The Cricket Thread

It's now impossible to watch Banton without thinking of KP's criticism of him last year (that he hits the ball in the air too much, and hence gets caught far too often than a man of his talent should).

Exhibit A.

 

He even managed it against us in the Championship last week!

 

I miss Rilee...*sigh*

 

Bought a ticket for tomorrow. Couldn't resist after seeing the forecast.

 

Middlesex are on for a mammoth total against Gloucestershire, 120/1 off of 8.2!

 

Ah yes, the infamous Radlett ground.

 

Gloucestershire pulled that back well with some great catches in the outfield, should be good fun watching them chase 230.

 

So close to Stirling scoring the full 36.

At least he has the 100 instead!

 

Weatherley in the squad for tonight. So looking at the squad I reckon line up will be:

Donald
McDermott (wk)
Vince
Weatherley
Dawson
Whiteley
Fuller
Wood
Crane
Ellis
Currie

I think that's a very balanced line up. The return of Donald adds firepower to the top of the line up and we now have a finisher in Whiteley. I think a finisher is so crucial in T20 cricket. Can add 20-30 runs to a team's total. Looking forward to tonight.

 

I'm still not sure if it'll be Currie or Wheal. But yeah, I suspect Fuller will get the nod over Prest or Holland. (Whoever it is will be our 6th bowler, should we ever want to use one - it'll be interesting if Fuller can transfer his improvement with the red ball across over to the white ball).

 

Massive wicket, great catch!

 

Really dumb batting from Hants.

 

All on Vince now.

 

All about the death bowling, 32 conceded by Hants in the final 2 cost us the match.

 

Surprise, surprise!! Middlesex winning again. What has happened to change the mentality of this side over the winter?

 

Felt very similar to recent seasons (aside from that great run at the end of last season).

Decent enough bowling effort, but with two or three painful overs thrown in. Not the end of the world, that can happen in t20; overall, reasonable. But far too many batsmen getting caught in the deep. What was it, five of the top seven?

After so many years of using the bigger Rose Bowl boundary to our advantage, far too often in recent years the opposition are managing to use it better than us. Chipping twos, placing fours, only really aiming for sixes in the final two or three overs. That was Middlesex tonight, so many other opponents in recent years, and essentially how we used to play every home game.

On the other hand I suppose you could argue that having an increased six hitting focus could better prepare us for finals day, should we get there. Because outside of the Bowl, you do need to be able to clear the rope regularly.

 

Very pleased for Alsop. I didn't think we treated him well last season when it came to t20 (eg picking Albert ahead of him for finals day).

 

Smeed being Smeed (and Rilee being Rilee). Strong candidate for best batting line-up in the south group.

That said, I would expect Essex to be challenging Glamorgan for the wooden spoon.

 

Yes, let's see how they do tomorrow night.

 

I'm fine with tonight being washed out. I'm less fine about tonight being some rain reduced thrash, which I'd make Somerset strong favourites to win.