Surrey v Essex 19-22 July the Oval

[quote="Cee Gee"]

Chinaman wrote:And I could equally argue that an extra batsman is more useful because with potentially 16 points for a draw it increases your chances of max draw points. You only get 8 more for a win. Ridiculous of course but that's the ECB  Tinkerer for you.
The only pitch likely to turn in the last 4 is possibley Northants but I still doubt Moriaty or Virdi will play because, and oh dear it's getting tiresome this, Jacks is the one they are going with. Unless England grab him now which wouldn't surprise me. But as Steve Waugh once said " if you haven't got a good spinner don't play one, go with your best 11" . Ok he had Warne of course, but it seems Surrey are following what he said. Point being we don't need one, and no one has put a plausible case for their inclusion in my view.  But I'd be happy to be proved wrong. Hurry though it's almost August!

It’s getting tiresome because you continually miss the point.

Batty has decided that Jacks is the lead spinner and has even compared him to Moeen. We are playing a spinner - its wrong to say we aren’t.

The majority of the comments about the topic on here say we could easily do without one of the 5 seamers and play one of Virdi or Moriarty, particularly as we have Patel to bowl as well.

Old Trafford will probably spin for our last game and we’ll either play 9 seamers or put Moriarty in for his first game in a title decider. [/quote
]
No I don't miss the point at all because it's not been about Jacks who is trying to develop as a spinner. The discussion has always been about playing a "specialist" spinner i. e. Virdi or Moriaty. It's quite clear that Stewart and Batty are not going to play them. And indeed why should they.

Should also mention that the pitch turned out to be a good one, just enough help for the bowlers all through. Well done Lee Fortis,more of the same please!!

Cee Gee wrote:

Chinaman wrote:And I could equally argue that an extra batsman is more useful because with potentially 16 points for a draw it increases your chances of max draw points. You only get 8 more for a win. Ridiculous of course but that's the ECB  Tinkerer for you.
The only pitch likely to turn in the last 4 is possibley Northants but I still doubt Moriaty or Virdi will play because, and oh dear it's getting tiresome this, Jacks is the one they are going with. Unless England grab him now which wouldn't surprise me. But as Steve Waugh once said " if you haven't got a good spinner don't play one, go with your best 11" . Ok he had Warne of course, but it seems Surrey are following what he said. Point being we don't need one, and no one has put a plausible case for their inclusion in my view.  But I'd be happy to be proved wrong. Hurry though it's almost August!

It’s getting tiresome because you continually miss the point.

Batty has decided that Jacks is the lead spinner and has even compared him to Moeen. We are playing a spinner - its wrong to say we aren’t.

The majority of the comments about the topic on here say we could easily do without one of the 5 seamers and play one of Virdi or Moriarty, particularly as we have Patel to bowl as well.

Old Trafford will probably spin for our last game and we’ll either play 9 seamers or put Moriarty in for his first game in a title decider.

Who is also a rubbish, rubbish spinner.

Personally I just want to see Surrey winning matches. Some people complained West Indies didn't use spinners but they were the best team in the world!

Virdi got a hatful of Kent wickets for the seconds so should at least be in the squad for Warwickshire.

Lawes is very promising, reminds me a little of Martin Bicknell, I hope he is half as good.

Ray AFCW wrote:Losing the will to live listening to Jeremy Coney…

Unbelievable!I rarely have a clue what he is banging on about - does anybody?

Coatesy wrote:1 down, 4 to go

and hopefully Gloucs can continue to frustrate Hants  

Glouc collapsed and died,shocking performance.5 down in the last over before lunch,all out very soon after it.Thankyou Glouc for your effort, commitment and fighting spirit.

Badges wrote:

Coatesy wrote:1 down, 4 to go

and hopefully Gloucs can continue to frustrate Hants  

Glouc collapsed and died,shocking performance.5 down in the last over before lunch,all out very soon after it.Thankyou Glouc for your effort, commitment and fighting spirit.

Three of those wickets were accounted for by a Kyle Abbott hat trick. A lower order player being out first ball does not make them uncommitted. Glos may not be very good but a team with no fighting spirit wouldn't have made it to the last day. It's hardly a surprise that teams can topple over against Hampshire any more than against Surrey; it's what happens against the best teams.

Adelaide - did Murtagh explain why he chose to field in 40deg heat?

KeninWestWickham wrote:Adelaide - did Murtagh explain why he chose to field in 40deg heat?

Apologies to those who don't want any norf of the river stuff on here but as I've been asked... Just skip it if you're not intersted!

I've heard multiple post hoc rationalisations. I don't think Murtagh made the decision off the top of his head. Everyone will say now that it was collective but the coaching staff must have had a lot of input. There's even been a suggestion that the most vocal advocate was Agent Dernbach, the bowling coach.

So:
- There was a little bit of green in the wicket (homeopathic amount, I'd say)
- The best times to bowl were first (when it was supposedly green) and last (when it broke up in the heat, which it didn't);
- All the wins had come from batting second;
- Heat not a problem because this is what you train for (not that extreme, it isn't);
- You don't let the weather dictate what you do (no, but you should let it influence you);
- If you bat first against a weak side, you are committing to making them follow on, which means your bowlers could be out in that heat for two and a half days (very patronising towards your opponents and lower temperatures were forecast).

I don't think those providing the rationalisations on the stream necessarily agreed with the decision but that's what was put forward by different people, which partly explains the contradictions between them. For some reason I thought of Cabinet ministers trying to justify a quite different Johnson!

The stream also chucked in James Kirtley, Sussex bowling coach, who said they would have batted but he could understand Middlesex's rationale for bowling. I think he might have had his fingers crossed for the second half of that. (Kevin Hand was accompanied for most of the match by Gus Fraser, DoC Alan Coleman or Roland Butcher, which makes a high quality stream even more enjoyable. Fortunately no sign of DT.)

In the event, Pujara was majestic (no surprise there) and there was much more cloud cover when Sussex bowled and triallist Brad Currie used it really well. The scorecard may have made it look like a road but at one stage the follow on looked a fair bet. Big hitting late in the innings made it close the Yorkshire-Surrey match position and getting Sussex seven down after lunch seemed like the precursor to a similar outcome but the other Sussex triallist (Karlevas, apparently a Greek international) and 17 years old Lenham batted very well as the ball got softer. If the match had been won, it would have been despite the initial decision.
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Offdrive4 I would be interested to know where you get yours scores for the 2nd XI from. The website is particularly unhelpful as usual.

https://live.nvplay.com/ecb/ is a one-stop shop for everything.

Thanks RB

Dougie, usually the day before a second eleven game the is an item on the Surrey site giving team info etc. This contains a link to a scorecard for the match. The Kent game item would have been about last Monday. Virdi did a Worrall, I hope he has located his missing mojo!

Thanks to Adelaide for explaining that. I thought at the time it was madness by Murtagh - and still do!