Somerset
Weather for Sharks?
By Grockle et al
August 10 2014
The weather may very well decide this game as we waft between lovely August Sunshine and torrential rain under dark and brooding skies. Sussex have wln the toss, decided to field and we presently have a 44 over game starting at 11:40
v SUSSEX 50 overs @ Taunton Sunday 10 August 2014
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Sussex, Somerset and the backend of Hurricane Bertha seems to be the menu for today's home game in the 50 over tournament. Sussex won the toss and decided to field in muggy damp conditions om a pitch that looks like it might do 'a bit' early on.
The side is;
Trescothick, Compton, Ingram, Hildreth, Barrow, Trego, Gregory, Meschede, Thomas, Groenewald and Leach
The service to commemorate the hundreth anniversary of the start of World War 1 took place inside but the new screen was used inventively to show the records of the 13 Somerset cricketers who died in the Great War. One minutes silence preceded the advertised start of 11 with everyone in the ground standing respectfully. But then the rain had its first say as the Sussex men walked out and the heavens opened.
After waiting about 15 minutes the covers left the field and Sussex tried again, almost immediately the rain hammered down and off they came once more - probably the story of the day.
At 11:40 we finally got a real start with a 44 over game. Hatchett opens from the River and Marcus gets off the mark with the first ball. 3 runs by the end of the first looks good as Yasir Arafat starts the second and has Marcus playing on with his first ball and Pete dubiously 'caught behind' off his second - our relationship with Umpire Cook continues.
It is slow as the ball is moving left to right and up and down as variable bounce makes the batsman's position even more precarious. It is almost welcome when the rain returns and the umpires take the sides off after 5.1 overs with Somerset 10 for 2.
Back on an hour and 40 minutes later after heavy rain and an increase in the strength of the breeze. Colin Ingram decided that a 33 over game (as it has become) needed a different mindset and he nearly doubled the home side's score off the first 2 balls of the unfinished Arafat 6th. The sun had come out now and the cloud had lifted a little. But the conditions seemed to be changeable in a very short period of time. The much stronger breeze was having an effect however.
A score in excess of 200 must be the Somerset target it is felt and certainly the urgency of Ingram suggests that with the 50 coming up in the 12th however you have to wonder if that is the feelkng of both batsmen and it is with a feeling of 'now we can get moving' that Nick is given out by Umpire Cook at 99 for a score of 42. Not an unpleasant innings by any means but just not 'urgent' enough. His replacement, James Hildreth was expected to be a partner more to the South African's liking. The 100 arrived halfway through the 20th and his own 50 arrived soon after off 57 balls with 6 fours and a six. 110 for 3 at the start of the 21st.
The 150 came up in what seemed like a quicker time though it wasn't really (27th over) but Colin then went to the well once too often and was run out looking for a second run at 157 for another excellent innings of 71. One more game from Ingram before the return of Alviro on Thursday. HE is going to have his work cut out to keep up the momentum.
Alex Barrow was the next man in, suprising quite a few as we needed 50 plus off the last 6 or 6 overs. However no-one really had to worry as he was bowled first ball and Lewis Gregory took his place. I personally would have probably sent in Tim Groenewald to have a bit of a go with the long handle but was is not to be and we went past the 30th over marker needing 22 for the 200 after Gregory took Hatchett for a straight six during his over.
It all becomes a little regulation as the side slowly moves towards 200. Unfortunately they come up against Yasir Arafat bowling the last and at 193 it stops because he takes 3 for 1 in the 33rd. Lewis is caught behind trying to hook him vrom ball one. Tim Groenewald is sent in too last and dies on the boundary trykng to hit a four or a six off his first and Craig Meschede is absolutely skittled by an inswinging yorker as he tries to move us to 199 by smashing the last ball of the innings.
193, with a possible adjustment should not be enough on this ground.
The Reply
Things didn't start well as the Duckworth Lewis system revised down the Sussex requirement to 189. This I can never understand. If the innings are of the same duration, WHY does anything need revising. It is surely simply a need for the visitors to score one more than us.
