Both teams had very similar collapses - around the 100-run mark, around the 70-ball mark. The big difference is Oval having Lammonby as their safety-valve at no.8. In the team solely to overcome losing too many wickets, which they can afford to have with so many bowling options in their top 7. Him keeping Tom Curran company got them an extra 20 runs. It allowed them to carry on hitting boundaries, rather than limping away like we are.
Fair play Oval. No complaints from me. I didn't give us much of a chance after the draft, so just to make the final has impressed me. Especially with Finn Allen injured all comp. Hopefully we can ditch most of our batters and replace them with attractive options (Pollard, Evans and Du Plooy are all within our top six salary picks, so there should be room to hopefully attract quality).
Leicesterhsire have a quite a good record in the one-day game.It might even be better than Surrey's iover the past 20 years or so.
Is the treble really on? If I was a Somerset supporter, I would want the CC title above all else, as all the other trophies have been won in the past.
Popped up on my Facebook page. ✍: MARK NICHOLAS for "The Cricket Monthly" In Swansea in 1993, Viv was on strike to Marshall in a county match between Glamorgan and Hampshire. These were contests to savour, us hackers briefly living in a parallel universe with the greatest players of the day. Malcolm sprinted in, but at the split second of his delivery stride Viv pulled away, clearly furious. There was silence. We looked at each other, then at him: no one dared say a word. He marched forward, a smouldering warrior, and screamed, "HEY!" He was most of the way down the pitch now, marching faster with each step, thankfully past Marshall and past the umpire. "YOU!" Nothing, bar the horrified look on the spectators either side of and above the sightscreen. "THAT'S YOU! " He was halfway to the boundary now and pointing to a spot just above the sightscreen, pointing to a man who was sitting alone, lost in the newspaper that hid his face. "YOU! " Alerted by those around him, the man looked up from his broadsheet and, startled, pointed at himself like, "WHAT, ME?". "YES, YOU!!! "YOU'VE GOT DAVID GOWER AND ROBIN SMITH AT SLIP; YOU'VE GOT MALCOLM MARSHALL, THE GREATEST FAST BOWLER IN THE WORLD, BOWLING TO VIVIAN RICHARDS. AND YOU READING THE F***ING NEWSPAPER ?!" Priceless. The 10 greatest international cricketers who played county cricket: READ https://bit.ly/3WfUnzp
How embarrassed must the Sri Lanka team be with that endless national anthem. Reminds me of the saying that the length of the national anthem increases as the international importance of the country decreases. Surely they have a shortened version.
It's a shame the tests this summer have (so far) been so one-sided. I was hoping Sri Lanka would be more of a challenge. Hopefully they step up enough to give England a game.
Good to see Holland getting a 100. I'm not sure he has a future with us, but he's certainly good enough for D2 level.