T20 2023 campaign

Just as I say that he scores 20 off an over

Think you may need to revise that opinion, Alex.

Jackers wrote:And now he has a mystery injury, minutes before the toss!

Tripped over his wallet

It will be interesting to see if he is fit for either of the next two home games.

Decent score, but a bit of a late collapse. Is Laurie Evans still worth his corn as a specialist in this format? I remember he was on the wane last year...

Nuts and Bolts team selection our Bowling could be vulnerable if we are put under pressure.

Laurie Evans got a decent pedigree and record at T20

Should have opened with Jacks in the powerplay

The Rey!

What an absolute slaughtering. Didn't expect anything less to be honest with you

Will Jacks MOTM? Just ahead of both Sam Curran and Tom Curran?

Another comprehensive thrashing of Middlesex.I've been to this fixture several times and that looked like the smallest crowd i've seen for this particular match.

Badges wrote:Another comprehensive thrashing of Middlesex.I've been to this fixture several times and that looked like the smallest crowd i've seen for this particular match.

Yes indeed. I dipped in for my usual first match "let's try and get some interest again in this". After 9 overs turned it off without success. Got tired of seeing ball after ball bowled wide of the stumps, a bloke called Extras must have been the top scorer. Crowd wise, well with a cost of living crisis in full swing not that many people are probably going to fork out some silly price for 34 overs of hit and giggle cricket in St John's Wood by the look of it. And if a pint at the Oval is £7.60 I dread to think what it is at Lord's.
You know despite the proliferation of T20, to me it's looking it's age.
I did try though.

So horrid slogging going on give me the 4 day stuff all day long

Personally T20 is being done to death really couldn’t be bothered if I watched it or not.

Comprehensive win last night, an its always good to win the London derby

The line up confused me a bit when I saw the team, and wasnt sure that TC would come in ahead of Evans or Overton, but to be fair he did play well, and it was good to see him and his brother make a big partnership. It also seems that as he didnt bowl he was picked as a batsman only.

I am led to believe that it was Clark who replaced Roy in the XI when Roy got injured in the warm up.

Onto tonight for the 1st home game, and I can only see that the same squad (bar Roy) being picked. I would like to see Moriarty given a chance, but with 2 spinners in the side already I would be surprised if he plays.

Looks like this evening is close to a sell-out which can only be a good thing. Sunday on the other hand...

I see Tom's mental health is holding up.

We are very short of specialist batsmen in the squad, especially with Jason tripping on his chequebook yesterday. But we are fortunate that many of our bowling all-rounders are very suited to scoring 30-40 at pace and so can slot in anywhere up the order. Overton, both of the Currans, Narine, Abbott, Jordan when available, possibly Clark even if they were selected purely as batsmen are likely to be more effective than any of Burns, Smith, Geddes or Patel. In Smith's case (if Foakes isn't playing) we need him in to keep wicket, but with the line-up available he isn't needed to bat in the top 6 or 7.

The skills and strategy required for short-form and championship cricket are becoming ever more divergent. Having three spin options available is often the way to go here (Narine, Jacks plus in my view Moriarty...)

The fact that the 1st four batsmen last night were allrounders (5 if you include Overton who wasnt going to bowl) and another 4 allrounders at the end of the line up makes us a strong team in this format
when you think that we were missing Roy, Jordan and Topley from last night, the chances are we could go far in the tournament

I thought Tom was fine yesterday but always looks awkward when batting high up. He doesn’t naturally rotate the strike and unless he has a big over where he gets a few wild swings away he looks like he’d get stuck. I don’t see the logic in him going in above Evans.

Agree with Jackers about our Batting lacking a specialist at the top of the order.Also a Genuine Quick Bowler would add Variety
to the attack.

Not sure about the pace of Lawes or Gus but I
doubt they fall into the Genuine quick category.

Topley and Jamie Overton are our genuinely quick options, when they are fit.

I've got here early to bag a decent seat. Did my best Bollocky Bill impression to smuggle a contraband bottle of water in. Currently watching the South East Stars, playing in front of a crowd smaller than we get for championship matches. Some way to go until the women's game catches fire. And scoring shots played on the off-side of the wicket are like hen's teeth.

Stop.press: the Northern Diamonds seem to have one batswoman called Armitage who CAN play on the off-side.

Glorious weather for it

Still think it's a shame Moriarty misses out