Somerset
Batting to the beat of a Funereal Drum Essex July CC1
By Farmer White et al
March 5 2023
The last of Farmer's reports to be added to the front page archive. Essex at Chelmsford in July Day 1 is not present but by the end of Day 2 the home side starting had a 500 plus declaration and we were one down with an uphill battle on our plates.
County Championship 2022. Division 1. Essex v Somerset. 25th, 26th, 27th and 28th July. Chelmsford.
Josh Davey, Sonny Baker and Ned Leonard were unavailable due to injury.
Somerset. M.T. Renshaw, T.A. Lammonby, T.B. Abell (c), G.A. Bartlett, L.P. Goldsworthy, J.E.K. Rew (w), L. Gregory, K.L. Aldridge, C. Overton, P.M. Siddle, M.J. Leach.
Essex. N.L.J. Browne, Sir A.N. Cook, T. Westley (c), D.W. Lawrence, P.I. Walter, M.J.J. Critchley, A.M. Rossington (w), S.R. Harmer, A.P. Beard, S. Snater, J.A. Porter.
Overnight. Essex 281 for 3.
Second day 26th July – Batting to the beat of a funereal drum
This was a day on which the sun barely shone, the Somerset bowlers stuck firmly to their task and the Essex batters painstakingly built a score designed to give Simon Harmer the strongest of bases from which to entangle the Somerset batters. That at least appeared to be the Essex script and the Somerset fear, at least among its supporters. Essex’s efforts to apply that strategy, and Somerset’s to resist it, were the story of the day. By the end of it Essex had laid a long, hard road for Somerset to travel, but Somerset had taken the first steps along that road with an assuredness that has gradually asserted itself in their last two matches.
There were moments at the beginning of the day where it looked like Somerset’s road might have been shorter. In the second over, Overton twice beat the overnight not out centurion, Browne. On the second occasion the ball passed so close to the bat a replay revealed, if I am able to lip read, Overton asking, “How did that miss?” In the next over, Browne edged Siddle, running in hard, short of Overton at second slip. My notes reveal the ball beating or finding the edge of the bat seven times in seven overs, on three of those occasions, edges fell short of the slip fielder. In response, Essex scored only nine runs, only a single cover drive from Browne finding the boundary. The hopes of this Somerset watcher rose or fell with each delivery, and then subsided as Browne and Walter began to take Essex forward and the ball came more under the batters’ control.
A pair of neat cover drives, one from each batter and a clutch of boundaries clipped off the legs began to accelerate the scoring with Somerset turning to Lammonby’s left arm seam and Leach’s left arm spin to combat the two Essex left handers. When Walter lofted Leach over long on for six, the ball coming to earth in front of the large landscape Chelmsford scoreboard, Essex moved to 336 for 3 and thoughts of a truly gargantuan score began to fill the Somerset mind. And then, as if a tree had fallen without warning, Lammonby, with but six wickets to his name in 28 first-class matches, uprooted Walter’s off stump with a ball as straight as the stricken stump. My usual shriek of delight hurled at the screen when Somerset take a wicket was absent. It was so unexpected, especially from Lammonby. Instead of the shriek, my lower jaw dropped, too stunned to play its part in emitting a shout. Walter had batted for nearly four hours and scored 86 carefully assembled runs. As he and Browne began to take Essex forward, an uprooted off stump was not in the brain’s store of possibilities for the morning.
Two overs later, Matthew Critchley, having just opened his scoring against Lammonby with four runs off an inside edge which might have taken out a fourth stump, pushed hopefully at a ball again outside off. Again he edged, this time off the outside edge and Rew took a neat catch diving to his right. Critchley four. Essex now 342 for 5 and Lammonby had taken a second first-class wicket in an innings for the first time in his career. It was the first sign in the match that Somerset might be making headway, although the wickets seemed to have more to do with the way the ball had been played than anything it did in the air or off the pitch. Then, with Browne ploughing remorselessly on, clipping one ball from Lammonby to fine leg, Essex reached lunch on 364 for 5. Only a Lammonby-induced thick outside edge for four through backward point off Rossington’s bat now giving any encouragement to the bowlers.
Although only two wickets had fallen in the morning, they did give the Somerset supporter some hope that Essex might be held back from a truly enormous total. The Somerset bowlers were due some applause too, for they had kept their discipline to hold Essex to under three runs an over for the morning and for the innings as a whole. That brought some relief, but the ever-present spectre of Simon Harmer hung over the interval and there would be no respite from anxiety about what might be to come until, as they say, both sides had batted. It was an uneasy lunch, even though taken within the comfort of my own home.
