I have just seen Micky B in the nets while queing for a coffee. Looked to be hitting well but grimacing and grinning in equal measure. I don't think he'll miss much CC but not sure how he'll go today.

I'll tell you what George Garrett is improving my opinion of himself. From extra cover his action looks a lot of moving parts but he's getting a lot more accurate with perhaps some movement - there's some playing and missing. He did give up some boundaries early on.

I'm watching at the ground. I couldn't quite see how he did it but suspect an acrobatic take from an OHD dot ball. Might have landed on his hand funny.

Been watching for energy and enthusiasm fro. The field. Which is there in patches. You can definitely see the differences between the situations on the players and not seeing a lot from the established red ball players. You can already see that there's some players Rhodes doesn't trust with the ball and I'm wondering if both these things add up to the young lads not really having much to look up to. See how this hypothesis develops over the rest of the game.

Good win and good to see the emerging players play their part as well. Mentioned it before but one of the worst outcomes from this tournament is if our established red ball players are mediocre and we finish, say, 5th. Would rather young guys came in, did some good stuff but had heaps to work on and finished 6th. Today was better than that. My small tweak if Miles is back for Friday, he replaces Ethan and Smith goes up to 7? Maybe a bit harsh as Ethan bowled alright today, but it looks like his batting is coming up short now. Anyone seen him bat? Would also like to see Sheikh come in for Sibley but can't see it happening.

I haven't seen any games this year, either on streams or live, I wait a week today for Middix at Radlett for that, but there seems to be a theme that we don't have bowling resources at the death. That happens if you pick a non-bowler at nine. One specialist bowler has a problem in the middle overs you have to fiddle something later. No surprise there.

As to why Kai Smith is batting at nine and not even keeping is the crux of the problem this season. The competition is set up for development and he's the only emerging player consistently playing. And he's not trusted to do anything. Instead we have Rhodes and Sibley chewing up overs, etc, etc.

I don't really care if we do badly in this competition, indeed I would rather we did badly with some young players coming through, but were playing so so with proven non-white ball players. I haven't got time to work it out, but are we suffering more than others for players in the hundred?

Anyone watching this? 310 is OK I suppose but the rate of scoring was very linear, wickets fell in small clusters and only a few runs off the last over? Slow pitch?

I didn't know that Pandya had to come off and that could have explained the erratic bowling changes at the depth. Might have explained Yates bowling so late too, like I said a gamble that didn't come off. I suppose the real test is how they go in the next game as they looked up for it against Gloucs.

With BristolBear on this one, though not off any actual evidence having only checked cricinfo. Seemed like they were ahead of the game from when Burgess and Pandya locked in until the last ten overs. It was perhaps more clear from looking at the card how messed up the bowling allocation was with the precise split of Rhodes and Yates plus all the bowlers finishing on one over spells. Might have been a gamble that didn't come off but perhaps Rhodes needed more overs earlier on.

In strict isolation I probably just agree with the decisions to allow Stone and Hose to leave. With Hose, he was never going to play red ball again, limited value if the One Day cup is development and was patchy in T20 - though he has had a good season. The crucial thing is how are we going to replace him? Mouseley the full-time #5 in T20 with Benjamin at #6? Assume that means Hain at 4, Davies, Bethell and Mo up top.

Idling to myself at what point Warks become favourites for this? Bat into tomorrow and Surrey could have 220+ in limited overs. This is jinxing behaviour though, so I put it out as a counter-jinx the collapse is immenent. Which is as likely.

Wondered if he was injured - but seems to be batting now...

Highveld wrote:

A very good comentary team today, including Richard Wilford and the excellent Jeremy Coney.

Overton has a hand injury.

Anyone got any insight on why JOverton hasn't batted yet? Got some good runs in the test recently...

Some good comments here. Overall I think we were fortunate last year. Woakes came back at a crucial time, Norwell was fit and taking wickets and Miles and Briggs were both playing at their best. That hasn't happened this year. The strategy has been the same. Bat slow and be hard to beat, then pick up wins when the bowling comes together.

