Awful shot from Barnard there - wide, outside off stump with the new ball and he chased it, even though he was hitting to the big boundary

Exiled Bear wrote:

To be fair I can see the advantage of trying to get as many runs as possible before the new ball.

I agree. The new ball is their one chance of turning this game back around.

Have to say I'm not sure Worcestershire's captain has had a great game either! Strange to win the toss and bat in gloomy conditions and the forecast was always to have best day of weather on day 4.

And then today the field placings have seemingly all been about stopping runs rather than taking wickets.

New ball has brought about two slips though.

That's a real shame as he's at a key part of his development age-wise, on top of the fact he's just started breaking into the first team.

Is it bad luck all the fast bowler injuries we have or are we doing something wrong?

paulbear wrote:

I love the 'Player Welfare' angle, I do wonder how many of these players who are worried about playing too much, are going to have a good rest when The Hundread is on or are they going to earn good money playing it and then hope to play in many franchise leagues throughout the Winter. A lot of these players also seem to forget that there are so many players who are not considered good enough by their counties, to play an limited-overs cricket and they only get limited chances to play and probably feel like spare parts for much of the season and might feel as though they could get knocked out of form by not playing for long periods.

There are a lot of players are on the English professional circuit who want more games as they want more playing time. That seems to be conveniently not reported when these changes are proposed.

I'm not so sure Measham.

If we lose this game, clearly Worcester catch us up. Essex look like they're on course for a win. Yorkshire and Hampshire look set for draws.

Of course the above is assuming we can't salvage a draw here, but if we do lose we will be within one win of both the bottom two!!

This has gone from poor to embarrassing. The team looks so short of confidence

Yet again the game is slipping away from us as we can't get the tail out

That to me suggests Lancashire aren't actually interested in maintaining the number of CC games, and are instead hiding being the fact the 'majority of counties' don't want to maintain 14 games.

Surely if they were actually interested in keeping 14 games they would offer it as an option!!

Sadly I don't think Davies is going to be removed as captain this season or next season. I hope I am wrong as we are going backwards under his leadership. And sadly I think we all foresaw this when he was appointed.

I agree Highveld that Barnard would seem like a good choice.

Garton has now run two partners out in two games

Sound is now working.

Latham on the other hand, not so much. I think it's time for him to be dropped.

No sound on the Worcestershire stream?

Highveld wrote:

Rushworth needs to be added to the list taking a paid holiday at the clubs expense.

Unchanged test team announced, but non selected players are not being released.
Makes the decision to omit Mousely even more of a mistake.

Agreed, I'd already stated on a different thread that I would expect him to leave at the end of the season - I am now 100% convinced he won't be playing next year. Sadly it seems his body gave up on him over a year ago.

Edit - have we already nominated who Bethell will come in for and if so, can that change for Rushworth?

There was a conversation on here a few games back about lower order runs and how there is a general trend for lower order batsmen and teams to score more runs than they used it. Well it doesn't seem to apply to us!

Yep, I think that was a crucial last session. If they get three early wickets, they could bat for 5 and a bit sessions and we'd be batting to save the game again.

How does that even work? Let's take Mousley for example (assuming he plays and Bethell would come in for him), and he's not out overnight day 2, what happens then?

Not to mention the fact that a player gains far more experience from a full game than he would playing two days (max).

Agree Gerry that it's a bad idea.

I would have Singh Dale and Muyeye - think they would both strengthen us. And I think they're both possible even if Bashir comes in as I expect Miles, Briggs (we know), Rushworth and Sylvester all to be leaving, in addition to Moeen who's already gone.

I'm a little disappointed we don't appear to be having a go at winning from this position. 47 overs with 8 wickets to go, we can shut up shop as soon as we lose one.

The academy section is well out of date too

Is Rushworth injured or not selected?