The afternoon began 47 overs into the second new ball. Abell began with Aldridge and, curiously, Renshaw’s part-time off breaks. Neither was able to sustain the discipline of most of Somerset’s first four sessions and for seven overs Essex threatened to take the game away from Somerset, scoring 44 runs without reply. Aldridge let slip 11 runs in the first over, being driven by Browne for four and twice drifting onto Rossington’s legs, once to be clipped into the leg side for two and once clipping the pads for the ball to run to the fine leg boundary. Renshaw was pulled for four twice in two balls by Rossington while Browne twice drove Aldridge to the cover boundary. The only flicker of hope for Somerset was in Aldridge’s fourth and final over of his spell when Browne edged him through slip. But, by then, the slips had fled to more defensive positions and the ball ran unhindered to the boundary.
When Essex had taken their lunch score of 364 for 5 to 408 for 5, Abell called a halt and drafted Lammonby and Overton back into the attack in an attempt to dam the flow of runs. It brought Lammonby his third wicket, Rossington pulling to deep midwicket where Renshaw took the catch. In five overs Overton conceded just eight runs and in five more, Lammonby conceded seven and a leg bye, including the only boundary in their ten-over intervention, Browne reaching for a widish ball to cut to wide third man. At 425 for 6 after 143 overs, Essex’s rate of scoring had returned to its original metronomic pace.
In the next ten-over segment, from Leach and Gregory, Essex scored 27 runs with two boundaries, both from Harmer, both off Leach and both lofted over wide midwicket. The metronomic pace of the game restored by Overton and Lammonby after the short Essex outburst after lunch, was being sustained. It was as if, the occasional outburst of runs apart, the game was being played against the steady beat of a funereal drum, with Essex sticking rigidly to the drum’s slow throb by periodically pushing singles, interspersed with an occasional random beat of a bass drum as the ball was thumped to the boundary. Leach was under particular scrutiny, because on a pitch which Somerset supporters would have assumed was prepared with Harmer in mind, hopes would have been rising that he might find some assistance from it and make some headway. He did not however look like taking a wicket, although he was now bowling tightly, and beyond Harmer’s two boundaries he had conceded five runs in five overs. 452 for 6 the score when Aldridge and Renshaw returned to bowl Somerset to tea.
With their return, the rhythm of the drum changed, the beat increasing to release thoughts of a declaration. Three boundaries came in the first two overs, the third lofted over long on by Harmer off Renshaw. That old master of spin bowling would have known the risk of trying to immediately repeat the stroke but playing to the beat of the new drum he did and Lammonby took the catch at long on. Essex 466 for 7. Harmer 26. There was little by way of regrouping from Essex. They struck 20 more runs in the four overs to tea, mostly from the bat of Browne, including two boundaries, driven straight and lofted to long on, both off Renshaw. Essex 486 for 7 at tea with Browne now 229 not out,his double century having passed almost unnoticed from 230 miles away through COVID eyes.
It was clear that the Essex innings had all but run its course. With the batters trying to gather a few final runs before the declaration wave came from Westley, Essex returned for three overs after tea. Two wickets and 22 runs resulted from a classic dash for runs. Somerset confronted it with Overton and Siddle who, trying to the last, held Essex to four singles in the first of those three overs. Shane Snater, who had replaced Harmer, took on Overton, swung towards leg, the ball took the top edge and steepled high enough for Overton to catch it just short of midwicket. In a valedictory swing, Aaron Beard managed to strike Siddle for four and then clear the long on boundary, Gregory smiling wryly as he accepted the return throw from the crowd. Then another smile as he caught Beard’s next lofted stroke running in from long on and diving forward. With that, Browne, on a tired 234 followed Beard off to applause from the Somerset players and the Essex crowd. 508 for 9 declared the final Essex score. Huge by any standards, but perhaps not quite so gargantuan as Somerset supporters might have feared. The real fear now was Simon Harmer, destroyer in chief in recent seasons on the Chelmsford wicket.
