The Cricket Thread

Abbott makes history! What a performance from him!

 

Take a look at the Ashes thread on the PL board ….

 

Unbelievable from Abbott, but a word for Dawson and Vince for getting the runs without which we would have made it a much closer game.

Looks like Essex will get 23 points fairly shortly so with our 3 bowling points they will be 13 ahead. Nail biting stuff!

Edit: I forgot we got a batting point too so Essex will be 12 ahead.

 

By the way, Kyle Abbott’s match figures of 17-86 are the 4th best in County Championship history. Kudos to him, an incredible effort.

 

Abbott, Vince and Dawson can drink whatever they like tonight. Just send the bill to Chelmsford and it'll be settled for them.

 

It shows how good Somerset and Essex have been these season, that:

1. We can beat both of them at home (and by a decent margin), and still be 40 - 50 points behind both with one game left.

2. We can lose just game away from Chelmsford and Taunton, and still be 40 - 50 points behind both with one game left.

3. Even if we had beaten Warks at home and Notts away - arguably being the only two wins which slipped through our fingers, which champions rarely do; the former because of Warks' tail holding on, the latter because of rain - we'd still be unable to win the championship next week.

This is though, hands down, our best red ball season for a decade. It has to give real hope for next season. If we can get Lyon on board, sign a decent domestic batter over the winter (given that we have lost both Rilee and Markram/Rahane), and keep Vince, Northeast and Dawson away from England, then we could really challenge next season.

 

The key thing is that when we beat them both we had Vincey and Daws firing on all cylinders, i've no doubt that we would've been up challenging with them without their lengthy absences due to England "duty".

 

You didn't get a batting point.

 

No, I realise that now. I thought we were 7 points ahead of Essex after the last round, we must have been 8, as we are now 11.

 

Interesting comment from Abbo after the match. ”Would I prefer to finish third or spoil Somerset's party? I wanted to spoil the party by a long way. They celebrated against us at the One-Day Cup final so we wanted to give them some hard work for next week against Essex." Obviously there was a little “extra” in the game.

 

Was at the Rose Bowl with my son yesterday and said as much to him after Abbo took the last wicket ! It was a great days cricket in sublime weather.

 

That’s fair enough, I wouldn’t have expected anything else.

 

Good luck to the four teams in tomorrow´s T20 finals. Looking at the list of past winners, neither Essex nor Derbyshire have won it. As Essex have won trophies very recently, and look a good bet to win the title this coming week, I would love Derbyshire to win the trophy. That is the beauty of the game as the trophies go round to different counties on a regular basis.

 

Really strange that the ECB have given Denly a white ball contract. A red ball contract would have made sense. Maybe even a full, both ball, contract. But a white ball contract, when he didn't even make the WC squad?...

Any way, because we now know the names of the players with full, or red-ball only, contracts, we also know who will form part of the first round of the draft 100. Jimmy, Broad, Curran, Root, Archer, Bairstow, Stokes, Buttler, Burns, Woakes.

My understand of the first round is that each of the 8 sides can pick 1 player from that list of 10 who comes from their own area. That accounts for a maximum of 7 picks, because 7 of the 8 sides have at least 1 player in that list from their own area (the exception is the Somerset-Glamorgan-Gloucs team). However, if any of those 7 sides don't want a player from their region, they are not forced into picking at that time. Next to pick will then be that Somerset-Glamorgan-Gloucs team. Next to pick will then be any of the 7 sides who declined to make an original pick. At that point each of the 8 sides will have 1 player. The two players left over will automatically be allocated to their local side.

The curveball in that is the Yorkshire-Durham side. They have to choose between Root, Bairstow and Stokes. Of the two who they don't choose, presumably one will be picked up by the Somerset-Glamorgan-Gloucs side. And for a side like Notts-Leicester, they are probably better off skipping the chance to pick up Broad and instead pick up the third one of Root, Bairstow and Stokes - safe in the knowledge that Broad will end up with them anyway, by virtue of being 1 of the 2 leftovers.

 

Thanks for clearing that up Brendy....

*scratches head

 

As if Essex, and Harmer, weren't already going to Taunton this week feeling invincible...

 

Well some on here will be happy a newby has won it Me, I’m a bit more simple with my alignments. All SFC or Hants.

 

Not a great start for Kent in the battle for third.

 

Raining in Taunton. Somerset 75-4

 

Talk about fighting fire with fire. For this match Essex bring in a second spinner who has not been seen since the beginning of the season. Have a feel Somerset are battling with their heads as much as their opponents and the elements out there.