Somerset vs Surrey Taunton, 12-15th June

Alex! wrote:I guess right now the team selection has been justified, and subsequently shut me up

There were several matches in 2018 when Virdi didn't bowl in the first innings, and only a few overs in the second, but he was there in all 14 matches if needed and we comfortably won the Championship. It just feels to me that sooner or later we're going to come unstuck without a specialist spin option. I could see why we wanted four pace bowlers in previous games, plus Sam when he wasn't bowling much, but I'm not convinced Steel offers enough to be picked ahead of Moriarty or Virdi in this instance. Maybe van der Merwe will prove innocuous with the ball and Steel will score a vital second innings fifty to win a tight low scoring contest dominated by seamers!

Pink Panther wrote:

Alex! wrote:I guess right now the team selection has been justified, and subsequently shut me up

There were several matches in 2018 when Virdi didn't bowl in the first innings, and only a few overs in the second, but he was there in all 14 matches if needed and we comfortably won the Championship.  It just feels to me that sooner or later we're going to come unstuck without a specialist spin option.  I could see why we wanted four pace bowlers in previous games, plus Sam when he wasn't bowling much, but I'm not convinced Steel offers enough to be picked ahead of Moriarty or Virdi in this instance.  Maybe van der Merwe will prove innocuous with the ball and Steel will score a vital second innings fifty to win a tight low scoring contest dominated by seamers!

the management see Jacks as a front line spinner or should I say they expect to become one, which is why he being picked plus of course his batting.

This scoreboard on the live stream is awful,always at least 5 minutes behold the action, at the moment they have Siddle batting at both ends!!!

Still can't knock a tail off then, Jesus Christ

Despite the lower order bashing out, a good bowling performance from the seamers.
I wonder if the improvement from previous years is down to Azhar's influence.
I'm not sure Richard Johnson did us much good.

Yeah the improvement under Batty/Troughton/Mahmood cannot be understated; it is more or less the only variable compared to last year.

Admittedly I haven't watched any of today, but I guess if you were offered that on Day 1 you'd probably take it

A thoroughly enjoyable day. Surrey's seamers made the most of the limited cloud cover in the first session. Worrall was excellent, and Jamie Overton a real handful on his old stamping ground. I always thought that he was his brother's equal as a bowler: he has certainly benefitted from the move and, by the sound of it, the change of coaching regime. I was also very impressed with Gus Atkinson, who also seems to have come on leaps and bounds. Somerset played some poor shots, it has to be said, as did Ryan Patel at the start of our reply.

I hope (at least) one of Burns and Amla makes a big score tomorrow, and with others chipping in we should aim for a decent first-innings lead.

Overton is impressing me, bowls with real pace, decent bat who can score quickly and fine fielder equally at home with red or white ball. He has come a long way from last year and someone at the club should be patted on the back for getting him.

We are without Roy, Pope, Foakes, Topley and both Currans yet we are in charge of this match. We have had vastly fewer injuries this season which has helped. I did not expect to enjoy this season as much as I have, the club is revived. Anyone know when the gold statue of Batty will be unveiled? Hopefully HM the Queen will do the honours.

Brilliantly positive start this morning

Bit of a crazy game with all the substitutions

Geddes in for Amla not well

Or a statue to Azhar who seems to have improved our bowling this season

Well done Rory but zero support so far…

The change of ball this morning seems to have improved the Somerset bowling no end

What is going on with the live stream?
It seems to be so far behind and shows no details of batsmen's score or bowling details.

Back with full info. Perhaps I was wrong having been out for awhile.

Very good performance from Burns, Jacks, Clarke and Overton to get us to a 200 lead at the close. This is a good pitch but Clarke got it all moving along sweetly this afternoon. Not sure if Somerset's top order can come right, so could bowl them out tomorrow, but I think it'll go into day 4. Great weather.

Another excellent day's cricket, and we are getting good at "game management". I am especially impressed at how well Will Jacks adapted from playing weeks of T20 to building an innings in this format. Bairstow will never do it if he plays until he is a hundred.

Cameron Steel's innings was perfectly timed for my afternoon nap in the warm sunshine, before Clark upped the tempo with Jacks.

The real highlight of my day was when Mrs Overton introduced herself to me as I was sitting eating my strawberries behind the stand at lunchtime. She admitted it was tough watching yesterday's events unfold, but said that her boys are professionals and she would expect nothing else. She also said Jamie had credited the recent change of coaching regime for his development this year

I always enjoy watching Will Jacks bat. He has a very simple yet stylish technique. I think the comparison with Tom Banton is an interesting one. Both big hitting white-ball openers but Banton can’t translate that to the red ball game. Next step will be to regularly turn those starts into 100s.

I presume it's not turning, given that their second potential spinner (Goldsworthy) has not turned his arm over.

Without concussion substitutes, Somerset would be down two bowlers. It's bad enough for them to have to replace two of their better bowlers but it would have been close to impossible without the substitution rule. An excellent change in my view.

In years gone by they’d have been made to bat again by their coaching staff.

The rule is there to stop scenarios such as Graeme Smith batting at 11 and trying to save a test with a broken hand. https://youtu.be/CZFC8eQTaZk

Bizarre commentary! The current two (bloke and a girl) hardly ever mention the game,preferring to tell us about "apps" fantasy teams and everything else except the game in front of them.

I'm not watching right now but is the lack of a frontline spinner not helping us

That'll do

RB wrote:In years gone by they’d have been made to bat again by their coaching staff.

The rule is there to stop scenarios such as Graeme Smith batting at 11 and trying to save a test with a broken hand. https://youtu.be/CZFC8eQTaZk

I thought it was only concussion that substitution was permitted fpr. Broken hand? Sorry, no sub.

adelaide wrote:

RB wrote:In years gone by they’d have been made to bat again by their coaching staff.

The rule is there to stop scenarios such as Graeme Smith batting at 11 and trying to save a test with a broken hand. https://youtu.be/CZFC8eQTaZk

I thought it was only concussion that substitution was permitted fpr. Broken hand? Sorry, no sub.

Yes, but the point stands. They would not allow concussed players to come out to save the game at #11.