For Somerset, Renshaw and Lammonby, curiously, takers of over half the Essex wickets, came forth to assess the possibilities and set a course for Somerset. Essex began with three slips for Jamie Porter and Snater. Lammonby began positively with three boundaries, one driven straight to the River End off Snater followed by the smoothest of off drives off Porter. Snater was pulled too, just as effectively, through midwicket as Somerset raced to 27 for 0 after five overs. Renshaw, beaten by Porter in the first over, looked less secure. He edged Snater towards third slip, but like several edges in the Essex innings, it fell short. Another, against Porter, had second slip diving hard to his left but the ball flew by low and just of of reach, Renshaw benefitting by four runs. He was beaten again in Porter’s next over, but the result, as had become the norm in this match, profited the bowler nothing.
The Essex bowling, although troubling Renshaw, had not been entirely under the bowlers’ control, a number of balls drifting to leg. Porter misdirected four byes past Renshaw and the keeper, Rossington, and Snater added four more to take Somerset to a somewhat varied 40 for 0 after eight overs, Renshaw also having glanced a no ball from Snater for four. The bowling variety continued, although with more purpose from Essex, when Harmer bamboozled Lammonby with an arm ball. Lammonby stepped back towards his stumps, one foot on the line of off, the other reaching ever further outside leg until it finally touched ground at least two sets of stumps away, and the bat, set to guide the ball downwards and past the slip towards the boundary, edged it into the stumps. It was a ball as beautiful as the stroke was ugly and Lammonby left the field with a tangled web of a dismissal to decipher. It was Harmer’s fourth ball.
It was a devastating moment for the watching Somerset supporter. Visions of Harmer, with 508 runs behind him, at Chelmsford, on a bone-dry pitch, working his way through the Somerset batting left the pit of the stomach ruling the emotions. It left a question too in the mind about Jack Leach’s 39-over, increasingly accurate, but wicketless performance. Two and a half runs an over spoke of extended periods of control without which the Essex score might have extended towards 600, but Simon Harmer had struck before his first over was out.
When Tom Abell joined Renshaw the importance of the partnership to Somerset could not be overestimated. They have been Somerset’s most consistent run makers in 2022, and they are certainly the most experienced in this match, but they would need immense concentration if they were to succeed. One of Harmer’s great traits is his practice of giving the batter little to leave, little respite from having to protect the stumps and having to put the stumps at some risk to attack the ball. Here, he was turning the ball too, if slowly. The accuracy and even the slow turn left the batter, particularly the left-handed Renshaw, vulnerable to the arm ball that had overwhelmed Lammonby. It made for an anxious watch for the Somerset supporter, especially with the prospect of relegation hanging low like a thunder cloud in the cricketing sky.
With Abell and Renshaw looking to settle with some solid defence and the occasional single, Essex helped get Somerset’s score moving again when both Beard and, unusually, Harmer drifted enough to leg for the ball to deflect off the pads of Renshaw and run to the boundary for four leg byes. Immediately, Renshaw picked up the momentum, driving Harmer through midwicket to the small, covered stand on the opposite side of the ground to the Pavilion. This, Renshaw followed with three boundary drives against Harmer in as many overs, one straight, one through the covers and one straighter through the off side.
Abell meanwhile was playing to a quicker drumbeat too, sending attacking strokes to the boundary at the rate of one an over for five successive overs off Beard, scoring on both sides of the wicket. In 11 overs, Abell and Renshaw added 52 runs before easing gently to the close, playing out four successive maidens to Harmer and Critchley’s part-time and rather idiosyncratically delivered leg breaks. Renshaw finished on 36 and Abell on 27. Essex still held the advantage with a remaining lead of 406 and Harmer capable of applying pressure virtually indefinitely. But Renshaw and Abell’s calculated charge at the end of the day, albeit aided by a generous helping of extras from Essex, left the watching Somerset mind a little more at ease than it had been when Harmer bowled Lammonby.
Close. Essex 505 for 8 dec (N.L.J. Browne 234*, P.I. Walter 86, Sir A.N. Cook 44, T.A. Lammonby 3-35). Somerset 99 for 1. Somerset trail by 406 runs with nine first innings wickets standing.
This report starts at Day 2. If you want the other sections of this game then you cqan find them on Farmer's own website HERE or on the Grockle's thread under this story.
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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2023:03:07:21:36:27 by Grockle.
We are off to Essex where Harmer has been making hay but not being inspected and will also finish off his CC season before joining South Africa... hope there's no controversy!!
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022:07:29:11:24:48 by Grockle.
