Lancashire (A) - 6-9 Apr (Sky Sports)

Steve wrote:Sky are just using the live Lancs stream with their
own commentary. Shows you they don’t give a f**k
about County cricket only care about the Hundred.

My take is different. It shows just how good the live streams are now.

The live stream is good but you don’t get the proper
replays you do at a normal match. Sky missed the first
ball after lunch to showing more adverts. You wouldn’t
get this at a Hundred match.

Jamie Smith is so good

That however was an awful way to get out

Steve wrote:Sky are just using the live Lancs stream with their
own commentary. Shows you they don’t give a f**k
about County cricket only care about the Hundred.

I think we should be pleased they are showing two early Championship games which is two more than usual.

Although they seem to be taking the Lancashire stream, it's pretty good and they have a good commentary team.

Outside broadcasts are expensive so let's be pleased we've got this exposure for the CC.

Alex! wrote:We're stupidly stacked on the batting front, why Steel over Moriarty? Baffling

Steel was a no brainer in this line up in early April. I doubt Moriarty will play before June. I would have played Lawes before Patel, who is more miss than hit.

David W wrote:

Steve wrote:Sky are just using the live Lancs stream with their
own commentary. Shows you they don’t give a f**k
about County cricket only care about the Hundred.

I think we should be pleased they are showing two early Championship games which is two more than usual.

Although they seem to be taking the Lancashire stream, it's pretty good and they have a good commentary team.

Outside broadcasts are expensive so let's be pleased we've got this exposure for the CC.

You don't need Sky for this because it's live on You Tube with commentary.
Steel 30 not out.

Chinaman wrote:

Alex! wrote:We're stupidly stacked on the batting front, why Steel over Moriarty? Baffling

Steel was a no brainer in this line up in early April. I doubt Moriarty will play before June. I would have played Lawes before Patel, who is more miss than hit.

He has batted very well, I'll give him that, but I still suspect the bowling isn't up to scratch

Chinaman wrote:

David W wrote:

Steve wrote:Sky are just using the live Lancs stream with their
own commentary. Shows you they don’t give a f**k
about County cricket only care about the Hundred.

I think we should be pleased they are showing two early Championship games which is two more than usual.

Although they seem to be taking the Lancashire stream, it's pretty good and they have a good commentary team.

Outside broadcasts are expensive so let's be pleased we've got this exposure for the CC.

You don't need Sky for this because it's live on You Tube with commentary.
Steel 30 not out.

Where is it on you tube, please?

Go to the Lancs CC website and select Watch Live

Steel has done a good job after a shaky start. Jamie Smith played beautifully, and Ben Foakes was his usual reliable self. 300-plus in the first innings will be a good score I think.

adelaide wrote:Go to the Lancs CC website and select Watch Live

Many thanks. Found it.

Who/what in the name of god is that women commentating on BBC Radio 5 live. Is she the work experience girl? I have never in my whole life heard in any sport anyone so utterly dreadful. I assume these days they dont do a commentary test before employment, they just have to tick the "female" box.
Seriously I challenge anyone to name me a worse commentator in the history of broadcasting.

I presume you didn't have to put up with the Fox commentators in the last Ashes then, SWC, because James Brayshaw only ever has one line, "OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!". He's awful.

All in all a good day for Surrey given we lost the toss. The top order will feel a bit hard done by, because it was horrid to bat on in the morning, but I hope this doesn't just get flatter and flatter. It looks VERY dry for April.

That’s a very good first day after being put in to bat, Gareth Batty said we’d have bowled too.

Well batted Cameron Steel.

RB wrote:Bit of a shame Sky couldn’t be bothered to do a proper camera setup and score graphics.

This annoyed me too.

I was a bit suspicious when I saw the coverage only started bang on 11am.

A very good start to the season.Well done lads,especially Cameron Steel.

kjb wrote:

adelaide wrote:Go to the Lancs CC website and select Watch Live

Many thanks. Found it.

Shouldn't there be a link from the Surrey website as well? Even more important for away matches as very few can get to the grounds.

Badges wrote:A very good start to the season.Well done lads,especially Cameron Steel.

Yep, top honours today to the guy none of us wanted in their team. Just maybe Stewie & Bats know best.

A very decent day for Surrey and tremendous turnaround from after lunch. A minor disappointment is that the new points system - as touched upon recently by Jackers - means we'll most likely only end up with 3 batting points out of a potential maximum of 5. That seems harsh considering how well we knuckled down and came good.

[quote="adelaide"]

kjb wrote:

adelaide wrote:Go to the Lancs CC website and select Watch Live

Many thanks. Found it.

Shouldn't there be a link from the Surrey website as well?  Even more important for away matches as very few can get to the grounds.[/quot

There is, on the home page. Alternatively open You Tube and search Lancashire vs Surrey. Either way it's the same.

guildfordbat wrote:

Badges wrote:A very good start to the season.Well done lads,especially Cameron Steel.

Yep, top honours today to the guy none of us wanted in their team. Just maybe Stewie & Bats know best.

A very decent day for Surrey and tremendous turnaround from after lunch. A minor disappointment is that the new points system - as touched upon recently by Jackers - means we'll most likely only end up with 3 batting points out of a potential maximum of 5. That seems harsh considering how well we knuckled down and came good.

Hi GB - I agree on the bonus points system. I think it’s good that draws have gone down from 8 to 5 but I’m not sure what the thinking was behind the bonus points, hopefully not an encouragement for teams to Bazball their way through April. In any event, I’m pleased to see we’ve largely gone about things our own way and that our resident anti Bazball England player has again shown his value.

I didn’t see much of Steel yesterday but was delighted to see the score. It always surprises me on here just how many posters who were around for the Hollioake years (and further back) forget the value of squad players such as Steel. The management clearly trust him to contribute and so should we.

My personal take on the reduction in draw points is that it is generally a good thing in incentivising teams to gamble on winning rather than playing safe.

My one reservation is that it allows the vagaries of the English weather to play a more significant part in determining the outcome of the championship. For example, we and Lancashire were fortunate not to lose any play yesterday, and given the forecast we may not lose much across the match. Somerset and Warwickshire lost the entire day, and the ground is apparently so wet there may be little play today. In the old days (18 or more matches spread across the summer) these things may have evened themselves out to an extent, but with just 14 games, many of which are played in the margins of the season, bad weather will inevitably mean some teams play proportionally much less cricket than others.

My solution would be to award 5 points per team for a draw as standard, but 8 (as previously) per team in any match where the equivalent of a day or more's play has been lost to the weather.

A very strong day, given we were inserted. I think we have the bowling to put them under pressure too. One positive about the Oval being a ‘good’ track is that our bowlers are used to bending their backs to get a wicket.

Jackers, I like your proposal for bonus points in the event of a draw.

Ian Ward with a very good point: why haven’t we capped Roach yet?

Well batted Cameron Steel. He has already justified his selection, and looks like he has added just a touch of Bazball to his repertoire over the winter.

Although he only made 35, don't underestimate Sibley's contribution to our healthy score. Had he not stuck around for the best part of the morning when the conditions were conducive to Lancs' strong seam attack, we might easily have been 6 down at lunch.