Hampshire CCC 2023

[badgerx16]

Grumpy old git alert;

 

Never had specialist 1-day squads up to the 1990s. There was the single 17 team division county championship, the Sunday league, and two 1-day cups, and each county simply had a squad of players.

[Window Cleaner]

44 minutes ago, badgerx16 said:

Grumpy old git alert;

 

Never had specialist 1-day squads up to the 1990s. There was the single 17 team division county championship, the Sunday league, and two 1-day cups, and each county simply had a squad of players.

But worldwide gig cricket didn't exist in those days.  England based players played for their county in the summer and took whatever winter role they could get.  We used to live near the Sainsbury's , Peter delivered paraffin in the winter when he couldn't get a coaching job in Oz for the winter. True that was much earlier than the 90s though.

Anyway I suppose the white ball only players, big stars apart, get less than the all competitions players; There are also a good few who don't play much white ball cricket. Barker plays very little and Gubbins, Abbott and Abbas don't seem to play in the short formats. Perhaps they get less than some.

But the real problem is the fringe players who don't seem good enough for some competitions  but are kept on anyway. I'm of thev opinion that if we farmed out Donald, Weatherly and maybe even Organ we'd have enough savings for a solid opener.

Weatherley seems to be a bit "pistoned" as we say in France. Even got a hundred contract and hardly ever played. Might be a bit of nepotism somewhere in the mix. Then there's the case of Crane, no idea what we're doing with him. 

Edited 9 May, 2023 by Window Cleaner

[badgerx16]

Bah humbug ! "Gig" cricket isn't cricket. It's like claiming 5 a side is football; same basic rules, completely different game, aimed at the X-Box generation.

Edited 9 May, 2023 by badgerx16

[Window Cleaner]

28 minutes ago, badgerx16 said:

Bah humbug ! "Gig" cricket isn't cricket. It's like claiming 5 a side is football; same basic rules, completely different game, aimed at the X-Box generation.

Well of course it isn't, but it allows players the choice of not playing the 4 day game if they have no test aspirations.  Also limits the choice of overseas players and no doubt puts up the asking price for any desirable player to boot.

[Window Cleaner]

Organ dropped for tomorrow's game, replaced by Weatherly in the 12. Don't know if that means he'll open with Middleton though. Barker back in the 12.

[Hodgey]

He needs a spell in the B team to get some runs, not convinced he’ll ever be an opener but has talent. Weatherly may be next in line although Holland may be pushed back up there. Not sure any of those moves make us any stronger at opening though

[Pilchards]

We must bowl first if we win the toss.

Dont have the calmness to fend off the new ball on a fresh morning wicket.

Prediction: Fuller a 5 wicket haul while Vince gets a 150 with a great Brown partnership.

Edited 11 May, 2023 by Pilchards

[Toadhall Saint]

4 hours ago, Pilchards said:

We must bowl first if we win the toss.

Dont have the calmness to fend off the new ball on a fresh morning wicket.

Prediction: Abbas a 5 wicket haul while Vince gets a 150 with a great Brown partnership.

Well we won the toss and are bowling first - got them 4 down for 56. Not a bad start.

[Barsiem]

Weatherly back in the team then.  Fair enough call I suppose.  Prest's time will come

[badgerx16]

Bowlers have done their job, let's see if the batting shows a bit more steel than their last outing.

[Lighthouse]

Double figures for JW already, so an improvement on Organ I suppose.

[saint1977]

12 hours ago, Pilchards said:

We must bowl first if we win the toss.

Dont have the calmness to fend off the new ball on a fresh morning wicket.

Prediction: Fuller a 5 wicket haul while Vince gets a 150 with a great Brown partnership.

50% correct so far, let’s see what tomorrow brings with the bat!

[Hodgey]

Got to say Middleton has made a very impressive start in a difficult role, hopefully Weatherly is a bit more experienced now to hold down an opener role. I watched Middletons dad open for Hampshire too !

Solid batting start, bowlers don’t look up to much but you can only face what’s in front of you.

[Pilchards]

8 hours ago, Hodgey said:

Got to say Middleton has made a very impressive start in a difficult role, hopefully Weatherly is a bit more experienced now to hold down an opener role. I watched Middletons dad open for Hampshire too !

