Andy wrote:

Yeah Zen's got a bit of credit in the bank.

agreed, i want to see him given a good run in this 'development' competition

Andy wrote:

Don't think yer as devastated as he is.

Yes I think the fact that Taz is fairly tall means that he can get above the eyeline without appearing to get too 'loopy' or floaty. It's the way he's getting his wickets too which is impressive, he's outfoxing batters as opposed to relying on batters to make mistakes. And his googly is well disguised, there's no obvious tell.

yeah he's getting a nice proportion of bowled and lbw

. Good again from Taz Ali, the ball to get Leaning was magnificent

yeah I watched his first spell on the stream when I got home from work, I thought from Sunday that he definitely had a googly in his armory but the ball to get Leaning was a bloody great ripping, big-turning one. That's such a great indicator for his future as it totally changes the spectrum of threat for batsmen, especially against left handers.

I get a nasty feeling after a year or so we won't be seeing him again once England get a sniff. Albeit, with Rehan Ahmed's rapid development especially with the bat, I'm hoping his all-round ability will mean they pick him and there's no place in the England lineup for another leggie who doesn't bat nearly as well. Either that or they can stick with their arrogant, probably misguided, vibes-based pick of Bashir, fine with me if we get to keep Taz but in the long term I suspect it would be their loss. Taz strikes me as a bit more of a test-style leggie than Rehan does, FWIW, seems to flight it more.

its always nice to see a cross-generational connection at clubs

there's a Jaydn Denly playing for Kent- is Joe Denly old enough to have a lad in the Kent team? I guess he probably is?

Andy wrote:

That last paragraph, the shot he played to from 40 to 44 was sublime. Shot of the day.

he seems to be at his best when he isn't going too hard at the ball and that was a great example

Andy wrote:

Brilliant performance. Good day. Pleased for Alex Davies, it's a match winning knock really. Listen, I said years ago I'd have never signed him and he wouldn't be my choice of 4day captain right now but the stick he gets sometimes is way over the top and people are never so readily forthcoming with praise when he does well.

Oh and yes, considering the excellence of the knock yesterday to say the praise for it has been underwhelming is an understatement, most can barely bring themselves to even acknowledge it but i guess thats a problem with making someone a forum whipping boy, its tough to acknowledge when they do well (apparently). If Barnard had played that innings the plaudits would be audible from Edgbaston all the way to the Northampton border ;-)

I was quite happy when we signed him TBH as my memory of him for Lancs was a pretty positive one. He's out-performed my expectations in the CC but slightly underperformed them in the T20, where like I say his seeming insistence on being the quick scorer up front seems to have hampered his development as a cricketer. Even with that said, especially this season whilst he hasn't got a great weight of T20 runs he has absolutely fulfilled the assignment of scoring very quickly virtually every time and that is an asset for a team to have within a certain gameplan. Remember the Leicester team that won the first ever T20? role players was the key. If all Davies ever does in T20 is get 250-300 runs a season at SR165 and barely any 50s, thats doing a very good job in a certain role, its the Neil Carter role we should all recognise. It's just that, as he showed yesterday, he's better than that.

I really like watching him when he is on form as I love to watch the way he can manipulate it square and backward of square.

Andy wrote:

sdobbs wrote:

Poor experience at the ground. Only 1 entrance, spectators limited to half the boundary (rest is reserved for VIPs/hospitality and radio), no announcements, no on tap beer, members discount...not taking a day off work on Wednesday to be made to feel unwelcome

I agree Dobbs. The fact that we're only limited to half the ground is terrible, it's not a great viewing ground anyway. I want this outground experience to be good but I can only tell it how it is I'm afraid. Need more toilets too, there already filthy.

filthy doesn't match my experience of the toilets TBH mate I thought they were about as good as it gets for portaloos. maybe my expectations are slanted by nightmare festival experiences in the 1990s but i had no complaints at all on this front

Devon_Bear wrote:

Fair play to Davies, that was a great innings. Perhaps batting at 4 suits him better than opening?

i have said for ages that I would swap him and Hain in T20. I think Davies's straightjacketing himself as the 'aggressive opener' with a 'Bazball' mindset has led to his lack of scores beyond 50, I think Hain as our clearly best batsman should face the maximum possible number of deliveries, and actually I think Davies may be better suited as a 'finisher' type or coming in in the middle overs at 4/5. he's a busy player against spin, which, Hain can sometimes let spinners bowl at him, and I feel like he works the ball square and backward of square against spin possibly better than anyone else we have.

Andy wrote:

Brilliant performance. Good day. Pleased for Alex Davies, it's a match winning knock really. Listen, I said years ago I'd have never signed him and he wouldn't be my choice of 4day captain right now but the stick he gets sometimes is way over the top and people are never so readily forthcoming with praise when he does well. The lad tries and it was great to see him play such an excellent knock today.

Taz Ali was terrific, barely bowled a bad delivery, excellent control. Outbowled Chahal who is a fantastic white ball leggy. Can clearly bowl genuine wicket taking deliveries and he has a googly, so encouraging. Looks like he can hold a bat too. Also, the reaction from the team collectively when he got his 5fer was brilliant, they were all over the moon for him, lovely.

Chahal is the all time leading wicket taker in the IPL so its some 'scalp' for Ali to take, so to say. My first time seeing Ali and it was an absolute pleasure, the control ,the variation of speed and flight, and he gets good bounce too being tall for a spinner.

ExiledBrummie wrote:

Not great this. Interesting that 8 of the starting line up played in the last Championship game so hardly a weakened side.

i obviously put the mockers on when i looked at the team sheet and thought what a strong team it looked to be

paulbear wrote:

It had no relevance on this series but lots of other things India did were pathetic and it just shows that the once genial players from that part of the world

==================================================================

well, quite, I remember well the genial Bishan Bedi, and the genial Sunil Gavaskar always having a laugh and a joke, and the genial Sourav Ganguly, and the genial Harbajan Singh

Solbear wrote:
. I haven't seen Ed Pollock's name too often this season either, so unless he's carrying an injury suspect his days with Worcs may be limited.

yeah I have mostly tried to follow Pollock's 'progress' since he left and he's been given plenty of chances at Worcs but it seems he never managed to develop his game to add to the raw potential he flashed with us at first. If anything Worcs were more patient with him than we were because it felt like the occasional times he came off were even more occasional with them.

no idea but i have definitely seen us win there twice in white ball games !

BosworthBear wrote:

ITE7376 wrote:

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?

**>

Some of us are but every year there is a loud minority Birmingham contingent who complain.**

honestly I don't recall anyone on here at all complaining about it last year it seemed a rare unanimous moment

England did him no favours this year by seemingly saying he was #3 cover then bunging him in at six. Likewise, not deciding what disciplines and formats he will play generally will see him suffer from confusion.

the talk before New Zealand was a great example of the mealy-mouthed, empty PR flannel that often comes out of the England camp

clearly they have a problem with the number 3 slot so in that flippant way they have, they just thought they would throw Bethell in there and give it a go, why not, vibes etc
Stokes's comment was that playing at 3 would 'suit his game'
WHAT game? in longer-form cricket he literally has no game
They come out with this baseless nonsense and don't get picked up on it nearly enough in this 'positivity rules' ecosystem they have created.

mad wrote:

Yes I think the following year Yorkshire had to switch their T20 QF to Scarbados due to Headingley being in use for a test.

ah that was it! IIRC it was Tim Ambrose who played a key role with the bat

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?