Hodgey

Pilchards - I’m giving it another couple of games but early indications side with you ! Not sure why they started with McKinney - I thought he was squad filler like Lumsden. Can only assume Pepper is injured. Didnt watch much of it but what I saw was pretty boring with a bored crowd. Also not sure about home advantage when none of your players play there…..

By my count there is one Hampshire player (Lumsden) and one Sussex player who barely plays for them (Archer). I’m not having Stubbs. So much for the early talk of it being linked to the counties. We do have 3 Surrey players though. they’ve also managed to get 4 wicket keepers ! not sure I agree with you on the batting - Pepper, Miller, Stoinis, Smith, Rew and Stubbs can all whack it about on their day. you’ve also got a load of lower order clubbers in Jordan, Archer, Worrel, Rashid who are all more than capable. looks a decent side to me, but as pointed out none of these have really played together so will need to gel quickly. Seems to be more stars this year connected to the various multi-owner franchises, not sure any of these sides have any real connection to their counties anymore in terms of players - they all seem to have swapped sides.

Time will tell but looking at that Hampshire line up the batting is strong (all be it not the most explosive), bowling looks questionable / unknown (Prest, Neal, Kelly, Petrie, Williams). What’s happened to Wheal ?, also surprised Organ not playing.

Me too - and with our young team it’s a chance for talent to be exposed in a lower pressure / quality environment but a step up from reserves. Shame that Lumsden and Jack are in the blast, unless they actually get used. I also heard James talk about Turner suggesting there is a big debate on rehab vs surgery with him preferring the former but continually breaking down - sad to see. As a summary for the T20, another excellent season, Albert has sadly done a Prest - from top scorer to utterly awful stats but Currie continues to improve, Mayes looks like a talent and has more experience, Baker improved drastically as the tournament went on, Lumsden looks handy and came back well from a thumping, Weatherly is now a top T20 player, Vince/Dawson have another couple of seasons in them. Although Wood produced decent figures I think this should be his last season - if so shame he doesn’t go out with a win. Overseas we would want Cartwright back - excellent fielder and batter. Stubbs is a strange one - stared really well then went backwards but is clearly a quality player - maybe a batting wkt instead to replace Albert. And in an ideal world another spinner, that’s something we need to find for 4 dayers anyway.

Power play killed us there - I think as it was a low-ish total they didn’t really go for it up front - backfired as they were chasing 20 odd runs from that point and lost 2 wickets. None of the big hitters did anything - Vince, Stubbs, Fuller never looking in it, Cartwright done as he was trying to hit everything to get us back on track. Daws being run out was massive, probably not a run there though. Now to watch England lose to complete the day !

Rescued by Cartwright with great support by Mayes, also stopped the rot. Still some players well out of Nick but doing enough. Home quarter final

Agree that’s a strange take, as an 18yr old with one of best players in the world opposite he probably felt playing anchor was his role. In the event Stubbs couldn’t really read the pitch (only Albert could for us) and I think it’s to Mayes credit he put the accelerator on. Maybe Fuller could have cleared the ropes but on the stats basis you would argue Stubbs should have been the one to take massive risks rather than hit a run a ball. Personally I doubt Fuller would have done much as the pitch was tricky (Cartwright is a good indication - threw his bat at everything but didn’t really connect) Spin was the issue, along with the Albert run out, the fact Vince had Stubbs bowling a full allocation to avoid bowling out Jacks and Fuller says it all. ideally we would have a batsman who is a decent spinner for games such as this alongside Neal and Daws - think Prest was supposed to be that player but he needs a rebuild.

Good come back from Baker today, and good result that without Dawson. Removing Billing was key as his ramp shots have pace bowlers second guessing themselves.

Not a great performance all round, even Vince whilst great with the bat made some questionable bowling decisions. I don’t get Baker as a one day player - he doesn’t take wickets and is expensive. You can’t just bang it in at 85mph every ball in T20 - you need variation. Overseas had a bad game, one getting injured, the other not firing and shelling an easy chance. Agree with above, we were poor batting in last 8 overs and left 20 runs on the table which was ultimately the difference. Still been a great run and in a good position

Unexpected but great to see some fight. Given themselves half a chance and built some confidence - you never know, they may actually get a decent first innings score at some point and get some batting points….

Really good result that, dug deep for the draw against a good outfit. Will need that kind of resilience for the rest of the games to have any chance of staying up.

Oval is a decent batting pitch, but our lack of genuine accurate pace (yes Baker could be this but he’s very green) or mystery spin means once a ball is worn and batsman in, it’s all similar fare. Our spinning dept is extremely weak without Dawson. I’d expect a Surrey score of 400 plus here, we need to actually bat well for once in the first innings to have any hope here. At least we are decent in the slug fests !! Taking a step back I’m just not sure where Hampshire go from here. As it stands they look like a Div2 make up the numbers kind of team. Might be best for all concerned to take the hit this year with a total rebuild next. Albert doesn’t look like a 4 day opener to me, Prest may make it as a one day player but not in 4 day, Organ definitely isn’t a front line spinner (appreciate they may have been caught out with Dawson retirement - but surely they saw this coming), we don’t seem to know what to do with Orr, Middleton has been totally exposed this season and most of last, Abbot can’t last forever - what is the succession plan etc etc. Then again, with the lack of money in 4 day do Hampshire really care ?.

What a game that was. Lumsden will learn a lot from that, I guess Wood didn’t really have a choice given lack of other bowlers but I felt he rotated them well. Currie again excellent and Dawson got a massive wicket in Jacks. Puts us in a great place at the halfway point. Good balance in the team at the moment. Next - championship game against Surrey - not that confident there.

Was a fun evening out that, was worried when I saw Jacks was back, but they really missed Jordan/ Overton and Atkinson from their attack - can’t believe that young spinner was their best specialist, also no idea why Sam Curran didn’t bowl at all. i thought 180 may be par when Surrey were 90 from 10, but some excellent bowling by Currie and Lumsden with Fuller much less erratic had them looking at 160 until Wood gets putting the ball in Clark’s arc. Some brief fizz from Prest and Albert, and a genius tactical move bringing Dawson up to allow the finishers to do what they are best at (even if they were not needed). I knew Dawson was capable of that but I’ve not seen that kind of aggression for a long time, he’s tended to be the nurdler keeping the scoreboard ticking role. Aside from beating an extremely good side, the big positive for me was seeing the aggression shown by the batsmen with Dawson and Albert showing they can regularly clear the rope to add to the destructive Vince, Cartwright, Stubbs and pinch hitting of Fuller. You can even afford a Weatherly to play anchor with the odd four if that continues. Bowling is a worry - we seem to be dependant on one of the youngsters playing well, which is asking a lot (although they have last two games). I’m not keen on Wood but I’m not convinced Baker wouldn’t be smashed around either (without the experience). Currie is our best bowler and rapidly becoming a key team member which is great to see. Think we have to accept that batters will tuck into one or both of Wood or Fuller in a number of games. Sundays game at a smaller ground could see a lot of runs - looking fwd to it.

Interesting but I don’t get this. If THB and Downes were terrible I’d agree - but they aren’t. So are you saying we overpaid for them, or that you think without the options to buy we would have found far better or bought in different positions ?. Im putting this in context of us buying utter gash such as Archer : bbd etc (ie our recruitment dept were incapable of finding gems rather than if they had another £40m they would have found better players) interested in your thoughts here