Anyway, Nash then compounded things by being dropped at second slip by the skipper, a ball that then became a front foot free hit from Lewis. After 5 overs (when we were 10 for 2) Sussex had reached 46 and it started to look like early trip home. The 50 arrived with the second ball of the 6th as the Somerset new ball pair have no real solution to Nash and Wright.
The game did take a turn for the better when Jack came on to bowl and produced somr excitement and decent figures but other than that it was a very poor day with the ball and in the field. Alex missed a pretty regulation stumping, Nick missed a difficult diving catch in the covers and the Boss missed an easier one in the same place, Alfonso didn't hold on to a decent C&B while Craig M couldn't hold one on the boundary. Tim Groenewald bowled poorly while others who were less costly were underbowled and in the end an extra gave them the win with 4 overs to spare.
Poor performance at home to be honest and we still need to get it sorted to qualify.
Jack Leach 7-1-21-2 and Colin Ingram 71 are a couple of good things to take away frlm this....not a lot else unfortunately.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014:08:11:16:02:45 by Grockle.
Overnight awful, morning dodgy, then sunny spells and showers midday onwards.
10 over minimum bash so would think as late as 4.45/5pm start.
Guess it depends how long the mopping up takes.....
They tend to be very good at some things administratively, but horribly wrong at others.
Well done on this anyway.
LoL
Seventy-eight Seasons a Somerset Supporter
It's clear and windy but there is rain everywhere. Sussex won the toss and will bat. Whenever.
If the weather I drove through to get to the ground is coming our way it will be sometime about 5!!
However presently the covers are on and the groundstaff are waiting by them and the Sharks are in the dugouts so we may start soonish.
Thanks.
They are playing in bright sunshine at the moment.
I suppose one factor in our favour may be that our bowlers will not have a ball more than 17 overs old with which to bowl - so the phase that we've seen in earlier games at Taunton where the ball that is 20-25 overs old gets flayed all over the place may not occur?
Baz is out quickly first ball bowled Piolet
So Lewis gets there after all (I might have sent in Tim personally)
Surely we needed quick runs as quickly as possible.
p.s this commentator is an absolute nightmare.
Quote:AGod
A nice thing about Ingram is that he almost never seems to get bowled out quickly for a poor score.
Odd choice of words. That's not an unsubtle dig at the captain is it. Are you suggesting Mr ingram should open are you?
On paper, that would normally be a very comfortable Sunday League type target (the old 40 over Sunday League i.e. 240 or so is normally very comfortable at Taunton from 40 overs).
Let's hope we can bowl really well.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014:08:10:15:29:57 by AGod.
Anybody would have thought they had Viv Richards in their line-up from the way he's jibbering on about flaming Wright.
The Met Office is suggesting further rain, so early wickets could be absolutely huge, if we could get them.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014:08:10:16:00:03 by Grockle.
Better second from Lewis.
That's a disgrace. Why on earth should they be given an EASIER target?
This might be an absolute cock-up by the umpires like the one in that 50 over game at Lord's a few years ago that I mentioned the other day, where they gave us three more power-play overs than we were entitled to.
LoL
Seventy-eight Seasons a Somerset Supporter
Why do you need D/L until something shortens the second innings? Then use it by all means.
If I score 193 in 33 overs then you have to score 194 to beat me IF you are expecting to bat 33 overs as well.... why is there a need for anything else?
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014:08:10:16:10:13 by Grockle.
But we lacked any real explosion in our innings anyway, such that we probably never had a defendable total on the board whatever we bowled.
But bowling at Taunton seems to be an item on the agenda labelled "improvement needed."
After all, for pretty much 85% of our innings, we knew we would only be facing 33 overs.
FE - Our knowing that we'd be facing only 33 overs for 85% of our innings would be a good reason for their target being only slightly more than what we got? But I can't see how it's reason for them to chase a lower target than the number of runs that we made?
Had we been 10 for 0 at the interruption, I'm fairly sure Sussex' target would have been increased.
As someone once said, whatever the merits of the D/L it never SEEMS fair or particularly logical.
150 about to appear with 7 and a bit overs left. Not a lot of hope here for a Somerset victory.
