***Official*** English Domestic Season 2014

[superkingdave]

Can we scrape enough runs together to give our bowlers any chance? Will we make double figures in batting points this year?

I looked at Cricinfo 2 minutes ago to see us 109/2...nek minnit 109/4 including a run out...really don't help ourselves

 

[Howe_zat]

Guys, Leicestershire scored 500. I'm not quite an expert on my scripture but I'm pretty sure that's one of the trumpets of the apocalypse.

 

[theegyptian]

The hulk has gone home on maternity leave and without him the Glamorgan attack does look toothless. Him and Allenby carry Glamorgan a massive amount.

 

[grecian]

Well Gregory must rate one of our better number xi's ever, honestly not a fan of this regimented night-watchman stuff. Worked out okay, but could have just been silly.

Jordan doing alright again.

Ajmal takes 4, the beard would have clearly done better though, shame!!!!!!

 

[Cabinet96]

Well Gregory must rate one of our better number xi's ever, honestly not a fan of this regimented night-watchman stuff. Worked out okay, but could have just been silly.

Yeah, and it's not like we've got 4 11's, we've pretty much got genuine all-rounders at 8 and 9, so I'm not sure why they'd even think of pushing them down to 10 and 11 just to make sure Virus didn't have to bat yesterday.

 

[fredfertang]

Can we scrape enough runs together to give our bowlers any chance? Will we make double figures in batting points this year?

I looked at Cricinfo 2 minutes ago to see us 109/2...nek minnit 109/4 including a run out...really don't help ourselves

The batsmen can't, but thankfully Joss and the all-rounders can

 

[grecian]

Could be a big innings for Jos.

 

[fredfertang]

Big enough already I suspect

 

[Prince EWS]

Yeah, and it's not like we've got 4 11's, we've pretty much got genuine all-rounders at 8 and 9, so I'm not sure why they'd even think of pushing them down to 10 and 11 just to make sure Virus didn't have to bat yesterday.

Yeah they should have used Gregory as the night watchman if they were insistent on having one, a bit like how England started using Bresnan as night watchman rather than Anderson to avoid the silly situation of Swann coming in at 11. I'm sure if you asked Gregory whether he'd rather have gone in up the order yesterday or batted eleven he'd have chosen the former, too.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Great to see Tresco get a ton.

Notts v Warwicks looks like a cracking finish is set up tomorrow.

Yorkshire well on top at Lord's.

Lancashire on top in a huge game which may decide who goes down (yes already as both sides will struggle)

Sadly division 2 looks a washout due to weather.

Good to see some good performances again this week from England hopefuls. At least we seem to have some players in form to pick. Bell and Anderson in good nick too which helps.

 

[Pothas]

Yes I really hope Morgan doesn't come back either. Still the problem will be if they over promote Vince when he isn't ready because of the lack of natural strokeplayers. At present though he is in excellent form so it wouldn't be a bad time to blood him in the T20 or ODI side and see how he goes and looks.

Yeah I think we will see him in some form of limited overs cricket before the end of the season. The way he is dominating attacks at the moment will not be ignored, even if it is only in division two. All I want at the moment is for him to keep doing this and get Hampshire out of the the second division, having been waiting a good few years for him to start making this amount of runs and want to enjoy it for a while before England take him away.

Question on the division thing though, if scores this amount of runs at this rate for the rest of the season in division two would you still want to see him do it in division one before picking him?

 

[theegyptian]

I duno. The clamour for him to play would be massive if he scored like 1600 runs @ 80 @ 80 sr. But I really feel that a lot of the time he won't be tested that heavily. The runs he scored at the end of last year were against some really average attacks. Once you get past the first couple of bowlers in each team in div 2 there isn't much and a couple of injuries and the attacks are there for the pilfering.

I'd like to see him tested properly by bowlers and worked over. Sussex with Magoffin and Jordan. Middlesex with Murtagh, Finn, Harris, TRJ. Most of the teams in div 1 have 6 or 7 good bowlers. Some in div 2 have 1. I'm not sure he's really going to have had his technique and mental game tested particularly fiercely by a lot of the teams in the second division. It be a shame if he was selected too early with technical failings. So Ideally I would like him to have some first division cricket. I feel it would be a pretty big step up going from div 2 cricket to test cricket. Some ODI or T20 cricket will help though in quickening his development. And some runs for the lions would do wonders.

