I'd be dropping Stoneman before Fletcha. That's not to say that Fletcha doesn't deserve dropping. But their seasonal averages are very similar (27 vs 25) and their runs scored are very similar (189 vs 197). Ultimately Stoneman is about to turn 38. There's zero future with him, and I'm not sure why we signed him. He should be the first to go.
I'm annoyed at how quickly we've dropped Orr. He was meant to be a huge talent when we signed him and now he's not making the squad. Drop either of them, just get Orr back in the team.
Tbf, I gave up a long time ago. 333 on day one was miles too many on this wicket. I've been spending the day watching the live stream of the women rather than the men. Even if we're knocked them over for 100 in the second innings, we'd have still lost this. That big partnership between Haynes and LPW was irrelevant, aside from delaying the end of the game. We've made such a huge mess with the second overseas slot this season, and it's infuriating.
Yeah, it is mission impossible but they are professionals and we moan if the Saints players just give up. At least Hutton is in my fantasy team.
I don't think the new owners will be impressed with this at all. I feel they will want their own coaches brought in at some point.
I'm going to suggest this will be the only time in Sonny's career that he finishes as our top scorer.
Dawson has only been included in the T20 squad for the West Indies series so won't miss any CC games and only 3 T20 games (assuming he won't be available for the Surrey game on 5th June).
I was a little taken aback by some of the comments on the X (Twitter) feed. Obviously, like everyone else, I was very disappointed by the performance against Notts but it seemed a little over the top. One was even calling people like Albert, Middleton and Stoneman "minor counties standard" or something like that. Yes, they're not as consistent as some other county players (yet) and we all want to see more bigger scores from them but I'm sure they weren't making those sorts of comments when Albert was scoring a ton against Surrey last season, he's won many one-day games for us over recent years. Everyone was happy when we won the first game, against Yorkshire. I would be happy to try Albert up to open and Orr in the middle order (or even Orr to open, agree it's time for him to have his go). The club can't be blamed for Neser getting blocked by Cricket Australia and then Edwards getting injured. One can never tell, of course, but I reckon that Edwards would have been a really good signing. Obviously Hampton hasn't worked out but you can see how they were trying to get a player in to replace elements of both Vince and Abbas. In hindsight, going with a direct batting overseas replacement would have been better and there's still time for that later in the season of course. If we get thrashed by Warwickshire (and they do look strong themselves, admittedly) then it would become more of a concern but hopefully the Notts game was just a blip that every team will get at some point during a season.
It could be worse, they could bring back Weatherley to open! (to be fair, perhaps they should have tried him at 5 or 6 in seasons past to see if he'd have had any more success there...)
Dawson only making the t20 squad should mean that he remains available for the Sussex four-day game, plus the opening t20 vs Essex. It'll probably be the next three t20s, vs Surrey, Gloucs and Kent that he'll miss.
Interesting though local issues are, surely the news that Kohli is retiring is HUGE. Great player and fantastic entertainer. The ‘mic drop’ banter with Root is right up there. I’ll miss him. One of the greats
Strictly speaking he's not retiring completely, just test cricket. He'll still play ODI's and domestic T20 but yes I get your point. Incredible player and shame to see him leave the test arena.
