We're clearly nowhere near the strongest side this year, but there's still hope of making it to Finals Day thanks to that 12 off 1 ball at the end of the 18th over.
I stand by what I said. It wasn't a criticism of Fuller. Fuller is our finisher - and finish the game is exactly what he just did. But a finisher doesn't come out when there's still 80 to win.
Hopefully Lynn and Wood will both be back tomorrow. If we win that one, we're right in the fight going into the last week. Whereas if we lose, it'll likely be all over. Prest was very fortunate to reclaim his place tonight - apparently Orr is only allowed one failure, whereas Prest can have as many as he likes.
Sussex have done well to recover from 118-7, but Kent should still back themselves to chase 149. But Surrey's recovery from 118-5 is more impressive. Gloucs will do well to chase 194.
Middlesex just mediocre season after season in this competition. Time to replace them with a combined Minor Counties 11!!
Lords pitch looks dead as a dodo. Duckett should have been out first ball but it didn’t carry to slip. Plenty of swing though.
I don’t think I have seen an England team score so slowly since the Bazball era began. The bowling has been good and disciplined though.
Excellent, professional win. Our most complete performance since those first two big home wins. But if I'm being honest, even though the table before the game said this was 4th vs 3rd, a win like this shouldn't be a surprise. On paper, there is a big gulf between us and Glamorgan. I would say their squad is a contender to be the worst in the south division. I don't know how they won at Taunton - absolutely fair play to them for doing so - but if you take way that win, then Glamorgan drop to at least 6th and potentially 7th (with Gloucs' game in hand). Outside of that Taunton win, all of Glamorgan's win have been against the current bottom four. Again, fair play to them - it shows that they can come together as a team - but it shouldn't lead to them being as high as 3rd. Back to us though, I still think we're going to need to win both our final matches. And Sussex on Sunday won't be easy. But performances like tonight must fill us with confidence, whereas Sussex are rocking slightly. (I'm still hoping though that Lynn recovers from injury, to replace Prest.)
Albert has moved up to 3rd in the top run-scorers in the Blast this year (albeit a host of players could overtake him tonight). The 100 wildcard draft is next week, and he must be strong candidate to get picked (especially given he could act as a back-up keeper). Personally - and selfishly - I'd prefer that he remains playing 50 over cricket for us. But we'll see. In terms of wildcard candidates in general, the top 5 domestic run-scorers without a 100 contract are Albert (3rd), Bell-Drummond (6th), Budinger (13th), Moores (15th) and Wharton (17th). Whilst the top five domestic wicket-takers are Sanderson (1st), Van Beek (5th), Scrimshaw (7th), Raine (12th), and Douthwaite (16th). As an aside, Cricinfo are reporting that Du Plessis has pulled out of the 100 to have surgery, and we have replaced him with Roy.
Whilst I would prefer Surrey to win (for once!), a Glamorgan win isn't a disaster for us because it brings Surrey back into the equation. They still have to play Somerset and Sussex. The big game for us tonight is Sussex. As you say, we could really do with a favour from Essex. In previous seasons, I'd back them to chase 146 easily. But they've been pretty awful this season, in both formats.
Perfect set of results! All four of them. That's three losses in a row for Sussex, and a drop in their NRR tonight from +0.55 to +0.32. The NRR gap between them and us continues to increase. Bearing in mind Evans went off injured during Glamorgan's innings, Surrey were effectively 16-4 in their chase of 223. The fact that they were successful in that chase, and with five balls to spare, I don't know if that says more about Surrey or Glamorgan. Probably both.
I'd be surprised if Kent could qualify from here. The best they could realistically hope for is 30 points and a poor NRR. And I don't see that being enough to finish 4th. Even 30 points and a good NRR might not be enough, let alone 30 points and a poor NRR. They would need a lot of results to go in their favour. I think it's now a three-horse race for two places.
Pope's first miss was understandable. But that second miss is poor. An international cricketer should be hitting the stumps.
