The pleasing thing is that there were eight home grown and local players in the team today, these lads are not letting anybody down atm.
Outside chance of Dawson being fit for Wednesday; and certainly, for the KO stages. Northeast is unlikely to fit for the initial KO stage(s), but would be for the final should we get there. So it'll be interesting what we do with team selection. Select them both, as and when available? Or leave one/both out? Although it wouldn't be a like-for-like swap, I suspect Alsop would drop out for Dawson. Probably with Vince, Adams and Joe all moving up a place. But after that, it gets difficult. We wouldn't necessarily need Taylor's bowling anymore, with Dawson in the team, but equally it is always nice to have six proper bowling options. Even though it would be an incredibly difficult decision, because a Lords final in probably his final season would be a great send off for him, I think it might be that Adams would make way for Northeast. Unless Jimmy can make a big score beforehand. Just the one 50 from him so far isn't good enough; even Taylor now has two of them, and that's before you factor in the bowling.
The good thing is that, in the event that we make the final (not a given) at the end of this month, Jimmy will have numerous chances beforehand to try and score runs. Two, possibly three, one-day matches and three four-day matches. Whereas Northeast probably only has that third and final four-day match. If Sam made a 100 in that game, whilst Jimmy can only made the odd 30 in his five or six games, then I think even Jimmy would be the first to accept him getting dropped.
Dawson is indeed available for tomorrow. Dawson and Steyn for Alsop and Topley (rest) is my guess. But could be Taylor, Jimmy, and/or Wood.
Just reading that Steyn will seemingly now be with us all month. So three four-day matches, plus the entire remainder of the one-day competition. Amla was apparently due to return after this two-game spell of Steyn's - before then leaving again to join up with SA in early July - but he's picked up a knee injury whilst back in SA. So, subject to fitness, Steyn will now cover such an extended period. It probably means that is the last we've seen of Amla this season, as we made it clear a while ago that if everything goes well with Steyn's form and fitness, then it would him, rather than Amla, who returns to us in late August and September once SA are finished playing SL.
Jimmy and Topley make way. If Wood can add wickets today, to his recent good economy (and the fact that he can hold a bat), that makes things very interesting in relation to the KO stages, given Steyn's apparent extended availability. I can't see Berg or Crane getting dropped at all.
What's fascinating about this position - batting first, wickets in hand - is that we haven't yet seen what Joe and Taylor can do in such a scenario. There won't be any rebuilding required from them. And, ideally, there won't be much scope to gets dots and singles. Can they score freely, in a fairly pressure situation? I'd back Dawson, Berg and Lewis to, but I've got little idea in relation to Joe and Taylor. And potentially 350 or 360 is on here, if we step on the gas. 310 or 320 has to a be minimum.
Well Joe went cheaply, I think that Brad should just play his normal game and let the others score freely around him now that Vincey has gone.
Dawson wasn't even interested to begin with, and he was running to the non-danger end. Taylor just hit and ran. Now Dawson might just have to pull it in slightly for a few overs - and yet it's now that we want to push on, rather than when Overton comes back at the end.
Thankfully we have possibly the best number 8 in the country. I'm fine with Joe getting a low score. We still had bags of wickets in hand, and he'd have been sitting up there as next batsmen to come for a long time. A low score can happen. Brush it off, move on. But Taylor taking that run has really annoyed me. Given Alsop's runs earlier, it's arguably Taylor now under the most pressure again should Northeast make it back before we finish the competition. Tough decision, maybe, but Northeast is one of the best middle order guys around.
Thankfully we didn't pull back, and we did take advantage of those two or three overs. Now we might be back on for 330 or 340 again.
We've missed you, Liam. (This is why you don't take a stupid single, Brad, with 10 overs still left.)
