Hampshire CCC 2023

[Barsiem]

14 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.

He's not eating up overs though if he's going for 10+runs per over every game... his lowest run rate this season so far is 9 runs per over.  

I like him a lot but he's been poor for a couple of years now.  Looks a long way away from the player who was picked for England.

[stevegrant]

1 hour ago, Dman said:

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... 

I suspect the choice there is one of three:

Will Jacks, Rehan Ahmed, or nobody.

With Stokes surely unlikely to be fit to bowl (the claims that he'll be able to at Edgbaston are absolute horseshit from anybody who watched him in the field against Ireland ), and the wickets seemingly going to be pretty flat as per Stokes' "Bazball" wish, we might just make do with Joe Root being able to get through a few overs of spin and to pick another seamer.

[Lighthouse]

No way Daws is getting in the Ashes squad at this short notice, I reckon it’ll be Ahmed.

[Window Cleaner]

Good start apart from Vince holing out for 5. But it's a poncy, little, turnip patch ,out ground so we'll probably need 220+ 

[Hodgey]

So this is what I was talking about - if the openers don’t fire it looks weak. And this looks really weak….

[Window Cleaner]

164, probably not enough.  We'll need to bowl well.

[Andrew Watson]

Really poor batting display against South Group whipping boys. Why does Weatherly bat at 4 ?

[Lighthouse]

Fem 2/2 we’re now being slapped all over the pitch. 164 isn’t going to be enough today.

[Window Cleaner]

36 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

Fem 2/2 we’re now being slapped all over the pitch. 164 isn’t going to be enough today.

Oh yes it is (was) !

[Toadhall Saint]

46 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

Fem 2/2 we’re now being slapped all over the pitch. 164 isn’t going to be enough today.

Evening Major

[Lighthouse]

I think we got Holden out seconds after I posted that. We’ll file it under ‘got away with one’.

[tanz762]

Hi Hants/Saints fans,

I'm looking for a B&B very near the Rose Bowl please if you can help!?

I travel from Didcot in S Oxon to watch Hampshire, its easy to get to the RB on the train but a pain in the a**e to get back home after a T20 game - the same with Saints games.

I could stay at the Holiday Inn Express for a 1 night stay at £171, but I don't think so.😠

If anyone could recommend somewhere local I could stay I would appreciate that, also buy you a pint if we meet up at a match?

Cheers Ian

 

Edited 6 June, 2023 by tanz762

[Window Cleaner]

1 hour ago, Lighthouse said:

I think we got Holden out seconds after I posted that. We’ll file it under ‘got away with one’.

Did we ?   I thought the two innings were fairly similar. Early losses, then some decent hitting followed by a falling off. The worm thingy on the live stream 

showed a similar pattern.  Wood and Whiteley got us back on track though. Ellis pushing back a certain 6 near the end helped no end.  

[Hodgey]

The problem we have is that this year we play Somerset and Surrey twice. We’ll obviously lose to Surrey as long as the day ends in a y, so if we lose to Somerset again tomorrow we have very little wiggle room. It really is a bit mad that the teams don’t all play each other twice but there you go.

We also appear to be one injury away from Gubbins making the team, I’d have thought Middleton a better bet..

Haven’t mentioned Turners impressive debut either - like Currie (who came back after being slapped around a bit today) I like the cut of his jib. 
Now if we can just find some batsmen outside the top two who can slap it around a bit…it comes to something when Wood is seen as a more explosive option.

 

[Dark Munster]

1 hour ago, Hodgey said:

The problem we have is that this year we play Somerset and Surrey twice. We’ll obviously lose to Surrey as long as the day ends in a y, so if we lose to Somerset again tomorrow we have very little wiggle room. It really is a bit mad that the teams don’t all play each other twice but there you go.

We also appear to be one injury away from Gubbins making the team, I’d have thought Middleton a better bet..

