There's no point making their injuries worse, so hopefully we call it once Fidel or Crane get out. Booo, Bairstow gone.
Reset and draw a blue line...I would've taken top half of the table by halfway through the season at the start.
Following a very similar pattern to the India game. Reach roughly 200-1 at the 30 over stage, with Bairstow making a 100. But then Bairstow and A N Other both go shortly afterwards to leave us about 210-3 with still 15+ overs left and Woakes as high as 7. As with the India game, we might need to slow things down just for 6 to 8 overs.
Fair play to Alsop for being willing to come out, but I really don't understand why. Absolutely nothing to gain.
Hants have payed a heavy price for not having a contingency plan for Vince not opening in the CC and relying on inexperienced players. Daws has been a huge loss at the wrong time too.
I don't quite know what we're thinking here. Boult is by far and away their best bowler, so why are we trying to attack him? We've shown what we damage we can do to the rest of them. We used our brains against India to see off Bumrah, and initially we did likewise against Boult. But not now. And it's costing us.
To be fair, at the start of the season we wouldn't have expected to lose Vince or Dawson. Hales was very much the reserve batter. Losing both of them have cost us really, really badly (with Somerset now being the beneficiaries in two competitions), but I don't think any fault can be contributed towards the club. Where the club can be faulted is failing to sort out at least one, if not two, openers over the past three years. We needed to do something there even in the latter years of Adams and Carberry. We haven't done anything, and consequently we're now left with two kids who aren't good enough. Even with Vince and Dawson, we'd still need at least one opener.
There are some counties that play positive cricket, where the outcome is likely to end in either a victory or defeat. Then there are counties that kill the game stone dead. A prime example being Middlesex. Instead of declaring some 150 runs adrift to encourage Derbyshire to set a target they have batted on and killed the game. Would love Durham to somehow win today to send Middlesex bottom.
Thanks SA. Good luck in the T20. No doubt the strugglers will be Middlesex - can´t bat nor bowl!!! This was a county that had two specialist spinners in all forms of the game in thier bowling attack for many a year. It was a county that had its fair share of Afro-Carribean stars down the years. Now their attack, Murtagh apart, is as productive as a neutered cat. And what has happened to all the talent the county attracted in the past. Now it attracts dross as the thinking of the hierarchy is dross. Perhaps Morgan should think about switching counties - Warwickshire would be great for him as would Hampshire.
England collapsing. Woakes now gone 259-6. Wicket said to be slowing up, but we may regret not getting another 40-50+ at the end.
Good response by England. New Zealand 14-2. Interesting stat about the NZ captain, Williamson. He has scored 32% of NZs runs in this tournament. Wow
