Hampshire (H) (14-17 Apr)

I’ll be there day 1, probably day 2, definitely not day 3, and maybe day 4.

1-3 here; will be a nice birthday treat on Friday if we can have a 'good day'.

Free coffee and tea at the Hobbs Gate on Day 1! They're spoiling us

It already looks to me as if Batty doesn't have the slightest clue how to manage a cricket team. How in the name of god can he think Steel is the spinner we need? Moriaty or Virdi are by a mad mile better than Steel. 22 wickets in 43 first class matches.

Honestly, I tried to be positive about this season and all I see is Battys useless captaincy being transferred to useless management,

I would be amazed if Steel plays. We don't need an opener, and if we had any intentions of playing a spinner (which we should do) we would have whistled up Moriarty or Virdi after the Jacks experiment last week. Why Steel is in the squad is therefore anyone's guess. Perhaps there is another second-team fixture that the two front-line spinners will be taking part in to gain further match-time, rather than have them twiddling their thumbs.
One thing is for sure: we will be hugely reliant on Roach to repeat his heroics of the equivalent game last year to make any impression on a Hampshire side who got off to a flyer and are fast becoming many people's tips for the title.

The 1 fear I have is that we dont do the Topley rotation thing we did last year.

for me the top 6 from last week play and the last 2 play. so that is

Burns, Patel, Amla, Pope, Smith, Foakes, ?, ?, ?, Roach, Topley
the 3 spaces in the middle are 3 of Jacks, Steel, Clark, Overton and Taylor.

I would play Jacks (and use him as the spinner) and then 2 from Clark, Overton and Taylor, leaving Steel out.
However, if they feel that Steel should play, then I can only see Jacks getting dropped, Clark in at 7, Steel at 8 and then 1 of Overton or Taylor at 9

knowing Surrey, it will nothing like either of those

Seeing as we’ve not picked a front line spinner then the plan must be to have some pace in the wicket, in which case Overton should come in for Taylor. I may be applying too much logic.

Here's my preview of the Easter weekend Champo clash between @surreycricket and @hantscricket at the Oval http://www.ovalworld-online.com/prevsurhamcc2022.htm

First-class stats sheet for @surreycricket vs @hantscricket http://www.ovalworld-online.com/fc_stats_surrey_hampshire.pdf

For Surrey scorecards and fixtures for 2022, go to: http://www.ovalworld-online.com/cards.htm

Overton in for Topley, then. Bit surprised Hants have elected to bowl, seems like a nice for batting

I highly doubt that's getting 20 wickets (Hope to regret this later)

Realistically Roach will need to take 12-16 wickets in the match for us to have a chance.

Alex! wrote:Overton in for Topley, then. Bit surprised Hants have elected to bowl, seems like a nice for batting

so it seems we are still 'rotating' with Topley. I game on, 1 game off

Cricinfo have Jamie O batting 8 as a ‘bowling allrounder’ ahead of Clark at 9 whose down as an allrounder. Goes to my point that nobody knows what an allrounder is.

Our Batters are better than there’s but their bowling is much stronger than ours with Abbas, Abbott, Barker and Dawson (gasp a spinner). A lot will depend on how we go in the first innings.

Am I missing something about where to find the live stream link? It’s usually on Twitter and the website but I can’t find it. Thanks in advance!

Disappointed Topley has been left out. He always looks our most threatening seam bowler by a mile to me. If the plan was to alternate his matches then why have him in the squad ? Mind games, perhaps ??? :-)

Cee Gee wrote:Am I missing something about where to find the live stream link? It’s usually on Twitter and the website but I can’t find it. Thanks in advance!

Now found - I can see why no spinner was picked

Without Sam Curran then Jacks balances the side better than a very long tail. That’s kind of the only thing I can see.

But Taylor and Overton are as useless as a marzipan dildo.

I'm confused. The line up they just showed on the stream has Topley in and not Overton ....

Mark Church just confirmed on commentary that Overton is playing and not Topley.

What has happened to the ball tracking cameras hat we had last year? Useless without it.

I guess I'd take for a first session

Also Somerset are hilarious, tinpot county

Distinct lack of lower-end food options.

I think it's fair to say both dismissals today are peak shit getting wickets

James “Nasser Hussain” Vince

Genuinely baffling decision to bowl first

There's nothing from this Pope innings we didn't already know, right.

Alex! wrote:I think it's fair to say both dismissals today are peak shit getting wickets

make that 3 like that

Our impressive first-choice batting line-up has done the job again. While it certainly wasn't the green-top it looked when Vince put us in, it isn't a complete road either. Patel and Amla had to work hard before lunch, and laid the platform for Ollie Pope to improve on his Bradman-esque career average of around 100 at the ground.

The problem is, our batting display today has potentially underlined the madness of playing seven batsmen (including Foakes) while excluding a specialist spinner. We really don't need the luxury of Will Jacks coming in at 7 given our top six and also given Clark and Overton who are more than capable of batting at 7 and 8. Indeed, part of James Vince's gamble in putting us in to bat was almost certainly that we would not have a decent spin option to bowl at them in the last innings. Roach may yet go through them, but without Topley I really do worry that we have left ourselves short of the few potent bowling options we have available.