Haven’t mentioned Turners impressive debut either - like Currie (who came back after being slapped around a bit today) I like the cut of his jib. 
Now if we can just find some batsmen outside the top two who can slap it around a bit…it comes to something when Wood is seen as a more explosive option.

 

Indeed. It's very amateurish and Mickey Mouse. Same with the county championship.

[stevegrant]

1 hour ago, Hodgey said:

The problem we have is that this year we play Somerset and Surrey twice. We’ll obviously lose to Surrey as long as the day ends in a y, so if we lose to Somerset again tomorrow we have very little wiggle room. It really is a bit mad that the teams don’t all play each other twice but there you go.

We also appear to be one injury away from Gubbins making the team, I’d have thought Middleton a better bet..

Haven’t mentioned Turners impressive debut either - like Currie (who came back after being slapped around a bit today) I like the cut of his jib. 
Now if we can just find some batsmen outside the top two who can slap it around a bit…it comes to something when Wood is seen as a more explosive option.

Tom Prest is surely next batting cab off the rank. Personally I'd put him in ahead of Donald or Whiteley anyway, especially in conditions that end up being relatively spinner-friendly.

[Picard]

8 hours ago, stevegrant said:

Tom Prest is surely next batting cab off the rank. Personally I'd put him in ahead of Donald or Whiteley anyway, especially in conditions that end up being relatively spinner-friendly.

He was injured yesterday.

8 hours ago, Dark Munster said:

Indeed. It's very amateurish and Mickey Mouse. Same with the county championship.

IPL as well now they have 10 teams.

[Window Cleaner]

12 hours ago, Hodgey said:

The problem we have is that this year we play Somerset and Surrey twice. We’ll obviously lose to Surrey as long as the day ends in a y, so if we lose to Somerset again tomorrow we have very little wiggle room. It really is a bit mad that the teams don’t all play each other twice but there you go.

We also appear to be one injury away from Gubbins making the team, I’d have thought Middleton a better bet..

Haven’t mentioned Turners impressive debut either - like Currie (who came back after being slapped around a bit today) I like the cut of his jib. 
Now if we can just find some batsmen outside the top two who can slap it around a bit…it comes to something when Wood is seen as a more explosive option.

 

Don't see why we should lose against Somerset this evening.  We have every chance of beating them, just as they have a chance of beating us, the T20 is like that.  As for Surrey , they've already lost two out of 6, same as us.

Anyway we just need to make sure we don't have too many catastrophies against the poorer sides and we should make top 4.

Turner indeed bowled well yesterday and Albert did some decent hitting.  The fact that their leg spinner took two wickets and pinned us down to only 4 an over suggests to me that the wicket was especially prepared for him.   Awful ground Radlett, seemed to have a filled-in irrigation trench running right across it.

[Barsiem]

Anyone else finding that the YouTube stream is stuttering constantly tonight?  Really hard to watch for me atm

[Window Cleaner]

1 hour ago, Barsiem said:

Anyone else finding that the YouTube stream is stuttering constantly tonight?  Really hard to watch for me atm

Yes, better now though.

Bowling is awful.   Second team bowling isn't what you need here.

[Hodgey]

10 hours ago, Window Cleaner said:

Don't see why we should lose against Somerset this evening.  We have every chance of beating them, just as they have a chance of beating us, the T20 is like that.  As for Surrey , they've already lost two out of 6, same as us.

Anyway we just need to make sure we don't have too many catastrophies against the poorer sides and we should make top 4.

Turner indeed bowled well yesterday and Albert did some decent hitting.  The fact that their leg spinner took two wickets and pinned us down to only 4 an over suggests to me that the wicket was especially prepared for him.   Awful ground Radlett, seemed to have a filled-in irrigation trench running right across it.

Think you missed my point Windows. We could win yes (although not looking great at the moment) but it’s much harder playing twice against a team who have hammered everyone so far (including us by a landslide). We won’t beat Surrey - massive bogey side for us even discounting the ridiculous talent they have. Put it this way - if you had the choice of one team to swerve at home and one away - I reckon Surrey and Somerset would be those teams.

