Worcestershire @ New Road C&G 29 May 2004

Graham Hick likes us...he tends to like us more at Taunton but he still likes us.  He's in form..but so are some of ours (admitedly not all at the same time) so it should be an intriguing game for those of you making the trip up the M5.  John Fuller has got the team for us.  It is

Peters, Moore, Hick, Smith, Kabir Ali, Mason, Rhodes, Solanki, Harrity, Batty, Leatherdale, Bichel

It's a pity we can't be so certain about ours except that BANGER will turn out for the first time in Maroon.  He'll be joined by

Gazzard, Cox, Burns, Blackwell, Caddick, Turner, McLean, Johnson, Parsons and Dutch.

Simon Francis seems to have fallen out of favour and is 12th man.

Can we win?  Hell yes?  Will we win...well that's a bit more of a Lottery.  We're still a fourth seamer short although we do go in with a double spin option.  Keith Parsons did very well in the last game with the ball so we can't rule him out but Richard J is in a football striker-like slump with few wickets.  Maybe today is his.

We'll be expecting too much of Carl Gazzard but we can hope that he produces the goods again with the bat and he is backed up by Jamie Cox and Mike Burns and we haven't really seen Blackwell in full one day pomp yet.  Today would be a good day boys!

Those travelling...have a good one.  For those watching on the 'net' or the 'text'...Get the prayer mats out...we need this!

But we didn't get it did we.  What possessed us to choose to bat on a pitch that was as green as the outfield according to commentators talking about it before we started.  What happened after a blistering start with nearly 30 off the first three overs?  Where was the batting backbone we've seen evidence of during parts of this season?  Was Bichel just too good or are we really that poor under pressure.

With Banger and Blackwell making over half our runs what was going through the minds of the others?  Marcus will now leave us for the rest of the season unless his form suffers and I wonder whether he is going away regretting the fact that he doesn't have to be part of a batting line-up that gives up the fight so readily.

The bowlers were on a hiding to nothing but made a good start of it, but we didn't exactly bowl to the death and make them play for it did we?  They got 'em in less than 15....it took us over 27 to fall apart!!

Someone please tell me it wasn't as bad as it reads!  Heavens knows what a coach says to a team who so comprehensively under-performed.  I wouldn't even want to be a fly on that wall.  This is going to be a very big upset to come back from for any player worth his salt.  It will be interesting to see how it galvanises (or doesn't) our squad to do sooooo much better.  We will all be waiting.

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