Even putting aside the fact that Donald seems strangely out of favour, no-one can me tell me that Holland or Berg couldn't score at least as many as Soames - and of course they can then offer us an option with the ball too. If England win tomorrow (and obviously I hope we do!), we'll still have one or two matches (depending on the SF) without Vince and Dawson. It's not an exaggeration to say that, aside from his rather freakish attacking knock vs Warks, when Soames was acting as Alsop's runner, that was one of his longer spells at the crease for us!
Vincey's storming start to the season helped us get off to a great start and a one day Final but it has been the cause of our decline too.
In theory Rahane (and the rest) should be safe now. Because no way should Abbott be taking a single in this last over.
To be honest, I'll take those four overs. Losing Soames is nothing to be concerned about, and importantly we didn't lose anyone else. I hear that Weatherley twisted his ankle earlier (I wondered who the other sub fielder was on for), so whether or not we purposely intended to open with Abbott is questionable. Fortunately, unlike a hamstring injury, you would hope that Weatherley is relatively fit tomorrow.
Apart from the one half Century, Soames' other 7 innings have yielded the grand total of 62 runs....shocking stats.
Just seen that Essex have successive home matches next. Given that they will clearly beat Notts at some point tomorrow, they could be looking at going into the t20 break off the back of five consecutive wins. And maybe even with a fairly healthy lead, eg in the event that Somerset don't take nine wickets tomorrow. (But I'm sure they will. As I say, they're big favourites.)
I've got the live stream on the laptop. Because I was fully confident of Somerset easily winning today, this morning hasn't really affected me. Largely as expected. Apart from that final day rearguard by Dawson and Vince two years ago on the last day vs Warks, to save us from relegation, we're not a side who can dig in on the last day. And that's before you throw in us having two batsmen injured, another one who is miles from being good another, and going up against one of the best opening bowling partnerships (and second best spinner, after Harmer) in the division.