It wasn't going to be enough unless we took early wickets and we hardly looked like taking any before Marcus threw the ball to Jack and then after he stopped bowling. This was a case for Rodders "why bowl him and not bowl him" argument.
Tim was preferred even though his stats were significantly poorer than Craig M's yet on we went.
Still don't have that 'think on your feet' ability or a willingness to change a formula that isn't working. Either that or we don't have the resources to change it significantly on the pitch.
Either way we need another win. On to Glamorgan on Tuesday.
). Seems like we were well beaten in any case...win the next one. Tictacs have been the sweets they are for a considerable time now.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014:08:10:19:55:21 by Grockle.
If you bat first and there's weather around, don't lose a fifth of your wickets in a tenth of your overs. Simples!!!
And for me we need a better captain than Marcus in all forms of the game but none available from within.
Import............?!
It was also a day to remember those who lost their lives in World War One, my grandfather never returned and was never found, one minute silence was held before the match started.
This catch by Lewis Gregory to dismiss Craig Cachopa off Jack Leach was harder than it looked, the ball was hit so high it was moving around in the strong wind Lewis ended up running a long way to catch it. It looks like Jack Leach ended up nearer to it in the end.
This was one of the worst overs I have seen from Alfonso Thomas (his second) it went for sixteen runs, this is Chris Nash hitting the six in the over.
Alex Barrow had a missed day today, here he is making a good stop off the bowling of Alfonso Thomas. Unfortunately he missed an easy stumping.
Craig Meschede bowled by Yasir Arafat off the last ball.
Lewis Gregory playing some sort of reverse shot only to hit it straight behind to Ben Brown off Yasir Arafat.
Most people would say Alex Barrow was unlucky when the ball rolled back onto his stumps off the bowling of Steffan Piolet.
Colin Ingram was the best of the batsmen today this shot was a four and his fifty.
I am sorry this photo is out of focus of Marcus Trescothick losing his leg stump off Yasir Arafat I wasn't ready for it so early in the match, I know I should have been when Marcus is batting (TIC)
And to add Nick Compton score looks good on paper but there were 30 ball he didn't score off.
I think an import is unlikely as it does seem that James has been identified as the most likely candidate to take over. It may be revised but not until 2015 probably.
Would still like to see Marcus move down the order in 1 day games, our bowlers (apart from Jack) we're not at their best, I was Surprised Pete was not used, he did enough warm ups in the outfield to make his point.
Marcus at one point went off the field for a short time to have his Ankle checked, but returned so must have been ok.
Good Run Out by Alex, but shame about stumping..
On to Tuesday.
Our score was therefore lower and his 6 ball performance had a secondary effect on the D/L score (though personally I don't think that made any real difference).
But you are right. At least 25 short.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014:08:10:21:24:35 by Grockle.
Equally though, the areas where we need to improve aren't hard to spot. More consistency from the top order and the imperative (if we are to maintain serious aspirations to win this competition), to reduce the run leakage.
Please don't bowl short lads. It very rarely achieves anything other than two thirds of the square root of zero.
Grizzzly
When he did come in he had less than an over. Maybe Lewis should have swung a little more but a run a ball seemed 'OK'.
A run a ball is an absolute minimum in limited overs games and we didn't even get to that rate. 10 overs left? You have to look to add as near to 100 as possible and more if given the chance.
Toss didn't help, we had worse of condition batting in gloom and dank conditions.
D/L I often get, don't agree with it often but I do get logic of what it is trying to achieve.
Today i'm baffled, how our score was reduced when we were the ones hampered by not knowing length of our innings when we set off is beyond me, I fail to see how wickets lost effects it. going up to 200 I could have understood, but down???
Leach was excellent, again no Tregs after 2 good displays in the week! 4 seamers all couldn't do enough given lack of runs to defend.
Still very confident of going through, 1 win will do it from 2, and if plenty of rain about next few days even 1 point may do it.
Don't know the sequence of interruptions, but seems more like what we expected yesterday. Derby only lost 6 wkts while we lost 8; makes wonder what Sussex target might have been if we'd blocked out a maiden for the last over.
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