but there is a massive difference in the experience of the two sides, with Somerset having several players with ODI experience.
More concerning than the poor batting is the ineffectiveness of the seam bowlers. Based on this performance, some of them are nowhere near the level needed to be a viable first team option.
Live scores link https://live.nvplay.com/ecb/#m9de393f9-70be-43ca-b49c-1d340d284867_~scorecard
Second innings hasn't started well at 20/3.
Today was better than a lifetime of T20 or other short versions of the game.
All part of the challenge of proper red ball cricket, the result is totally unpredictable and a side can recover from a bad position.