No Amla in the squad for tomorrow. Slug comes in, but no doubt Alsop (who was already in the squad) is pencilled in to replace Amla in the XI. That said, the forecast is looking awful for tomorrow, so it probably won't matter.
An edge short of slip (which flew away for 4), a play and miss, an LBW shout, and an inside edge to save an LBW shout, all in Wood's first over.
There are very few alternatives. If you HAD to take the captaincy away from Root the only option I can see would be to give it to Anderson as a stop-gap and hope Buttler establishes himself in the Test side over the next year or so.
And that's what happens when (a) you don't take wickets in the first 40 overs and (b) don't have any decent death bowlers. We shouldn't have even let Kent exceed 260.
Just when Joe was going to get some praise from me, he loses us a game he had won for us. Two years in a row now that we totally stopped scoring in a run chase against Kent, to allow them to snatch victory. From being one win from qualification, now it's all to play for. Very, very poor.
Brendy, can I ask about northeast. I don't follow hants that closely. I see he didn't play today, has he been poor, just not played, Injured?
A heartbreaking harsh lesson learned today, but hopefully a very valuable one for the future and Brad Taylor shoudn't be exempt from criticism despite his very good knock today. The pair of them should've been looking to win the game from further out and not leave it to the last two overs as specialist death bowlers tend to bowl then. Overall though I am very encouraged, there were two 21 year olds contributing heavily when the senior players generally failed, we shouldn't always rely on the older batsmen to score the bulk of the runs. Onwards forward, we still have a very good chance of qualification with what looks like a stronger top six now.
Broken finger. Been out for about a month, and will still be out for another three weeks or so. In the only two games he's managed to play, he already has a 100.
Cheers brendy, was always a player with plenty of quality and potential. He had started to be more consistent and I hope he flourishes with you. One of those guys I have always liked.
It was a dire Kent attack they were facing though. Denly was a front line bowler! Never leave it to the last over if you can help it, agreed, and consequently I didn't have a problem with Taylor trying to go for the big hit at the start of the 49th over. Vince and White get a little blame for not sending Berg out ahead of Lewis (not only is Berg more likely to hit a boundary, but he would have brought experience that could have been used to help Joe). But most of the blame lies at Joe's door for me. Which is a massive shame, because for once he was going to get nothing but absolute praise from me. Two singles and six dots, or whatever it was, was awful. Just like Taylor against Surrey, he wasn't even putting bat onto ball.
You can put it all down to experience I think, the pair of them should've been looking to finish it with overs to spare from much further out. I'm not going to crucify a young lad who had just scored his first century because he succumbed to the pressure at the death. He will learn from it and the bigger picture is his overall contribution, which without we probably would've lost a lot more heavily.