Perfect forecast ☀️
If, as was reported, Josh Davey was running around the Taunton outfield on Friday then he might, conceivably, also be available (it probably depends on how quickly he was running!)
No set timescale.
His last red ball game was Surrey June 9???
I'd imagine his next "1st team" game will be Glos home
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022:07:24:11:39:32 by Grockle.
Quote:wsm fan
Renshaw, Lammers, Abell, George, Golds, Rew, Lewis (Craig 🤞) (Siddle 🤞) Leach, Kasey/Brooks
Perfect forecast ☀️
Wondering whether we’ll play Roelof instead of Kasey/Brooks if the pitch at Chelmsford is likely to spin (again)? I guess we have Golders and Renshaw as extra spin options. Renshaw’s part time round arm off spin could prove useful.
Would be harsh on Kasey/Brooks if left out as both bowled well v Yorkshire.
Renshaw might be okay for 3-4 overs, but if we want to have 30 overs (combined) of spin from both ends? Same might very well be necessary in the Essex second innings, for example.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022:07:24:11:48:28 by AGod.
Then I think the team should be:
Renshaw
Lammonby
Abell
Bartlett
Goldsworthy
Rew
Gregory
Overton
VDM
Siddle
Leachy
The above is *not* ideal because Gregory has not been a factor with the ball this season.
BUT................ having to use either Renshaw or Goldsworthy (zero career FC wkts) for an extended spell on a turning track would be even less ideal.
The other non-ideal element of the above would be that it would mean Aldridge missing out, which would be undeserved. If we were feeling really brave (batting wise), I guess we could pick the above team but with Overton at seven and Aldridge at either eight or nine. Weakens the batting but, on recent evidence, would improve the seam bowling, IMO.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022:07:24:12:03:08 by AGod.
May be dreaming, but would be so good to stuff Essex by an innings.
Woke up now. Settle for a win by 1 run or 1 wicket !
Grizzers
You have to feel that the toss will be crucial.
If they win it and it's a turner with not much in it for seam?
I imagine Cook would probably make a ton with his individual total closely matching the eventual margin of an Essex win.
But if we could win the toss and bat before Harmer starts to turn it square?
We could be in business.
Last time we went there?
They won the toss and batted and none of Gregory, Brooks or TG bowled very well before lunch (only Jamie Overton bowled properly before lunch) and they got to 126 before their second wicket fell, which was the difference in the match. From 126-1, they were 216 all out, but the remaining innnings in the match were 131 (us), 183 (them) and 117 (us). That was a seaming track, in June. Only Abell, Hildreth and Gregory made more than 25 runs in an innings for us in that match. Cook made 127 runs in the match, whilst Gregory's 54 were our best aggregate. Craig Overton did not play. I don't remember why not. Siddle took only 2 wkts in the match, for them, but Porter ran riot with 9-73 in the match and Aaron Beard, primarily a swing bowler, had the ludicrous match figures of 7 wickets from only 9 overs bowled.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2022:07:24:12:46:48 by AGod.
In the infamous Title-deciding clash with Essex, on a bunsen at Taunton?
VDM absolutely FLAYED Harmer, taking him for 60 out of an SCCC total of barely 200
Seriously, pitches in this part of the season are now beginning to be used for the second time, two spinners will be needed.
Appears the ECB may have changed their minds 🤔🤔🤔
Yet another of their oh-so-lame- always injured England bowlers (this time one in the T20 party) must have broken down.
T20I Squad: Jos Buttler (captain), Moeen Ali, Jonathan Bairstow, Harry Brook, Sam Curran, Richard Gleeson, Chris Jordan, Liam Livingstone, Dawid Malan, Adil Rashid, Jason Roy, Phil Salt, Reece Topley, David Willey.
In truth?
ALL of Curran, Gleeson and Topley have long been injury-prone so it would be the opposite of a shock if one of them had gone down injured. Of course, as this was a 14-man squad anyway, if they do detain Craig it will probably be as a reserve and so it will just be more drinks carrying anyway.
And looking at that squad? They must already have other injuries - for example, Tymal Mills would, surely, usually be in the squad? So he must be injured yet again as well.
ECB whinge about the CC not having good enough quality then take good players out of it for Mickey-Mouse bilateral white ball series that absolutely nobody will remember even a matter of weeks after they've happened. Personally, I think they should call up one of the guys that only plays white ball for his county if they need another player instead of diluting the quality of the CC.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2022:07:24:15:03:30 by AGod.
