The result would suggest that S.A walked over England but it was a very even contest for 80% of the game until the S.A changing room kept feeding out things to the middle that they'd seen on replays and Cronje asked the umpires to keep checking. They did eventually which was not within the rules, no DRS then, the umpires then went to pieces as England got at least 4 shockers which tilted the game. The umpiring was atrocious on that tour, Graham Hick got so used to being given out to leg-side LBW's that on the umpteenth occasion he went back to the pavilion, laughing his head off.

The last person I can remember bowling 'Chinamen' as they used to call them, was Paul Adams of South Africa 'Frog In A Blender' as he was known although everybody used to mistakenly call him a leg-spinner. I remember Michael Bevan bowling them for Australia and did see him bowl them v Warwickshire in a 40 over game in 1995.

So the priority seems to be to not try and win this game then if we are allowing 3 in-form players to miss the game to play in a tour game. I agree that it is nice to see new faces in a side and hope they do well but this is stupid. I am glad I am not watching. If it looks as though a similar team will be out for Sunday's game then I might give it a miss. If you consider that I am a member like many others and didn't sign up for us to send out a 2nd XI, this would be nothing short of "taking the p***".

Josh seemed to have a big future but because of a certain Jeetan Patel, he was never going to get into the side. Pity because he did look good at times. Tim Groenwald was continually picked for us when he wasn't having any effect on the games he played in but I am glad he found success elsewhere. Rikki improved to be twice the player once he moved here but not everyone warmed to him. Towards the end of his time here, he seemed to give the impression that he just didn't care any more and that he'd had enough and his performances made him look lazy.

Is he in any of the squads for 'the Hundred', if so then he might not feature much if at all.

Thank you Leicestershire and mainly Mr Josh Inglis - Quarter finals here we come, never mind Worcestershire.

sheffield_blue wrote:

...so it's down to us beating Northants and the pears losing at Leicester. I wouldn't put too much money on us qualifying.

I think we will beat Northants but Leicestershire have nothing to play for so I would expect our neighbours to yet again have fun watching us go out.

Annoyingly, Worcestershire are playing their game on Sunday at 6.30pm. Not sure I would be happy with that if I was one of our players. Games like that are usually played at the same time. Worcestershire will know if they have to win or can lose and still go through. They should really not be in a position like that.

Thanks gents, I will definitely give that a listen.

How wonderful that yet again, the games will feature hardly any weekend cricket and a final that goes into October from Tuesday-Friday. Shows how much value is put on first-class cricket.

Exiled Bear wrote:

Highveld wrote:

Exiled Bear wrote:

Shocker of a decision for the last LBW with the ball hitting outside leg stump and also going down, but fortunately it shouldn't matter.
Having watched the replay at actual speed and frame by Frame, It looks a sound decision.
Pitching on leg and turning enough to take leg.

I also watched it frame by frame and if you line up a piece of paper along leg stump (which you can see a few seconds before) then you can see that it hit Sidebottom comfortably outside the leg stump

I thought it was poor also. I have just got back and the pitch looks bland and uninteresting, like the 1970's Worcester pitches and unlike the 'Result' rubbishy pitches they had in the 1980's.

Looks as though the batsmen are bringing their T20 form into the CC. Not good enough and we must hope the bowlers can do something special. How much time is lost to the weather is not certain but not getting at least 3 batting points is poor. I do hope after a good campaign so far, that this game isn't the one where we threw it all away.

WestHeathBear wrote:

That was a Shocking and Embarassing display to watch. The Captain won a toss for a change but decided to chase on a used strip !
And he keeps saying "We know how to play here " Really !!!!
Now we probably need to win the final 3 games to qualify which puts a lot of pressure on us.

Yes, I was also surprised by letting them have a bat first. We did that in the final in 2017 and their side was similar. Hales loves to just pile on the runs as he has no pressure and can just play naturally but chasing is different and even if we had got 155-160 batting first we might have had a better chance.

BristolBear wrote:

Was at the match today. That all came from poor bowling. It doesn’t excuse the batting, but apparently today was the 5th time that pitch has been used and it really showed.
They should never have scored more than 150. But poor bowling to Duckett and Hales, and a poor last over was the killer.
If you look at both innings the amount of players out through miss-hits, leading edges etc was really obvious. The ball just wasn’t coming on. You can go about chasing 7.5 an over very differently to 9 an over. The fact that even when they just tried to rebuild they were still struggling shows how tough it was to bat out there. Not 63 all out tough, but not 180 off 20 either.

It wasn't a great pitch, no, but we have this habit of just getting out to spinners who really are not that good. Only Ball and Fletcher are front line bowlers and both a bit over-rated but of the spinners, only Patel has experience but he never spins it, just floats it up and batsmen then hit him into the night sky with regularity. I doubt Harrison and Carter would bowl a side out in the CC but it's these sorts of part-timers who we get out to time after time. Perhaps we should try and keep it 'On the deck' a bit more when batting.

GerryShedd wrote:

BristolBear wrote:

Beating them 4 times would be superb. They are probably the least likeable team in county cricket.
Can’t stand Mullaney, Fletcher or Moores.

But on the other hand, Alex Hales is just so lovable (not).

Have to agree with you there. Fletcher tries to paint himself as a man of the people and a 'Character' but is just mouthy. Mullaney, I watched him get pinged all over the place off the first 5 balls of an over and then give the batsman a real send off when he got caught on the boundary on the last ball - That is a real irritating thing to do, he is also mouthy as is Patel. I really do not like them either.

The way we got back into the game after looking like conceding 210-220 was superb but as usual, we gave the opposition the usual array of catching practice. Every team we now have to play in the remaining games will say, "Let's practice our catches in the outfield because when we play the Bears, we will have plenty of catches coming our way". It was embarrassing and is annoying to have to drive straight from work in a hurry to get a good parking space and then have to sit through that mess.

Great to do it in style by 10 wickets than to have a great bowling performance and then mess about before getting over the line with 5 down. Too many expansive shots by Yorkshire, a bit like we were v Derbyshire.

Andy wrote:

Re. Brathwaite. He's been a pretty average cricketer for a while now.

Conway, Glenn Phillips, Finn Allen etc were all available at the time when we signed him.

I maintain we haven't had a properly good overseas in T20 since Shoaib Malik in 2014.

Didn't we have some bloke called Jeetan Patel as an overseas player, I hear he was pretty good.

It all looks a bit predictable and it seems as though if Hain cannot get runs, we cannot win. Was Brathwaite picked on reputation alone. After his heroics in the last T 20 world cup final, he barely got the ball off the square for the next 2 years. I haven't seen his figures since but he needs to get some runs under his belt or he will have been another bad signing. The most annoying thing is that just like Thursday, we gave the opposition some catching practice in the outfield, we are not learning from the mistakes of previous games.

Curran's figures are poor for a player who is constantly picked in so many formats. 44 wickets in 21 Tests and very expensive in other formats like O.D.I's with an economy rate of 6.14. The selectors keep picking Chris Jordan with a T20 economy of 8.81. It is like the bad old days of Jade Dernbach who used to turn up to be flogged to all parts.