I developed the thought at the start of the year that the bowling had become poor but it seems its throughout the side, there are weaknesses all the way through. I don't think better coaching will automatically fix this - so hard to correct.

Finally, replacing Bresnan. Interesting as I virtually never see games and can't see the galvanising effect he had. My view is his retirement was partially due to the racism at Yorkshire. If he does get implicated there it becomes our problem if he is still employed by Warwickshire - for several reasons. Have to see how that ends.

Good to see we've given a chance to a Brummie lad who came through our acedemy. Since the initial lead and since Sibley has decided to leave Inthink it's actually the red ball (pay-per-play) I'm interested in. Yates presumably moves to open, after he gets over his sophomoric blues this year, great. We need a three which Mo has done for donkeys in CC. For the Blast next year where does he bat? Open in place of Stirling?

A lot of us mentioned earlier in the year that McAndrew was the Tim Bresnan replacement (who in turn I guess was the Ricky Clark replacement) so Barnard is the McAndrew replacement. Good bit of business, means we can focus on a left arm pace bowler as our overseas next year.

Yah, anything I said about batting long for the draw is independent of negative mindset and I agree with that. Of course the Clarion Call from Bwn Stokes yesterday is going to change all that.

meashambear wrote:

Poor stuff from us in this match injuries or otherwise.

We have scored so slowly that the 2nd new ball could easily dismantle the rest of our batting without us getting close to avoiding the follow on.

Negative mindset that has made for a turgid performance. The more balls you face, the more chance there is of getting out.

Northants are a very average side indeed but we are making them look pretty good.

I have an analyst pal who I think is just now starting to get paid for his work. Start of the season he was down on Warwickshire but he did make a point about the Bears being difficult to beat. As points for a draw have gradually increased, bonus points have become less important. Getting 400 off 110, therefore, is less important than batting time and taking a defeat out of the game, which does seem our plan B.

All well and good, this worked for us last season when we drew games we could have lost, until Norwell and Woakes came back in the Autumn, got wickets, and we won the crucial games. It's dull for the majority of the time though. I have just watched about four overs at lunch and seen two singles. Not going to rush back to it...

That's the most significant comment I think. First choice bowling attack all injured. I'm not sure quite how badly Hain and Briggs are but if they need a game to recuperate dor it would be this one.

GerryShedd wrote:

Hain, Briggs, Norwell, Stone, Woakes, Sidebottom - that's half a team, all of whom (except Sidebottom) would get in on merit if fit.
I hope that some of the injuries (Hain and Briggs in particular) are relatively minor and maybe an indication that the club is prioritising having them fit for the final T20 group matches. I wouldn't normally want T20 put ahead of red ball cricket but I guess the Blast is the Club's best hope of success this season.

We have been here before, I remember there being loads of press when we wanted to sign Buttler and Nick Compton a while back and it seemed we were outbid. As to these three, My initial thought was I thought it was a shame we couldn't bring through our own players, but of course one of them we have. Saqib I think has Birmingham connections too.

I'm not sure what Sibley's motivation is for leaving. Article behind the payroll... If I was Stone I'd want to have one more crack at red ball cricket so I think we'll see a bit more of him long form.

Was definitely a regular-season game. If the rosters at the time were one or two higher and there were less than 12 pitchers in them, which was distinctly possible, that could account for it.

And I'm with you on the comparison with franchise cricket and MLB or Japanese baseball. The food and beer for sure.

Highveld wrote:

It may have been an exhibition game of Japanese league game.
The majority of the position players are in action everyday.

There are some tactical substitutions, but the rules about replacing pitchers has changed which reduces the substitutions a lot.
Baseball is a very enjoyable sport to watch, definately better than, almost all, franchise cricket.
The stadiums are very good, and ticket prices are reasonable.