Andy wrote:

I remember the 40 over semi in 2010 at Scarborough. I have zero recall of us playing a T20 up there? Think 2009 we played up there in the CC.

I remember i went up I am pretty sure for two consecutive years for white ball games, definitely 2010 was one of them because I saw Imran Tahir's utterly gorgeous wife with him after

it was definitely 2 white ball games as I've not seen a red ball game there

Andy wrote:

I remember the 40 over semi in 2010 at Scarborough. I have zero recall of us playing a T20 up there? Think 2009 we played up there in the CC.

I remember i went up I am pretty sure for two consecutive years for white ball games, definitely 2010 was one of them because I saw Imran Tahir's utterly gorgeous wife with him after

it was definitely 2 white ball games as I've not seen a red ball game there

Andy wrote:

Yep no more 4day cricket til September and like I said in the Worcestershire thread we'll have had no cricket at Edgbaston from July 25th til August 26th. That's just a disgrace.

I thought we were all for 'taking us out to the out grounds' and giving a chance for fans at the opposite end of the country geographically?

Andy wrote:

Can't wait for tomorrow to watch us in a format I still really enjoy at one of my favourite away grounds to watch cricket, Scarborough.

same here Scarborough is probably my favourite single ground to watch cricket, very happy memories of I think it was a 40 over semi final and a T20 QF (or maybe it was 40 ovs both times) in consecutive years, 2009 and 2010 i think it was.

ExiledBrummie wrote:

How long do we have Webster for? Hope whatever that he's back in 2026.

Indeed, and I am sure someone has probably answered this already but it would really be great if he was around for the T20 in Sept, his game looks ideal for the format

I'm in the minority, I actually like Finals Day being somewhat later as I hate being in the sun all day and actually quite like watching cricket in cool weather.

It seems to produce relatively low-scoring games, too (again I am probably in the minority, I really enjoy nip and tuck T20 where the bowlers have a fair chance and batters need to think and work hard for their runs)

Tayls79 wrote:

In cricketing terms, it probably is, hence my caveat that people can judge it how they like, but I do like the link to statistical analysis - a bit nerdy on this as is part of my job. Do agree with Highveldt that baseball takes it to the next level while the current Bazball age (in the UK) does seem to reduce the emphasis on data and replacing it with 'vibes' which is far more fun to discuss.

I find the blithe arrogance of the England setup where they feel their taps nose, I know what I am seeing intuitive genius overrides statistics to be grating and highly annoying.

Whilst I agree the club and ECB are if anything almost deliberately underselling the 4 day game, and quite probably for the reasons given, I think the expectations of people regarding kids turning up to a days County cricket are rather unrealistic, myself. There seems to be a perception we'd be teeming with thousands if only there was a marketing campaign. Personally I think there is a lot of living in the past, here.

oh and speaking of development, nice to see Ethan Brookes' stats for the year so far, 323 runs (10 more than Barnard and Mousley) at SR155 (compared to Mousley SR146 and Barnard SR161), he is basically their joint top scorer along with Hose and scoring at a significantly better lick than Hose.

Tayls79 wrote:

Both the last two posts are the point of this competition: Development. Agree Kai needs to take the gloves and this is a good opportunity to practice and for Davies to rest from behind the stumps (indeed, if he plays at all). Barnard has also developed in this competition, his run with the bat in 2023 changed things for him massively in his status at the club.

Indeed, the Hundred's loss is our gain

If Barnard isn't drafted for the Hundred its an indictment of the weird biases that have afflicted those teams from the start. Players get picked much more for headlines (what has Rocky Flintoff's productivity been like this year in T20? however it makes a great headline that he is in his dad's team) and on reputation than productivity.

Barnard being our second-top scorer having come in at numbers 5 or 6 and at SR165ish is one of the better stats for batters in the T20 comp this year. He just isn't 'sexy' enough reputationally and I suspect the significant increase in his SR has passed complacent so-called 'experts' by entirely.

Still, it suits our purposes very nicely. It seems to me his overall batting game was really allowed to develop playing in the top order for the last couple of years in the 50 overs, he got loads of time at the crease.