Like you say - can still qualify with those defeats.

 

[badgerx16]

Just got in from the Lancashire double header T20 matches in Blackpool. I am not sure why the scheduling leaves over 3 hours between the end of the women's match and the start of the men's.

Just want a Hants win now for 3 out of 3.

[Hodgey]

What an amazing game ! You called it windows. Turner looks a real find, Currie was punished today but just about held it together, good learning curve. Good to see Weatherly score a few.

After the break we should have Howells. Fuller and Prest back so looking good.

[Lighthouse]

That was an absolute cracker of a cricket match. Young Currie had a bit of a torrid time of it but fair play keeping his composure I that last over. Some excellent death bowling and Turner had a great game. Another win in the bag, we’ve nothing to fear from here on.

[Toadhall Saint]

Great game! What a find Turner is. 

[Weston Saint]

Weatherly batted with a broken hand so even more remarkable he should make a good score. Spoke to him after the game and he had an ice pack on. Happened during the Middlesex game on Tuesday. .

Thought Vince captaincy was first class particularly how he managed the bowlers at the death.

 

[Barsiem]

We're going well against Kent, who I see have put coverage of the match behind a paywall!! £6 to watch the match

[Lighthouse]

Sh*te start with the ball so far.

[stevegrant]

Is Fuller properly fit, or have we thrown him in there as there aren't any other vaguely reliable bowlers available at the moment?

His over and Whiteley eating up dot balls for fun again was ultimately the difference. Kent probably aren't as bad as their position in the table looks, but once you get beyond the top 3 there's not a lot of batting there - we were probably 10-15 short with the bat, and then that one big over for 21 killed us.

[Hodgey]

Was odd playing Fuller - we already had 5 bowlers so guess confidence wasn’t high on one of them being pummelled. Suppose the thinking was that Fuller can also bat, but he was totally out of sorts and we should have played an extra batsman (but we’re not confident enough with the them I don’t think). Whitely is having an awful season, which when you only play t20 isn’t great

it’s going to be close now - that result counteracts the Somerset one and we are where I would expect us to be. Presume a loss Vs Surrey for 4 defeats and I think we could probably get away with losing one more and still qualify.

on that paywall fiasco - that really annoyed me - was looking fwd to watching on YT and couldn’t find it anywhere. I wouldn’t have paid £6 for it anyway, but I want to watch on the big TV and there’s no obvious app so unless people could be bothered to cast it or watch on a device with easy browser it’s just not worth the effort. I do wonder if they made anything at all given higher production cost / payment system etc required than sticking it on YT.

[Toadhall Saint]

Wasn’t great all in all - as mr grant has said - probably 15  - 20 short and then an over going for 21 when they only needed 8.5 an over really doesn’t help.

[Andrew Watson]

Another totally shambolic batting performance in 4 day championship cricket.

[Hodgey]

Yep amazing to see our top 7 batsmen combined to score 1 more than bowlers Crane and Barker. On which note - they must think this is a spinners wicket given they have picked 3, that’s being undone somewhat as ideally you would have them bowling last, and with something to defend.

All out under 150 - and no real hope for some North West rain to save us.

[Window Cleaner]

Another total debacle. Shîte batting and the bowling is no better.  Lancs scoring at nigh on 5 an over.

 

They need to get us a real opener, capable of seeing of the new ball in difficult conditions.

[Window Cleaner]

Watched a bit today.  We don't look good enough in any department. Need a serious overhaul next season with at least one international class test batter added. For that we'll need to offload either Abbott or Abbas unless we can get an England man. No problem, neither of them looks particularly dangerous at the moment.