Tom Abell (c), Kasey Aldridge, Tom Banton, George Bartlett, Jack Brooks, Lewis Goldsworthy, Lewis Gregory, Tom Lammonby, Jack Leach, Craig Overton, Matt Renshaw, James Rew, Peter Siddle and Roelof van der Merwe.
So one would expect
Renshaw, Lammonby, Abell, Goldsworthy, Bartlett, Rew, Gregory, Overton, Leach, Siddle
and then perm from Aldridge, RvdM and Brooks probably not Banton
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022:07:25:10:36:47 by Grockle.
Progress...slow but progress.
Essex almost always bat first when they win the toss and they almost always win when they bat first, with the exception of a couple of early season games this year that were played on absolute roads (and were drawn)
The reasons being
A) It ususally does at Chelmsford. Harmer has.....er..... 28 wicekts in his last *two* home games!!
and
Most of the SE of England has had all of about 2-3 hours of rain in the past month. And it was 39-40 degrees for 48 hours just one week ago.
I suspect we will regret not selecting VDM. At the same time, given that we haven't picked VDM, I certainly agree that it's good to see Aldridge picked, rather than defaulting to Brooks. Kasay's batting reach might be useful against the inevitable turn for Harmer (ditto Overton's reach).
One piece of good team news?
No Sam Cook, who is a really good bowler, for our hosts. Cook has taken FIFTY wickets @ FOURTEEN over the past 12 months, which I suspect to be probably the best record in the country.
Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 2022:07:25:10:58:45 by AGod.
Maybe we'll get some early encouragement. Must bowl far better than Gregory, Brooks and TG bowled before lunch three years ago, when they got to lunch at about 125/1 on a track that proved nearly impossible to bat on for the rest of the match.
So there's certainly some hope in those numbers..
That would be another factor leading one to expect turn.
I suspect that our team selection might actually reflect not so much the fact that we don't necessarily expect it to turn, but that SCCC thought it difficult to balance our side if we picked VDM. You have to have only three frontline seamers, if that's the case, and if one of those is Peter, who was exhausted just last week?
Given that this is a used wicket, it's also possible - though - that this might be a second outing for one of the two roads on which Essex started the season... if so? I'd still guess that it will turn later on, but it could be flattish before then.
Tom has made the switch to KA, instead of Peter, as suggested.
I wonder if Peter will switch ends or whether Gregory will replace Cove?
"What looked," and "maybe," are not "diagnoses."
For some reason, as the umpires hunt for a new ball, Craig O seems to be explaining - in some detail - to Nick Browne, exactly what was wrong with the old one.
Last time, they went from 125-1 to about 216 all out. Could we be about to inspire a similar collapse this time?
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022:07:25:15:02:01 by AGod.
"The worst delivery ever to take a wicket in the CC," in the view of Mr Gibson!!
This could easily be a nightmare defeat in which we score only 2 or 3 points or so.
The bowling has been spotty, at best, and increasingly indifferent after tea.
It’s been pretty hard labour over the last three weeks.
Grizzers
I know being here isn't the same as watching the stream & posting but I'll struggle on.
Very very tired ground.
Everything needs painting.
Not 1 new feature since my first visit in 98.
Players are in a large marquee, no showers, using portable toilets out the back.
Outfield is a disgrace. Bare as anything, uneven, I have seen better park outfields.
Bowlers stuck to it superbly well. With a concrete outfield to go at under 3s is some effort.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2022:07:25:22:51:55 by wsm fan.
I read a report that suggested that Chelmsford was an indication of what cricket had become. It was stuck in a rut with little going for it and even less being done to change things for the better.
I used to feel the same way about Bristol but the last couple of visits there, while the side haven't exactly impressed, the place looks and feels different in a more positive way.
Rather than creating franchises that is what the ECB should have been doing. Making counties ask qyestions about their provision and making them earn their money by doing things to change 'the narrative' of cricket. Instead they are imposing their narrative on the game and some counties are letting them by hiding in the status quo and hoping they will survive the cull. Essex seem to do little... and probably will.
Not a great day. Anthony Gibson seems to think its 'honours even' but it was a heartfelt but pretty listless performance on a crappy pitch from the look of it and it will be down to our batsmen to make something of it in deteriorating conditions.
Someone was saying there was deterioration in the surface as early as 5 overs in...I"m not there so obviously I haven't analysed the surfaces by hand so who am I to talk aye?
