They've been awful in the field tonight. Even worse than Oval the other night. Annoyingly for us, without knowing tomorrow night's result first, it's difficult to say who we would prefer to win tonight. Tonight and tomorrow are very closely entwined, given all four sides play each other in the final round.
Never in a million years should Finn have got a 100 contract. Him being horrendously expensive with the white ball is nothing new.
Superchargers having their NRR improved is very unlikely to make any difference. But Manchester having their NRR damaged could be very important - because if they lose this, NRR becomes their only chance.
Someone was going to hit 200. But rather than just being brutal striking or tiny boundaries, it was largely because of horrendous, horrendous fielding.
Brilliant from John Simpson, 71 from 28. Just awful bowling and fielding from the Mancs though, not assisted by the best crowd in cricket!
I didn't expect Manchester to be that bad. But I did expect a fair drop off from them compared to their home performances. They're set up so much to play at home - probably more so than any other team - that the limitations of their attack is shown up away. Parkinson and Ferguson are decent (and Ackermann is a solid 6th option), but that's it.
The match is clearly gone. Long, long gone. Manchester's aim now has to be NRR preservation. It's going to take a battering, but the more they can limit the damage to it, the better.
From 0.43 down to -0.33. Ouch. But it could have been even worse. Of equal importance, Trent's NRR is 0.119. If they lose tomorrow, they'll at least want to preserve the NRR advantage which they now have over Manchester - given that they finish off against each other, with a two point head start.
So we want Birmingham to beat Trent tomorrow. Then Manchester to beat Trent on Sunday. That would ensure that Trent join Manchester in finishing below us. 4th would be the lowest we could finish. And then, depending on what we do on Monday, we would either want Superchargers to Birmingham (if we win) on Tuesday, or Birmingham to beat Superchargers (if we lose). The latter would see Birmingham win the group, with us and Oval going into the eliminator. The former would see us win the group, with Birmingham and either Oval or Superchargers go into the eliminator. Obviously if we win on Monday, we'll be through regardless of what happens tomorrow and Sunday. But it would be nice to keep that second chance available to us, just in case we were to slip up (whilst also keeping alive our chances of winning the group if we were to win).
Yet another 5-for for the incredible Jimmy Anderson, his 31st in Tests and the 7th time he will appear on the honours board at Lords.