Reabank wrote:

Certainly never got much love on this forum nor, in recent years, from Warwickshire management. His record for us wasn't bad 105 wickets at 32.4. Taking 47 wickets at 21 in our county championship winning season.

fair enough his stats in both cases are better than I would have thought, thanks

and yes I will certainly always remember the way he'd chase balls down and hurl himself around as a boundary-rider, very athletic and committed fielder for a big fast bowler

FWIW i believe avg score at New Road is a shade over 170

has anyone else noticed how often Briggs gets wickets with the delivery immediately after he has been hit for a boundary, often with the batsmen trying to repeat the same shot? batsmen after all these years and wickets still don't seem to be able to work out that even if they think he's feeding them the same delivery again, he probably isn't!

sdobbs wrote:

Good to see Garton picking up POTM. Two good back to back performances. He seems to be a confidence player so hopefully this run can continue. Mentioned a potential interest in red ball in the Sussex game radio interview, definitely something to consider.....

indeed, his match-winning/changing 'cameos' with the bat are starting to become something of a regular occurrence, i think that is now 4 times this season he has really played an impactful innings at the end. it was really affecting our flexibility/options when one of our seamers was only bowling 1 over, albeit at least a couple of times he bowled really good opening overs only to not get another nod from Davies, so having him bowl 2-3 good ones changes the dynamic significantly.

i like the fact that Mousley in particular is playing more aggressively. when he first came into the team at 5/6 his SR was excellent but since we played him at 3 it really seemed to regress and he seemed to be caught between two stools, trying to play long innings but often getting stuck at the crease and chewing up deliveries that Hain could have faced and consistently going at around SR130 over quite a few deliveries.

Devon_Bear wrote:
. Why they think he's better off sitting in the pavilion kicking his heels for 5 days instead of playing for his county side i do not know.

What, you don't think he will grow as a cricketer and, indeed, as a man, just having the chance to be around the stardust-sprinkled charisma, leadership and tactical nous of England's Talismanic Captain, Ben Stokes?

Andy wrote:

It's the lack of front arm that gets me, how is he generating so much pace from that. He's utterly rapid.

yeah exactly there really doesn't seem to be much bodily effort going into it (compared to say Garton who has a huge gather and seems to put a massive stress through his back and shoulders), like i say my best guess is he's a big man travelling through the crease very quickly and loses minimum possible speed from his quick run-up through his delivery stride, it seems very efficient in that way and like I say very similar to Hassan

its fascinating, watching bowlers, how many different actions there are, how everyone exploits their bodily mechanics in different idiosyncratic ways. you could put a blacked-out shadow of Hassan Ali bowling projected against a wall and I'd know it immediately.

It was the first time I have really paid attention to Gleeson and I found it fascinating. For such a big man if you watch him go through the crease he resembles a Hassan Ali type much more than say a Flintoff, there's no big leap and gather, he really has a beautiful nimble, light-footed skip through the crease so his quite fast run-up hardly loses any pace.

Garton's yorker to Buttler, though, eh? what a ball BTW

as well as Mousley timed the ball i thought Wood's poor bowling cost them the game, Mouse got most of his early boundaries off rank half volleys on leg stump and one through the off side and IIRC Latham and Davies also benefitted from him giving too much width through the off side to that short boundary, their boundaries were gimme balls pretty much with that boundary width.

considering how their spinners often manage to restrict us when we play them away from home (and we often aren't the best at capitalising on spin in the middle overs) I thought we did really well to take Green down for 10s Wells for 8s and Hartley for I think 7s, also we targeted and gave their number 3 seamer the treatment in his first over which was smart cricket.

the players clearly felt it was a 200+ par pitch hence how hard they went and, as said above, the only way to prevent getting hammered on that pitch was to take wickets consistently.

If I were a Lancs fan I'd have been very unhappy with Jennings's flick to the one fielder out on that boundary and I thought Turner's shot off i think Briggs's second ball was also a poor decision.

i don't usually say this but i felt they lost it at least as much as we won it, we got far too many boundaries early that we didn't have to really work for.