No doubt in my mind Vince has the talent to succeed at international level. He just naturally can score runs freely and puts the pressure back on the bowlers by being able to hit good balls to the boundary. I know the Vaughan comparison is overused with regards to Vince but the way Vince batters attacks is like the way Vaughan did in his dream spell. Just conventional strokes but seeing the ball so early and hitting the ball so crisply. Of course Vaughan was against Australia and India and Vince is against Glos and Surrey but he has the strokeplay.

As a country we don't really produce many of these type of players so when you have one I think you need to give them every chance. In this case that probably means a bit more exposure of better bowling before test cricket.

 

[Pothas]

That is all fair enough. I have been unreasonably excited about him from the first time I saw him and you just have to watch him play for twenty minutes to see why but I don't think many people would think he is ready for test cricket yet. I really think England should look at him in limited overs though, his List A and Twenty20 record were already good before he hit this really good run of form in the longer form. Would like to see him and Hales open in the Twenty20 stuff this year and I am sure they can find a place for him in the ODI side when Cook or Bell are not playing.

 

[grecian]

Have to say, I'm not that bothered by this division 2 thing, Meaker, Dernbach, Dunn aren't the worst County attack, and with the quick and promising Curran too, and he took them apart.

I'm not saying he should have moved ahead of Ballance and Taylor yet, but if think if he keeps it up, he should be in the reckoning.

 

[theegyptian]

Is that a compliment to Jade Dernbach??? haha

And yes that's one of the better attacks in the second division. He's clearly on a level above most in that division and that's only really come in the last year or so.

He might be ready (or close to it). That's for better judges than me and the selectors to say. Just it's hard to really quantify how good he is on the basis of the runs he's scored in div 2. You can gleam more by watching his strokeplay and that does make me excited. It's just so damn clean when he hits it.

 

[grecian]

Is that a compliment to Jade Dernbach??? haha

And yes that's one of the better attacks in the second division. He's clearly on a level above most in that division and that's only really come in the last year or so.

He might be ready (or close to it). That's for better judges than me and the selectors to say. Just it's hard to really quantify how good he is on the basis of the runs he's scored in div 2. You can gleam more by watching his strokeplay and that does make me excited. It's just so damn clean when he hits it.

TBF I think the great irony of all this Dirtbag stuff, is he's probably a better First-class cricketer than limited-overs. Obviously he should never play Tests but he has the skills to take wickets at County level. Mind you one feels he still pisses about with the slower balls in that. Jade you can bowl at 90mph, and you can swing it, stop pissing about you ****. Still he plays for Surrey, so it's all good if he carries on being awful. It's why he's the most irritating and annoying England cricketer I've known, he's really not good at what they keep on saying he's good at, he has no brain, has no plan, and misuses all his talents in such a spectacular way. All that whilst beingan absulute douche.

TBH, yes, we're always going to judge players on how they look, it's inevitable, and Vince looks pretty dreamy without obvious faults, unlike the equally orgasmic Beard, who you worry about at the highest level (Tests BTW, not so much Limited-Overs).

Oh and Vince reminds me more of John Morris, than MPV. I always thought he should have played many more times for England. Unfortunately it was a Fly-by-Night international career.

 

[stumpski]

Guys, Leicestershire scored 500. I'm not quite an expert on my scripture but I'm pretty sure that's one of the trumpets of the apocalypse.

Charlie Shreck hit 31 off 24 balls; he'd never before made 20 in 145 innings.

Glamorgan 126-0 in reply so safe to say it's a bit of a road at Grace Road.

 

[Pothas]

Weather and tube strike put me off going to Lords today. Lack of rain so far making me feel it may have been a poor decision.

 

[stumpski]

Taylor and Wessels gone, don't give much for Notts' chances now.


Make that three in five balls with Patel, start the car ...

 

[grecian]

Tres 'keeping because of an illness for CK, and takes a catch, for Lewis Gregory's second. It's all happening.