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022:07:26:11:39:47 by Grockle.
A key sign of a bad pitch is always likely to be one on which the toss is entirely decisive. Their seamers would have got very little out of this, either. Harmer would have had LHBs to bowl at, whereas Leachy has had few RHBs to bowl at, so that would have been in their favour but otherwise..
After we produced an absolutely first-rate cricket wicket for the game with Surrey, this is the third successive dire surface on which we've played (one of them our own pitch). You can't really blame Southport CC, as an occasional outground, but what's the excuse for Essex at Chelmsford? Their whole square looks like it wants digging up and re-laying!!
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2022:07:26:09:07:21 by AGod.
One ball from Craig kept a tad low on the way to Rew.
Leach got 1 edge as batter danced down but it beat Rew.
Literally nothing else.
Jack barely had a shout or yelp all day, there was nothing.
Forecast dry & cloudy the next 2 days, no real sun, so wicket shouldn't overly bake much more.
Anthony is sat right behind the bowlers arm in a potting shed that looks like it might fall down any minute.
Tractor & his crew spotted but very few other familiar Somerset travelling supporters.
Not even any sign of our committee types, but then I guess we don't really have a watching committee anymore under the new regime, all skills based.....
Realistically?
This can only really be the case if one assumes that all subsequent innings will be played on a pitch which continues to behave in exactly the same way.
It might be "honours even," in the sense that we *might* have made a similar score to them, had we got to bat first. But we didn't. And it would be a miracle if the track just stays the same for all four days. And then, even if it did stay the same for all four days, we are going to be batting after a long old stint in the field ... at least four sessions, one would imagine.
And, as rare as it is, it's going to be a little bit more likely to happen to a team if they are in 18th and last place in the domestic competition!
Leics also didn't have Simon Harmer, or Sir A N Cook. When you have guys like that, then having something like that happen to you becomes even more improbable.
Anyway, hopefully Essex won't be making as many as 584!!
But if Essex make 400-450..... it would take a really, really good batting effort for us to get up to that sort of total, let alone beyond it......... and given that Chelmsford generally takes increasing turn? Our requirement, for us to *win* would be to go some way beyond whatever Essex end up with in their innings.
All of a sudden? Lots of lateral movement for the seamers.. NOT what our batting group will really want to see.
This is ridiculous.
Lewis will also have to put a helmet on and move up.
ECB rules MUST be changed. This type of deathly slow track should be penalised with a 25 point penalty.
Just about to say that Lammonby was working well. I like his bowling this season
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022:07:26:12:31:04 by Grockle.
However, Ant Gib spoke to Andy Hurry who expressed no opinion on the matter, presumably because he (Hurry) knows that ECB apparatchik, Hollins, is planning to toe the Execrable Cricket Board line.
There’s a meeting in the first week of August, at the Oval, apparently, to try and thrash out the detail.
Likely to end quickly. The loser seems liable to take only 3-4 points. If Lancs could win it, that could put Kent back in a measure of trouble.
Jamie Overton seems to he absent, for batting purposes. Anyone know why?
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022:07:26:16:29:32 by Grockle.
We need a MUCH better effort from Surrey in the second half of that game, or we shall be staring relegation in the face.
Leachy was rather poor, I’m afraid.
Is it really too much to ask for the Club to let the members how it will vote in the event of a proposed reduction by the ECB ?
It will we just be told afterwards ?
Grizzers
“Any format that keeps SCCC in Div One would be welcome.”
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022:07:26:18:21:02 by AGod.
Both Harmer and Critchley looking much more dangerous than Leach and an extensive trial by spin awaits tomorrow. One suspects that Harmer may get Renshaw quite quickly tomorrow, as MR has been clinging on, rather.
Essex seamers were not effective and, unless conditions change markedly, seem unlikely to be a real factor in this match.
I believe Anthony Gibson is correct to have inferred that the ECB saying nothing about payments to counties from the new Blundred contract is very deliberate… because they plan to tie any payments from that second Blundred TV deal to counties to county acquiescence in a reduced CC programme and, very possibly, to six counties being condemned to “permanent nursery club,” status.
Otherwise?
If the ECB just say “only ten games next year,” then counties are liable to want to pay their players less, which could cause a player strike!
So the ECB tactic will obviously be:
You can have x money per county from the new Blundred TV deal if you a) vote for our plans and b) guarantee not to cut player salaries in response to the reduction in the CC programme.
