T20 Blast 2024 (Started on 30th May)

[FBU]

Scott Currie who should be with Scotland in the WC is 3.5-0-25-4 Leics v Lancs 162/10.

 

[wpdavid]

Looking good for Gloucestershire now, and they've bowled really well.

And here comes Sibley ....
..... and there he goes. Odd decision to send him in ahead of Clark and Abbott with 3 overs to go.

It's going to the wire but Gloucs keep taking wickets because their bowlers have been terrific.

And it's a tie, which is the very least that Gloucs deserve from the match. Well played them.

 

[Yeoman]

Looking good for Gloucestershire now, and they've bowled really well.

And here comes Sibley ....
..... and there he goes. Odd decision to send him in ahead of Clark and Abbott with 3 overs to go.

It's going to the wire but Gloucs keep taking wickets because their bowlers have been terrific.

And it's a tie, which is the very least that Gloucs deserve from the match. Well played them.

A fine, fluctuating finish. I thought that Surrey had it in the bag a couple of times.

Also good to let a tie stand as a result in a league competition rather than force a winner though a super over.

 

[wpdavid]

A fine, fluctuating finish. I thought that Surrey had it in the bag a couple of times.

The crucial wicket was Smith. 2 more overs and he'd have seen us home with time to spare. Roy and Pope weren't nearly as fluent, and Roy was dead lucky to last as long as he did.

 

[wpdavid]

Also good to let a tie stand as a result in a league competition rather than force a winner though a super over.

Yes, absolutely.

 

[Third_Man]

No games lost / abandoned as no result in the North Group yet.

Lancs lead the way with 10 points. Two more games before a slight break then 6 more group games in July. Will they bring Hartley, Livingstone, Buttler or Salt into a wining team assuming that the ECB don't force a rest period on their players.

 

[FBU]

No games lost / abandoned as no result in the North Group yet.

Lancs lead the way with 10 points. Two more games before a slight break then 6 more group games in July. Will they bring Hartley, Livingstone, Buttler or Salt into a wining team assuming that the ECB don't force a rest period on their players.

Not fair..... but other teams will bring in their players

Notts v Durham 58/0 at Notts
No result

 

[chris.hinton]

Worcestershire have been shocking in this so far. W 2 and L4

Not good. Still 8 games to go but need to turn it around and quickly

 

[wpdavid]

Worcestershire have been shocking in this so far. W 2 and L4

Not good. Still 8 games to go but need to turn it around and quickly

I was wondering how the group stage works; whether the play each other once, or home and away. Based on your sums, is the answer neither of those?

 

[Yeoman]

Yes. Each team plays 7 of the 8 other teams in their group at home and 7 away. This is because 14 is an arcane and mystical number. This appreciated by the initiates at the ECB, hence 14 games in the championship too.

 

[chris.hinton]

It should be 16 games.

 

[Yeoman]

All play all, home and away is undoubtedly the best system. Ideally, I would prefer to go back to 3 groups of 6 and 10 matches each as too much T20 can become repetitious. I am not of course a county treasurer, however even from a financial perspective, attendances at many grounds seem down and so concentrating attendance on fewer fixtures could even save money by reducing costs.

 

[Third_Man]

All play all, home and away is undoubtedly the best system. Ideally, I would prefer to go back to 3 groups of 6 and 10 matches each as too much T20 can become repetitious. I am not of course a county treasurer, however even from a financial perspective, attendances at many grounds seem down and so concentrating attendance on fewer fixtures could even save money by reducing costs.

Difficult to argue against. Might even be extra home games available in such a scenario through the play offs. At the moment 8 go through. Could a mini league super 8s work to decide the finals day line up?

Unlikely to change, however, as the problem is maybe that there are 20 too many balls in each innings to hold the attention span of the ECB.

 

[chris.hinton]

Difficult to argue against. Might even be extra home games available in such a scenario through the play offs. At the moment 8 go through. Could a mini league super 8s work to decide the finals day line up?

Unlikely to change, however, as the problem is maybe that there are 20 too many balls in each innings to hold the attention span of the ECB.

Could easily have 3 groups of 6 (10 games) with the winners and 2 best runners up going into 2 groups of 4 with the Winners & Runners Up going to finals day

 

[Third_Man]

Bizarre roses incident:

x.com

x.com

Can't see how Vitality Blast (an ECB account?) can officially tweet to try and pretend that was law 31.7

There is no way that he left his crease thinking he was out. And can be clearly seen telling the umpires what the rules are even in that clip. And so clearly did not think he was out, so had never left his crease on the misunderstanding he was out.

Assuming the dead ball helmet law apply in the Blast.

Thankfully it didn't really change the result.

 

[Molehill]

If you've not seen the Labuschagne catch from last night, here's 2 different angles of it. Great celebration, he properly loves Glamorgan doesn't he?

marnus labuschagne catch - Search / X

Cricbuzz on X: "Marnus Labuschagne https://t.co/e73pRECFVL" / X

 

[Third_Man]

From Sky Sports:
In the short term, Buttler will head back home to spend time with his family, particularly his newborn third child who arrived shortly before the tournament.

"To be honest, I'm just looking forward to some time away from the game," he added.

Three to Four weeks off should enable him to miss the six remaining Blast games and then come back to play a little franchise cricket.

 

[Yeoman]

Rain and some ill judged shots for Gloucestershire just before it came may have seen Kent absolutely steal the points at Cheltenham.

 

[Yeoman]

Question for Durham correspondents: given that they play two spinners, why are the boundary ropes so far in from the fences at Chester-Le-Street?

 

[wpdavid]

I went along to The Oval yesterday to meet up with a couple of old mates and in the vague hope of catching some cricket between the showers. A heavy storm 30 minutes before the designated start time meant we could safely spend time and a nearby eaterie without worrying about missing any play. By the time play did get underway an hour and 45 minutes after the 14.30 scheduled start, the game had been reduced to 10 overs a side. A further shower at the end of Surrey's innings meant that Kent's reply was limited to 8 overs. This remember, is when it's daylight until beyond 20.00, and the weather forecast was fine for the early evening. Doubtless there are rules that have to be obeyed, but if they are serious about attracting people to these games they might want to consider value for money rather than playing crap music at every opportunity, sticking cameras and mics in front of some of the kids and all the other hoopla.

Mind you, Surrey weren't doing a great deal in the value for money stakes. Fair enough that Pope, Smith and Atkinson were with England prior to the first test. And I think that their Australian players Abbott and Johnson were unavailable for some sort of valid reasons. But it would have been nice to see some of Jacks, Roy, Lawrence, Sam Curran, Tom Curran and Foakes. My first thought was they must be playing in some obscure franchise, but that seemed unlikely as Jordan, Topley and Billings were all playing yesterday. It does seem unlikely that they were all injured.