I just find your statements like "Essex are nailed on for the title" irritating. The season is not done. There are still 6 games left for most teams - that's a lot of points. Plus Cook won't play for Essex again this season.
I'll make an unwritten agreement with you!! I won't comment on anything you write, and you don't write on anything that I write. That way we can respect our antagonism towards each other.
Dawson set to be named in the 12 man test squad tomorrow, with a decent chance of making the final XI. I know Broad and Stokes are carrying niggles, Jimmy is only recently back from injury, and Wood is very injury prone, but a five man seam attack (including Roland Jones) plus Moeen seems a little excessive. Especially without someone of Woakes's batting quality even at 9, let alone at 8.
Very surprised to learn that Roland Jones is being considered on current form. It is not very good at all.
It's his home ground. With Chris Woakes injured, we're missing a bit of batting strength in the tail. Only three Englishmen have taken more wickets in D1 this season than TRJ, and one of them is currently injured. The other two, Coad and Porter, have been brilliant this season, but you can hardly call them up off the back of just four months. TRJ has done it over a number of years. He now has experience, albeit very limited, of pulling in the England shirt. Makes a whole lot of sense to me.
That's not a Test squad that fills me with confidence. Particularly the batting. Where will Bairstow bat? 5? 7? Presumably Moeen bats in the other spot? Jennings hasn't been in blistering form this summer, Ballance has been but has a mixed record in Tests, I'm not convinced Moeen is good enough to bat top 5 but that may be too high for the keeper.
Well done Nottinghamshire on winning the Royal London Cup Proving to be a good season for them as they have a handsome lead in Division 2.
There's a plethora of T20 coming up to salivate over!!! I think we were spoiled in the 70s and 80s when we had the 3 day championship matches and one division, the B&H over 55 overs, and the Gillete/Nat West over 60, plus of course the 40 over Sunday League. All this was fitted into a schedule that started a week later and was completed by the second week of September. Going forward I would like to see the return of the one division county championship. It would mean 17 4 day matches so 12 more playing days, however this could be offset with the Royal London Cup becoming a straight knock-out.
Sangakkara wasn't able to field yesterday, and it's now been confirmed as split webbing so he won't be able to play against us this week. Alsop comes into the squad in place of Dawson. Crane and Fidel are also in the squad, with Salisbury dropping out. I would imagine that Wheal will be left out of the XI.
Good start for Hants at the Oval, you can watch it live on this link... https://www.kiaoval.com/main-news/live-stream-surrey-v-hampshire-day-1/ The commentary on the BBC website matches the stream.
Says a lot about (a) where we think Carberry, Alsop and Smith all are with their batting, and (b) our faith in Holland's batting, that we were prepared to go with that line-up. I get that losing Dawson really harms the balance of the team, but that's an out of form batting line-up with a batsman short. Not exactly a recipe for a big score (which, batting first at the Oval, you need).
Vince has suddenly decided to step up about four gears. Smashing it to all parts for the last couple of overs.
That's the difference between him and Sanga. If this was Sanga, you'd know that there's a 100+ at the end of it. But with Vince, you are almost waiting for him to throw it away.
Good luck Hampshire. Go and post 500 against Surrey, and let's hope the bowlers can find the penetration to bowl Surrey out twice.
