Hodgey

So my understanding is you can pre-sign 4 players of which one must be a retention. I guess once all clubs have retained they then pre-select any player (up to 4) via an initial draft at a set price. All very complicated but in theory you could retain 4 players stopping them going elsewhere. Short story - Brave retained one player (which they had to) Archer They then pre-selected Stoinis, Smith and Stubbs. That’s probably where the issues began as Stubbs and Smith have been dreadful and Archer has only played well last few games. Assume they then had to prioritise getting Jordan in the auction as captain (although they went for Rashid first which was a good choice). They then got Miller, Rew and Worrel as mid price. With the likes of McKinney and Choudhury as low priced picks. After this stage they had one player from the two counties they are supposed to represent. They then got Lumsden on a wildcard presumably as they realised they didn’t have any Hampshire players. So yes, not retaining Vince and getting the more expensive Smith instead doesn’t look particularly smart in retrospect.

Charles always going to happen, he’s also a player who looks better whenever he plays at a higher level so it’s probably a good move all round. Robinsons progress has stalled but we know there is a player there. We can’t risk him being good enough for first team as we need to go up this year so seems like a good move (have Scienza, Dobbin and Edizie who can play there) Current squad looks play off capable but not autos. For that we need a better back up keeper, a big powerful midfielder and another bully centre forward. One thing you need in this league is power and strength, not sure we have enough. Dont have money for those players so will need to play the loan system well. Coventry played a blinder last year with Rushworth and Onyeka, as did we with Larin and Peretz

It’s a very odd (terrible) batting line up, they have that McKinney who is clearly not ready for this level, technique looks awful. Then they keep playing Chaudhury who doesn’t bowl and seemingly can’t bat, now they’ve put Ali straight in the team who is totally past it and who they don’t trust to bowl. Michael Pepper is apparently in the squad but hasn’t played at all for some reason. I guess it doesn’t help when you have to try and up a hopeless run rate set by your batters but Archer and Jordan who can both bat look like 11th man bunnies. back to the drawing board next year - not sure whose strategy this was but it was pretty terrible (and most unforgiving of all - boring)

Great to see Prest’s confidence returning. It’s a shame we are not really seeing any new young talent in this competition, Williams has really struggled and aside from that it’s basically our county players who can’t score quickly enough for the short form game. that said we do have young talent in the 100 and international youth etc so maybe our other young players are just not quite ready. I’d still love us to find and nurture a mystery spinner.

The batting is a real concern, lightweight openers and Miller in dreadful form. Bowling unit finally fired, but up to today Wood and Archer have been poor, years may also be catching up to Jordan. Win may be enough to turn them around but honestly it’s been pretty average stuff so far.

Watching a few other matches and in comparison they just don’t seem to be aggressive enough and the batting has been poor. Don’t think a single batter has past 50 yet and strike rates are one day level. I also think they are pretty boring to watch which doesn’t bode well - still the women seem to be doing alright. Rashid the honourable exception.

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