stevegrant

No doubt we've been a massive success in T20, which is ultimately what brings the cash into the county, but there shouldn't be a need to prioritise one over the other.

There is a salary cap across the entire county game, and it's the same number for every county. Surrey seem to have a squad of about 50 players with huge depth, especially among the bowlers, and yet our depth is more or less non-existent - to the extent that the current first-choice openers wouldn't be 5th choice at the Oval, even with Rory Burns averaging about 10 this season - so if we have a much smaller group of players then that should mean that we can afford to pay the bigger salaries for the better players. Unless of course we've already committed big money to the mediocre players that are already there. We've completely wasted this season and last with the best bowling attack we've had in my lifetime because we don't have enough quality batsmen. It's pretty incredible that we came as close as we did last year when we were pissing around with an opening pair from Weatherley, Organ and Holland. Middleton looks like he has something about him, but he's a kid who we shouldn't have to solely rely on.

Proven a very costly drop, too. Aldridge was on 8 at the time, and went on to make 88. Vince has also just dropped a tougher chance from Rew at slip off Dawson, just before he got to his century. Frustrating, as there seems to be very little in the pitch after that early burst from Abbott yesterday morning, so we need to be taking the limited chances that come our way. Their bowling attack is much depleted in this game, they've rested Gregory, Overton, Davey and Henry ahead of Finals Day, plus keeper Kohler-Cadmore, so against a second-string attack our top order have really got to capitalise.

Just been confirmed that we're the first semi-final

Somserset probably favourites on the basis of having won 13 of 15 games this year, but beyond that it's up in the air. Would actually make us second favourites - a team full of players who know how to win this tournament in crunch moments, and while Surrey have all the names, they also have to play Somerset in the semi-final.

Nothing as fair as that, sadly. Some sort of committee convenes and decides which would be best for logistics - no idea what they care about in this instance, really, especially this year when all 4 teams are coming from the south.

Looked a crap pitch for a quarter-final, to be honest, nobody seemed to be able to time their shots properly all night, but we got the job done, so all good Semi-finals are already pre-determined, Somerset v Surrey, Essex v Hampshire. Think they'll be announcing which one's played first tonight or tomorrow.

Suspect next summer might see Wheal playing games instead of Chris Wood. Numbers have tailed off pretty sharply this season, and with Wheal being on an all-formats contract it makes sense for us to actually use him.

Turner has been a very timely find, considering Brad Wheal's ongoing injury issues (and were he fit, we'd have probably lost him for the last few weeks to the Cricket World Cup qualifier anyway). A bit more consistency from those batting around Vince would be nice, just so he doesn't have to do it all every time

Warwickshire v Essex on Thursday, Hampshire v Worcestershire, Somerset v Nottinghamshire and Lancashire v Surrey on Friday. Surprisingly, Sky not taking the opportunity to televise Surrey or Lancashire, with the Somerset game the TV pick.

But Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid both still play the two white ball formats, so it's difficult to see where he gets in. Dawson isn't going to be playing any 50-over cricket, so there's no "form" to pick on for ODIs.