Solid batting start, bowlers don’t look up to much but you can only face what’s in front of you.

This guy is much more aggressive than his Dad. I used to remember him as a dull boycott type player.

I reckon Fletchy could go on and play test cricket for England once he finds his feet more.

[Lighthouse]

As if by magic, the openers are a tonne up without loss.

[badgerx16]

Hopefully we can accrue some decent batting points.

[Window Cleaner]

16 hours ago, badgerx16 said:

Hopefully we can accrue some decent batting points.

That we shall see, 2 wickets down this morning already. Still hopeful of 300 though.

[Window Cleaner]

Wheels have come off, 159/5.  Same old problem, quick'ish bowlers on an overcast morning.

[Window Cleaner]

So, we made a pretty good score in the end, seemed to take a while though.  Kent batted out the 26 overs left to them at the end with no apparent difficulty.  We'll have to hope for conditions that favour our bowlers a bit more this morning, otherwise we'll have difficulty bowling them out again.

Not that I think that we have much chance of the Championship this season but with Warks already winning and Middx looking in difficulty against Surrey we need to win this one to be thereabouts.

[Andrew Watson]

Not having an out and out quickie is certainly a minus,as well as our iffie batting, we will not be challenging the title this year. We will definately finish behind Surrey and Warwicks and maybe Essex and Lancs as well. I know we have Brad Wheal,but he does not even get a mention,perhaps he will come in thursday if Kyle Abbot is out. Oh for a Fidel Edwards or Darren Powell.

[Hodgey]

Interesting changes at Hampshire. Crane comes in for Fuller so 2 spinners and Turner replaces Abbot as the quick. Meanwhile Donald goes out on loan.

Decent start from the openers again, be interesting if the pitch does deteriorate and we have 2 spinners for the final innings.

[saint1977]

On 15/05/2023 at 15:01, Andrew Watson said:

Not having an out and out quickie is certainly a minus,as well as our iffie batting, we will not be challenging the title this year. We will definately finish behind Surrey and Warwicks and maybe Essex and Lancs as well. I know we have Brad Wheal,but he does not even get a mention,perhaps he will come in thursday if Kyle Abbot is out. Oh for a Fidel Edwards or Darren Powell.

John Turner is supposed to be sharp and growing in pace, let’s see how he gets on today. The early runout is a bonus after Hants bowled out for 367.

[Lighthouse]

I smell a follow on…

[Toadhall Saint]

4 hours ago, Lighthouse said:

I smell a follow on…

You smelled right

[Window Cleaner]

Catastrophic start to our T20 campaign. But what can you expect it's a scratch side to give everbody a game.

[Hodgey]

Is it ? Isn’t this most of the team that won it last year. Don’t forget we were utterly useless the first 5 games last year. We are truly dreadful starters.

[Barsiem]

TBF it was also a very impressive display by Somerset.  Great bowling and fielding by them.  Craig overton alone took 3 wickets and a further 4 catches!

Batting got easier, so it was a bad toss to lose.  Let's hope it's a blip rather than the tone for the campaign 

[Picard]

Is that the equivalent of 9-0 in football?

[Barsiem]

2 hours ago, Picard said:

Is that the equivalent of 9-0 in football?

Nowhere near thankfully... More like a 4/5-0

[Lighthouse]

Middlesex not looking too clever with the bat tonight either, could do with putting them to the sword.

[Give it to Ron]

Where is best place to park now for Ageas?

[Hodgey]

This looks like another defeat for me - too many players off form.

Middlesex on for 180 plus

[Lighthouse]

Mids go from 161-4 to 171ao. Some collapse that.

[Window Cleaner]

Hants cruising to a win.   Middx bowling looks pretty poor though. Still ,good to watch Hants hitting at about 10 an over.

[Hodgey]

They varied the bowling in the last 6 overs and pulled it back - I thought they lost the plot a bit when they had Whiteley bowling but then started varying the length.

If our openers get in we look like a good batting team - the issue is when they get our cheaply. Was good to see Fuller back.

[Lighthouse]

Bloody Surrey again. Those three consecutive sixes off Crane killed it stone dead.