[Window Cleaner]

6 minutes ago, Window Cleaner said:

Watched a bit today.  We don't look good enough in any department. Need a serious overhaul next season with at least one international class test batter added. For that we'll need to offload either Abbott or Abbas unless we can get an England man. No problem, neither of them looks particularly dangerous at the moment.

Hah, doesn't fail often. Give them a bit of Saintsweb forum stick and they get wickets right away.

Doesn't seem to work with the batters though 

[Hodgey]

Looks like they were right about the extra spinner, but very strange that Dawson and Crane didn’t get much joy. And now batsmen looking relatively comfortable, what an odd side we are.

odds still heavily in Lancs favour, we’ll need our other batsmen to build good totals and not play any silly shots.

[Window Cleaner]

Organ seemed to get a fair bit of movement bowling into the footmarks left by Barker, him being a left-armer. Dawson didn't bowl all that much today, got hit in the face by a rebound from a failed catch attempt by Middleton.

On that subject, our catching wasn't up to it's usual standard , apparently Middleton dropped Salt fairly early on in his innings.  Crane and Vince also dropped what looked to be straightforward catches.

We'll need to bat with discipline again tomorrow morning, cos with Brown in at 5 we look a bit short on quality, dependable batting. 

Edited 12 June, 2023 by Window Cleaner

[Window Cleaner]

So, another defeat brought about, as per usual, by a disastrous first innings. This time compounded by some poor catching and quite a bit of soft to hit bowling.  Abbott is toast, a great servant but he's doing nothing at all these days. We played 3 spinners but only the "part-timer" bowled any serious number of overs, got a 6 fer too. 

Two things you'd have to note about this game: The constant whingeing by Lancs for a ball change every time they were getting nowhere fast in our second innings and the awful umpiring by Mallender.....he needs to be put out to grass.

Edited 14 June, 2023 by Window Cleaner

[Andrew Watson]

Time for Donald to be given a chance behind the stumps and he cannot fail to score more runs than Brown, who quite frankly has been shocking.

[Window Cleaner]

29 minutes ago, Andrew Watson said:

Time for Donald to be given a chance behind the stumps and he cannot fail to score more runs than Brown, who quite frankly has been shocking.

Certainly shouldn't be batting at 5.  Don't quite see why he is actually. We didn't need 3 spinners, could have played Albert for all the difference it made.

[Hodgey]

We have a batting issue in all formats. Just look at the table bonus points and it’s the same story - bowlers getting us out of trouble. It’s no good amassing a decent score in the 2nd innings if your first is woeful (plus no bonus points for 2nd innings). So far only Middleton and Vince with maybe Gubbins have been convincing. Also what has happened to Prest and Organ - I had hopes for both. The return of Weatherly reminds me of Long for saints, you know he’s not good enough but never find a competent replacement.
We’re going to be in trouble next year if we are not careful, our ‘evergreen’ ageing bowlers are on the decline.

[Lighthouse]

On the up side, looks like we’re getting an Ashes test in 2027.

[Hodgey]

Amazing fielding from Sussex won that game but again horrible stuff from the Hampshire specialist batsmen….

[Andrew Watson]

We do not deserve to qualify if we cannot beat Kent and Sussex away.

[Lighthouse]

What mug would bet on Hampshire?! 🤣🤣

[Window Cleaner]

Good win, made it look easy, probably wasn't. The bowlers and batters all turned up today. Surrey on the other hand didn't.

[Toadhall Saint]

That’s about as easy as it gets. Makes the Sussex result even more frustrating 

[Barsiem]

We're pretty much a one man team atm... If Vince plays well we win, if he's out cheaply we lose

[Hodgey]

We’ve finally beaten Surrey !!. Very well played, credit where it’s due, that is an extremely strong batting side to roll over for sub 125. 

Still not sure about a few of our batters, but Howells adds something to this team in both bat and ball. Think we’re still on for that 4th place, although it’s now pretty tight up there.

Vince is ridiculously good - if he had England call ups we’d be in a lot of bother