The Cricket Thread

Will Southampton have a professional Cricket team in 2020?...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/39721254

 

Forster is probably too tall to be a good wicket keeper. The best'uns are usually short arses.

 

27/4 Hampshire beat Kent by 6 wickets in the Royal London One-Day Cup! I didn't even know they were playing! #outoftouch

 

Hampshire team to play Essex:

Carberry, Alsop, Vince, Bailey, Dawson, Ervine, McManus, Berg, Abbott, Topley, Crane. Bar Rossouw, that is just about full strength.

 

Weather forecast is better for Chelmsford than it is for here!

 

Vince drops Cook. Now Westley survives a close run-out appeal.

 

Why on earth did we choose to keep McManus over Wheater?

 

Lost by 25 runs. Of course Wheater went to Essex didn't he, I had forgotten that.

Quote: Wheater's problematic wicketkeeping career again came to the fore, though, in 2016 when he relinquished the gloves to Lewis McManus with Hampshire indicating that they expected a bigger runs return from him - a task he duly delivered by averaging 47. But he returned to Essex on loan and, after they won promotion, chose to stay with them for good.

 

Bit harsh Tom, it was our death bowling that lost it for us today and we wouldn't have won at Headingley without Lewis' vital contribution with the bat.

 

Lewis has done very little wrong with the bat in four-day cricket since being given the gloves. But he has yet to show that he has the ability to clear the ropes etc and play a top one-day knock down the order. It's why I think that it's pretty imperative that our second overseas t20 player is an allrounder, otherwise I see us being a batter light; just as I do in a one-day team. At the end of the day, we lost the game because of what Zaidi was able to do at the back end of the innings. Other than a couple of blows from Abbott, we simply weren't able to match that - even though for the first 35 to 40 overs of our innings, we more than matched Essex's batting.

It is left field, but Alsop was a keeper in the youth team. Indeed, it is as a keeper that Alsop made his debut for us. I understand that he and McManus would share the job, until they finally decided that McManus was the superior keeper of the two. Now I have no idea how much Alsop has been working on his keeping every since (although the fact that we did not replace Wheater over the winter, suggests that either we have another youth keeper that we're happy with, or Alsop is still suitable enough to be our back-up), but if he is still of a sufficient standard, then giving him the gloves when Rilee is fit again should be considered. That is, of course, if Rilee returns in time. All the fixtures being in a short block is somewhat of an annoyance when it comes to Rilee's injury. (And Wood's, if anything mildly serious)

 

Players have been on Sky modelling the England Test Kit. It's....wait for it....roll of drums....white.

 

The new ODI kit is pretty foul.

 

Yay Hants v Middlesex is on Sky tomorrow.

 

Great time to be playing to them too, as the Ireland v England game on Friday has left them without Stirling, Finn and Murtagh. They've recalled Harris from his loan spell at Kent, but he went at almost 10 an over for Kent today.

Then again, we're without Wood and Rilee.

I'll be at the ground, but will still put in on record.

 

What the **** are Hampshire doing? They're batting like it's a ****ing T20.

 

Just see off Roland-Jones!!!! Idiots.

 

Am happily ensconced watching England v Ireland ODI...nice and safe. England 131-2 after 25 overs. Morgan and Root in.

 

England 162-2 after 30 overs. Morgan and Root both got 50s.

 

200-3. Root out for. 73.

 

England 328 after 50 overs. Should be enough to beat Ireland.