Northants away

What the hell is going on? 80 overs bowled and Steel is still bowling. Surely Roach should be on now!!

Odd captaincy from Burns this morning with 15 overs untill the new ball why didn't he open with Roach and Worrall for a few overs then bring them back for new ball when available at least 73 runs scored in that,time.

That is a bad a first hour as you could have asked for...

FINALLY

At last !

The first hour this morning exposed the lack of a front-line spin option. As I've said before, the role of a spinner is not just to run through a side (the conditions won't always be conducive), but to provide periods of pressure and control. With an hour's play before the new ball was available and five wickets still required, we had to keep Roach and Worrall fresh. None of Atkinson, Steel, Tom Curran or Patel is equipped to do the containing job we needed, applying the sort of pressure that leads batsmen to give their wickets away. I'm really not having a pop at any of our players, but rather the lack of balance in the team.

Wendel sounds like a right nutter.

Seems to be heading to a draw now. Monumentally frustrating...

Although he might have taken a couple of wickets,Steel is going for 4 runs an over. Oh ,for decent spinner!!!

Is there a restriction on the number of overs Curran can bowl ? Not bowled in 2nd innings

Keith Powell wrote:Is there a restriction on the number of overs Curran can bowl ? Not bowled in 2nd innings

Correct that not bowled today 11 overs in each innings.

It was always going to be difficult to force a win today but the chance definitely disappeared during that first hour when if we weren't taking wickets, we needed to at least stem the flow of runs. I'm not necessarily convinced that either of our absent spinners would have done that but it seemed a strange decision to keep bowling Steel when his loose deliveries were being picked off with ease during that period. It looks like we'll need to win our last two matches now unless the weather intervenes to help us.

It’s not inconceivable, 8.85 RRR, but it would need us to set off like a train.

Give it a go, shove TC up to open, and if we lose a few wickets and/or the RRR is above 12 then shut up shop completely.

BRAINDEAD..............................................

Well that was unnecessary.

It’s not even Patel’s call and he calls Burns through for a single that frankly isn’t there. Burns didn’t even try to ground his bat in, he knew he was toast.

Deary me. You could say that’s two unlucky dismissals for Rory in this match.

A very good piece of fielding.

Absolutely fucking ludicrous.A draw will see us take an 8 point lead into the last 2 games and with an even money chance of clinching the title.

If i was Rory Burns,after kicking Patel up the arse at the first opportune moment i would suspend him from the final 2 matches.

With virtually 9 runs an over needed to win how the fucking hell do you get run out chasing a quick single?

16 points out of that ain’t half bad… it means that we only need 40 to win the title, that’s either two wins and 8 bonus points or a win, a draw, and 16 bonus points out of 16.

It was a predictable that Northants would produce a very flat wicket for this match. Even with all our players available I think we would struggle to get 20 wickets. The next best thing was to get a draw with maximum bonus points,which we did manage.

We have a modest lead, but given Hampshire are home to Kent we need to select a side to WIN against Yorkshire. Once we've done that, we can reassess what we need to do at Old Trafford.

Assuming everyone bar Jacks, Topley and Sam Curran is available I would go
Burns, Patel, Amla, Pope, Smith, Foakes, Lawes, J Overton, Roach, Worrall, Moriarty.

Tough on Jordan Clark (and Tom Curran after his stellar innings),  but I sense Overton and Lawes - if both are fit - would give us an extra something, as would Moriarty. Smith and Geddes are a toss-up: although he hasn't had the greatest campaign I'd go for Smith.

dougieginn wrote:It was a predictable that Northants would produce a very flat wicket for this match. Even with all our players available I think we would struggle to get 20 wickets. The next best thing was to get a draw with maximum bonus points,which we did manage.

I see Steel got 48 in his only innings and took 4 lucky wickets.

Easily Steel ‘s best which is not saying much!

Kent are in serious relegation strife now so they can’t afford to roll over against Hants. Warwicks will be in the same position for their last game. That said, I’d rather have their run in than hours. Wonder if we’ll see Joe Root turn out for Yorks.

The winner here was another road of a pitch that even looked flatter today than the day before. There has only been one win in the CC at Northampton all season. They prepare these flat tracks so they can draw everything and stay up, with no thought to a good competitive game or thier supporters, of which there were about 100 if lucky in the ground today. Not surprised. It's wrong and counties like these should be docked points just the same as they would be for a raging bunsen - at least that provides far more entertaining cricket.
None the less not a bad game, at least for Tuesday and Wednesday and Tom and Amlas knocks..
Burns was run out by an excellent throw, not a bad call from Patel. He hardly made an effort to be honest.
As for spinners. Well their one and only took the same amount of wickets as Steel, 4. I doubt whether our so called "specialist" spinners who we've not used all season, Moriaty or Virdi would have done much better, although they may have been able to bottle up an end before the new ball. We were actually trying to keep them out there as long as possible by the look of it with Patel and Steel bowling late on to secure the draw.
Back at the top, but we could do with a favour from Kent next week to avoid a bum fight at Old Trafford in the dark of late September!