[Hodgey]

Batting wise they are just a class apart, we were a good 15 runs short of what we needed to put real pressure on them. 
We need a player with variety for the bowling - ironically we signed one but looks like he’s going to be out injured for most of it !

like last year, if we’re going to win it we’ll need someone else to knock them out…

[Window Cleaner]

5 hours ago, Hodgey said:

Batting wise they are just a class apart, we were a good 15 runs short of what we needed to put real pressure on them. 
We need a player with variety for the bowling - ironically we signed one but looks like he’s going to be out injured for most of it !

like last year, if we’re going to win it we’ll need someone else to knock them out…

With the bowling that we have available , I'd say that against decent sides 180 is absolument "de rigeur".  Crane and Ellis went for 89 between them yesterday, over half of our batting total.  Maybe just an impression but Ellis looks to be trying too hard at times, loses accuracy and gets tonked.

Prest made runs but a bit on the slow side really.  

[badgerx16]

BBC report that James Vince is now the highest run scorer in the T20 Blast.

[Lighthouse]

5 hours ago, Window Cleaner said:

With the bowling that we have available , I'd say that against decent sides 180 is absolument "de rigeur".  Crane and Ellis went for 89 between them yesterday, over half of our batting total.  Maybe just an impression but Ellis looks to be trying too hard at times, loses accuracy and gets tonked.

Prest made runs but a bit on the slow side really.  

We really laboured the power play for some reason, once McDermott went ground to a halt.

4 hours ago, badgerx16 said:

BBC report that James Vince is now the highest run scorer in the T20 Blast.

Yep, was announced on the PA last night as he did it. Opening batsman not out two games in a row, too.

[badgerx16]

Vince at it again, 103 off 48 balls, Hants going at 10 an over.

[Lighthouse]

I wouldn’t say we’re a one man team but we’re not far off a one man batting unit.

That said, useful 21 off the last. Big total to defend now.

[Window Cleaner]

Well that was a good watch.   The  Essex tubby wicky give out for nothing, probably the same as McDermott.

[StDunko]

Is today's game streamed anywhere?

[Dark Munster]

Sussex 144 all out (tail wagged a bit).

Hants off to a solid start, 115-0 after 11 overs. Hopefully they can take it over the line.

[Lighthouse]

F**k me, that was a good evening out. I thought we were making a meal of it when we let them have 144 after being 66-6, followed by 1 off our first two overs but fair play, that was an absolute walloping in the end. Being ultra critical, I’m not sure I’d have gone with the extra bowler, given how we bat. That looked like a bit of a long tail to me, considering how we’ve been batting.

[Hodgey]

Reminds me of last year a lot. If our openers fire we are extremely hard to beat as our experienced bowlers have enough about them, but on paper the rest of the batting looks decidedly average if they don’t, and not particularly explosive (eg Somerset). Then again last year was the same but more often than not the openers did fire and the others tended to do just enough between them to get over the line.

Crane is an odd one, he does get wickets but is very expensive and can’t bat. I guess we thought we’d have Howells playing instead. I continue to like what I see of Currie, he seems to have replaced the injured Wheal well.

I think we’ll have just enough to sneak into the next round and then as we’ve seen it’s anyone’s.

[Barsiem]

I know it won't last, but Vince is currently averaging 175 in the T20 this year!!  Opening the batting and after 5 innings that is pretty incredible.

I think we need to drop Crane.  He seems to have gone backwards in the last couple of years.  Compared to Dawson it's night and day.  He might be another one who could benefit from a change of scenery ala Briggs as he's stagnating here

[stevegrant]

While Crane's output this year has been weaker than previous, the balance in our team is provided by having the two spinners eating up 8 overs. Dawson rarely goes for runs, so if Crane leaks a few but takes wickets I imagine we'll still take that.

The existence of Ross Whiteley continues to baffle me, maybe he's the one that makes way when Howell is fit, whenever that might be.

[Dman]

13 hours ago, stevegrant said:

While Crane's output this year has been weaker than previous, the balance in our team is provided by having the two spinners eating up 8 overs. Dawson rarely goes for runs, so if Crane leaks a few but takes wickets I imagine we'll still take that.

The existence of Ross Whiteley continues to baffle me, maybe he's the one that makes way when Howell is fit, whenever that might be.

Dawson is incredible at holding down an end. Certainly not the best spinner in the world, but a 7/10 every time he bowls. 

I wonder if he'll get a sniff in the ashes squad now that Leach is out, for that very reason...