County Cricket 2022

[Gremlin]

Hmmm. Might not get to Chelmsford tomorrow after all.

Pitch doing a bit?

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Pitch doing a bit?

Lancashire were just 7-6. 26 wickets (so far) on day 1. My train would get me to Chelmsford by 11.30. Game could be over by then.

 

[Pothas]

Well this is not going to plan at all.

 

[wpdavid]

And Kent haven't let their RLC50 win go to their heads. Back to the regular CC form it is.

Surrey are playing at the Oval, so it's flat-track bully time for Ollie Pope!

The rest of Surrey's top 6 might quibble with your flat track assessment; grand total of 74 runs between them.

Lots of discussion of the silly events at Chelmsford, and understandably so. Lancashire might feel they are in with a shout actually. But goings on at Southampton have been equally odd, and I wasn't predicting a three figure lead for Kent after they were 32 for 5. I don't know if the pitch there is flattening out, as Kent's openers are looking pretty comfortable at the start of their second innings.

EDIT
Ben Compton won't thank me for that last comment. I gather he was excellent in Kent's innings, but less so second time around.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

@wpdavid - Matt Quinn doing the damage - must have contaminated the wicket for the Hampshire innings with his Chelmsford connections.

 

[kevinw]

That's a very weird set of scorecards in some of the fixtures. Amazed to see Kent's recovery though the two nightwatchmen tactic failed!

 

[Red_Ink_Squid]

Great stuff from Sibley today.

 

[trundler]

I see Pope scored big and fast today. My suspicion about there not being an FC standard spinner in the opposition's ranks was confirmed when I saw Sibley's name on the team sheet.

 

[wpdavid]

I see Pope scored big and fast today. My suspicion about there not being an FC standard spinner in the opposition's ranks was confirmed when I saw Sibley's name on the team sheet.

Eh?

 

[Red_Ink_Squid]

Eh?

He meant a different Dom.

 

[trundler]

Eh?

I read this post not understanding the confusion before I read RIS's follow up. That's atrocious on my part but I blame RIS's post about Sibley immediately before mine.

 

[Pothas]

Absolutely gutting today. Still got faith they could pull off a win from here but no batting points is a killer.

 

[wpdavid]

Absolutely gutting today. Still got faith they could pull off a win from here but no batting points is a killer.

You're definitely not out of it, even allowing for 2 of Kent's 3 wickets being night-watchmen. And Surrey aren't definitely winning their match, so who knows how things could look in a couple of days time. Any idea about the state of the Southampton wicket? Or was it just poor batting?

 

[kevinw]

I see Pope scored big and fast today. My suspicion about there not being an FC standard spinner in the opposition's ranks was confirmed when I saw Sibley's name on the team sheet.

Weird that Bess hardly bowled. So is Cameron Steel the Surrey spinner now? I'm sure Virdi, being a Chiswick lad, doesn't want to move county but he's wasting his time at Surrey. Get down to Taunton, fella.

 

[wpdavid]

Weird that Bess hardly bowled. So is Cameron Steel the Surrey spinner now? I'm sure Virdi, being a Chiswick lad, doesn't want to move county but he's wasting his time at Surrey. Get down to Taunton, fella.

Don't start me. The strategy seems to be to bat as deep as possible, even if it's at the expense of the bowling. So Steel plays instead of genuine tail enders Virdi and Moriarty, although he really isn't a very good spinner at all. Unfortunately, he isn't a very good batsman either. If I was in charge there, Smith would have batted at 6 today, followed by four seamers (Lawes missing out) and one of our better spinners. Instead, we have five right-arm seamers and Steel getting a nose-bleed at 6. It probably looks odd complaining when we're top of the table, but the lack of variety has cost us a few wins when the seamers weren't able to bowl sides out. And of course we may well win this match as The Oval wicket is far more seamer-friendly than it used to be and we have some good options in that department.

As for Bess, I did hear that Pope had played him really well today, so maybe that's why he didn't bowl many overs.

 

[Red_Ink_Squid]

I hope Heath's train isn't late. More wickets fallen at Chelmsford already.

 

[Blenkinsop]

And now a hat-trick for Balderson. At least Dan Lawrence can't blame the pitch for his dismissal.

 

[Starfighter]

That Essex vs Lancs scorecard looks like something out of the 1880s. Was the pitch really that bad?

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Well, at least cpr could have been happy that Lancs scored few runs - but Essex scored still fewer. And that thorn in the side Glenn Chappel was there to cast (reasonable) aspersions on the quality of the wicket.

Otherwise, the less said about that shambles the better.

 

[Blenkinsop]

I realise Cameron Steel may not be the next Shane Warne, but this is a pretty classic leg-spinner's dismissal from yesterday.