That's not the worst score in the world by Yorks. Pitch seems to have a little bit in it (but by no means is awful), and Surrey's batting has more "bits and pieces" batters as opposed to frontline t20 batters. Sure, the likes of Narine and Overton are good enough at clearing the ropes multiple times - but they're just as likely to sky one second ball.
Little chance that Narine will be running a quick two. So Surrey almost certainly need a boundary from one of these last two.
What a final over. What a final two overs tbh. Yorkshire had that game won after 15 overs. Then they had it lost after 18 overs. Then they won it from nowhere.
My support of Yorks could yet backfire horribly, if Yorks were to have all of Root, Bairstow, Malan, Brook, Willey, Rashid and Allen available for finals day. They would be almost unbeatable with all of them. But I think it will only be Malan, plus probably Brook and maybe Willey. There's an England ODI the day after finals day. So whilst the ECB may release Brook and possibly Willey, they surely won't release Root and Bairstow. And a NZ ODI the day before finals day most likely rules out Allen. And it sounds like Rashid will still be away on personal leave. If Lancs can knock out Essex, we'll have a Roses match as one of the SFs!
Hogan (wildcard) and Fuller (replacement for Finn) join the Brave squad. Makes sense that we've strengthened the seam bowling department given (a) Archer again being injured, (b) serious concerns over Garton's bowling, following his long covid, and (c) the risk of Overton getting an England call up. Interesting that we've replaced an overseas player with a domestic player. I guess the thinking there is that having Finn in the squad would have been no use if, say, Vince or Davies became unavailable. He could only have replaced one of three players - and there was very limited chance of him getting in ahead of any of those three when they're all available. Whereas a domestic player could, in theory, replace anyone - and hence provides more flexibility.
I give us a one in three chance. Birmingham are a really, really good side. Not as strong as the Surrey side which started the group stage - and hence they are beatable. But still very good.
So poor from Prest. Was he not watching Vince and McDermott? The pitch is good enough that you can just hit through the ball - no need to take risks with anything fancy.
You'd like to think we'd get 200 from here. But if one of these last three overs can be massive, it could be 210.
That's 200 off the table now. Need to make sure we at least make 190. I don't think it will be anywhere near enough, but it will be something if we bowl well etc.