Yes, Jack’s form is concerning, but after the three years he’s just endured, he just needs to play, and bowl and bowl and bowl. He’ll get it back.
Harmer bowls to Renshaw.
Renshaw gets a leading edge.
It travels not a single mm in the air, running straight along the ground.
Batter and bowler both exchange knowing grins.
Jamie Overton seems to be injured, having bowled 5 balls of one over.
Pitch, if anything, seems to be getting even slower! There’s plenty of turn but, at this pace, and without much bounce, it’s not enough for Harmer.
If we can get through the next session, unscathed, as well then we should be well on our way to a draw. Nervous eyes on The Oval, though, either way…
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022:07:27:14:18:45 by AGod.
(Although I agree that it wasn’t the best conceived shot from George).
I assumed it was COVE, as he had been suffering earlier with his shoulder, but couldn't pick up anything from the commentary.
Hope Tom’s injury isn’t too bad.
Promise not to mention bonus points SP. Oops, just did.
Grizzers
Tomorrow could be the day that tilts the title race decisively in favour of Hampshire. They need about 200 to win at North Marine Road. Could be tricky. But surely winnable.
Surrey, on the other hand, on whom we were relying to beat Warks, seem some way from that objective. They have six second innings wickets still to take and are, already, more than 200 runs in arrears. They are also down Jamie Overton and, as such, a bowler short, albeit they still have loads of seamers because they don't bother to ever pick a specialist spinner at the Oval anymore.
For such a poorly resourced county, this is a very, very strong performance from them and they deserve considerable credit.
Good focus, discipline and concentration.
There have been plenty of occasions in the past where we've shown zero patience on deathly slow wickets, such as this one, perishing to a succession of daft shots, so it has been very pleasing that we batted so sensibly.
A very frustrating day for bowlers and spectators and match heading for a bore draw.
Jason Kerr:
“An incredibly exciting day.”
Grizzers
I can't really make up my mind whether Abell's injury being in the other leg is a good thing, or not?
On the one hand, it may at least mean that a chronic weakness hasn't developed in one hammy but, on the other, there may now be at least a slight vulnerability in each one.
This doubt differentiates it from a "Brexit benefit," since there is never any doubt that those so-called "benefits," are nothing of the sort.
Edited to say that, according to a professional sprinter who has commented on this then, in the short-term at least it is like to be good news that it's the "other," hamstring as a recurrence of an injury to the same hamstring as before would have been likely to cause a longer recovery time than for the original injury.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2022:07:28:09:07:50 by AGod.
Given the Essex captain's rather pointed remarks about the quality of the wicket provided for this game, do you think Essex will lodge a complaint about it?!
A declartion would serve little purpose, for us.. it would just create extra wear and tear on our bowlers. The only possible benefit might be that Leach could get some more bowling - but then what would be the point, given that he won't bowl again for several weeks whilst the garbage is being played?
Just wondering when Essex will lodge a complaint with the ECB about the pitch.
Meantime, let’s keep them in the field until the last possible moment.
Grizzers
Grizzers
Peter?
I was just about to say that I think our bowlers will be very unimpressed that we declared but, if it's Peter that decided then he's obviously only got himself to blame!!
The only thing to come out of a nothing of a game on a joke of a pitch but... points huh?
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022:07:28:21:32:15 by Grockle.
The only bowlers that I can think of that probably would have got their 20 wickets on it, would have been Waqar and Wasim.
Given the shabby state of the outfield, they would surely have been able to get their reverse-swing going - and 90mph swinging yorkers are not affected by the pitch itself, since they basically land (virtually) on the base of the stumps.
Which Somerset batsman scored his maiden championship century at more than a run a ball, in a match he had not been selected to play in?
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022:07:28:22:01:14 by cricketjerry-mouse.
First day: Essex ahead after a day of production line cricket Link:
[farmerwhite.co.uk]
Second day: Batting to the beat of a funereal drum Link:
[farmerwhite.co.uk]
Third day: The drum beats on Link:
[farmerwhite.co.uk]
Final day: Playing on the face of the moon Link:
[farmerwhite.co.uk]
Farmer
Absolutely dreadful.
If, as per their report, the ECB genuinely want better pitches?
They will have to consider funding a return to outgrounds so that fewer games have to be played on re-used rubbish like the track that we played on at Chelmsford (to be "fair," that pitch had previously been used vs Northants and was rubbish even first time around as well!!)
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