Well, I'm just glad that knock from Pollard wasn't in vain. That was a truly extraordinary taking down of the best T20 spinner in world cricket.
Not a great lover of the hundred. But what a good game of cricket. Twists and turns. Hampshire bowler bowling 90mph for the otherside. Like many I played some evening league stuff in the parks. 16 overs each. We didn't call it the ninetysix but most of us started in junior school playing something similar. And, it looked like more than a 10,000 crowd..
I'm struggling to remember if I've ever seen a single over (or set) have such a game-changing impact on the final result. We were nowhere prior to those five balls. The difference between the required rate, and the rate we were going at, was enormous. In the space of five balls we went from near-certain defeat, to favourites. Watching Fuller's hitting earlier this season to turn around the game around vs Kent was pretty special, but nothing compared to what Pollard did. I've seen the likes of Maxwell and David go wild with 6s before, for Hants or Brave, but not in game-changing circumstances. As amazing as it was though, it's incredibly frustrating that it took that. We bowled fine - again. The openers batted fine - again. The middle order, up until those five balls, were awful - again. It wasn't just that we lost 6-35, but we chewed up an incredible 50 balls to get those runs. We can't continue to rely just on Vince, Davies and Pollard. At some point, 3, 4 and 5 need to come to the party.
PS. Pollard's drop of Gregory was possibly the most shocking drop I've ever seen (an incredibly easy catch, and a guy with buckets for hands). But it didn't cost us - phew!
If we do manage to make it into the KOs, we've got to look at trying to strengthen the batting from any players returning back from the 100. Put aside the notion of being faithful to the players who would have got us there, because quite frankly the top order has ben awful almost every game. Middleton and Gubbins are both averaging 19, whilst Prest is averaging 10! The QFs are on Friday, with the SFs on Sunday. That rules out any player who makes the 100 KO matches, which are on Saturday and Sunday. Dawson will definitely not be involved in those 100 matches, because Spirit are already out and play their final match on Tuesday. Vince, Fuller, and Howell may or may not be involved - still to be decided. Right now though, just making those KO stages is looking dodgy. We really need these two to put on a big partnership.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/articles/cy84x7rrppno Thorpe took his own life. Life can be so difficult for so many people, even sporting heroes. Maybe it is even worse for sporting heroes. What are you after retirement?
The family are considering launching a foundation in his name, brave of them to publicly acknowledge his illness.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/articles/cy4l7knx9x0o Not as sad as the Thorpe news but it looks as though Stokes has done his hamstring. Should be an update today but it sounds like a fairly bad one.
That sounded like a massacre!! You guys must have the best white ball side in cricket at the moment. I hope Somerset can deliver in one of those competitions. And if this can only be replicated in the 4 day game.
All without the help of the likes of Tom Abell, Tom Banton, Will Smeed, Lewis Gregory, Craig Overton and so on and so on. The reserves have definitely stepped up!
Turns out he jumped in front of a train. Just awful for his family to comprehend and thoughts for the poor train driver as well, who must have been traumatised by what happened. Depression is brutal and this just shows how hard it is to fight it - he would have been treated for it for 2 years and given lots of support. Yet it still wasn't enough in the end.
Really horrible. I wonder if mental health was always like this but people hid it or if there are genuinely modern issues impacting us harder.
