By Grockle et al
June 10 2014
Still undefeated in the CC1 but the weather has had a hand in making sure we aren't winning games. Now we have Sussex at Taunton and this Championship match is swinging from one side to the other at a pretty regular basis
v SUSSEX CC1 @ Taunton Sunday 8 June 2014
Scorecard
Commentary
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The same side as faced Lancashire in a rain affected match last week faces Sussex at home this week.
Trescothick, Myburgh, Compton, Petersen, Hildreth, Kieswetter, Trego, Overton C, Meschede, Dockrell, Thomas
For once Marcus wwas not put in the position of deciding what to do at the toss as the oppposition won it and decided to bat first. In the last few games it seems the Somerset chosen option at Taunton is to put the oppposition in as well so we got what we wanted but without the blame of doing it ourselves!!
And it started well as Trego and Thomas got amongst them with 1 for 9 becoming 2 for 10 and then 3 for 25. Wells, Hamilton-Brown and Nash all gone cheaply. Machan put up more of a fight before he became the welcome back wicket for Craig Meschede after far too long a lay off due to injury. Although Ed Joyce started to re-stablish some order in the Sussex line-up at one end, wickets just kept on falling at the other. Wright, Brown, Piolet and Beer all went before the 200 was up and even with a ton from the Irishman there was llittle chance of the first innings ending with much over 200. Taking into account that Joyce was dropped on 0 when Kieswetter dived across first slip and failed to pouch the ball. Joyce was on 99 when play ended for the day on to 210 for 9.
Day 2 started on time but Sussex only made it to 214 (Joyce made 103), hardly making a mark. Somerset must have been hoping for a BIG lead at the start of their innings. However, no heroics from the skipper as he went with only two balls faced without bothering any scorer. Myburgh joined him very quickly and Compton didn't stay long either - all thanks to that Magoffin man. 3 for 18 made the supporters reassess the possibility of a huge lead. As Hildreth went at 30 and Alviro went at 39, they must have been working out what the follow on score was.
Enter Pete Trego and Craig Kieswetter and enter some stability as the two men worked their way through the 'non Magoffin' sessions against the less impressive Sussex bowlers. Both left the innnings at 125 but they had put the game back on some kind of track with 65 to the keeper and 27 to the allrounder. However the work was far from done if the home ide were to get themselves really back into this game and Magoffin was back on (he took Trigger's wicket).
NNow it was down to the two 'Craig's. Meschede was expected to be the shot maker while Overton was seen as the man to revolve the strike. It wasn't wuite like that as the two men took the score past 200 but not past the Sussex score as Meschede went at 206 for 38. Overton was not done yet though and Thomas was willing to give him a hand. The twin's 86 took us to 283 and showed he is far more than a bowler. Thommo only added another 6 but the tail created a much healthier state of affairs for SOmerset than before they arrived.
Nash and Anyon added 26 to finish Day 2 and set everyone up for an exciting third day.
Quote:Which Craig?Grockle
In your eyes maybe AG but I think Craig will probably keep nevertheless.
Quote:Tumbles
I guess it's easy to say in hindsight we'd have been batting by now had we held one but there is nothing to say someone else may have gone on to hold the innings together...

Quote:lAGod
Sussex fans in front of me not thrilled, FE.
Quote:AGod
Grockle - I was talking CC only not short stuff.
Before today CK had made about 50-60 runs in his last five CC matches. And had a poor CC average last season.

Quote:GrockleQuote:AGod
Grockle - I was talking CC only not short stuff.
Before today CK had made about 50-60 runs in his last five CC matches. And had a poor CC average last season.
Yep 64 in the last 5 innings, that's 4 single innings rain affected draws and one full game.
His average last year was about 34 and a half. Jos Buttler's was just over 36 - we must get HIM in the England setup but CK's CC average is poor.
It's 38 at the moment so if he has only scored 64 in his last 5 what did he contribute to the first games of the season?
You pick the format you pick the selective innings and you make your judgement and the man makes 65 in his next at bat.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE keep telling us he is in poor two year form


Quote:Bobstan
Good, so we've established that people actually agree with the substance of AGod's comments re CK then.
Quote:Little Bird @ 12:15
I think we can all see now just how significant missing Joyce on 0 is likely to be.
Quote:Little Bird @ 13:05
What a good morning's cricket (though not all in our favour!)
Every run being hard fought for, none of this 500-5 nonsense!
Poetic justice too that Craig's been our man this morning!
Quote:Nailsea_Fizz
but only you could analysis it that much, However maybe Little Bird would be so kind to explain what he meant if he feels the need.
* NB - Edited to finish the sentence as I pressed go to early

Quote:AGod
Oh, possibly, FE, in that case may I apologise to Little Bird.
Although, thinking about it, there CK was not, of course, the victim of any kind of unjust action viz the Joyce drop.
Quote:Grockle
Craig is a child of the social media age gentlemen. He learned his lesson quite a while ago and his tweets are pretty innocuous to be fair. So he uses his mobile phone. It actually isn't a crime, he isn't alone in the cricketing world, he seems a lot more sensible than some of his fellow professionals and I've never seen him doing it while batting.
The debate about Craig's form was not about the fact he needs to provide more for his county if he wants to play for his country. I think a couple of others hit is on the head - he seems to be the one to poke at the moment in some sections of the site and media.
The debate was about the assessment that he seemed to have been struggling more than others over a two year period which is a much harder case to prove.
Awfully sorry about the error about where the Yorkshire game was played but the comment about choosing which are 'good' and which are 'not so good' runs still applies and damages the argument put forward IMHO. Objectivity in all cases or it is a waste of time because the assessment then becomes subjective and the 'facts' become meaningless in the analysis because they are not assessed against the same yardstick in all cases but on an opinionated and unmeasurable scale made up by the analyst.
There ya go...
Have we won yet?
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