Somerset
The Taunton Derby - The Return
By Grockles et al
July 1 2016
Tim Groenewald is rested for this one and Michael Leask comes in after some storming short form batting in the seconds. The Bristolians expect this to be a one sided game.... I'm not sure which side is supposed to be in the ascendency so we will wait and see.
v GLOUCESTERSHIRE T20 @ Taunton Friday 1 July 2016
Gloucestershire have won the toss and have decided to field first. The sun is out and the cloud cover is white with smatterings of blue sky even.
Matthew Taylor will open from the New Pavilion end to Johann Myburgh. The Somerset is:
Allenby, Myburgh, Trego, Jayawardine, Gregory, Van der Merwe, Davies, Overton C, Overton J, Leask, Waller with Josh Daveyas 12th manso he is on the way back it seems. Tim Groenewald is rested for this one and there is no specialist batting spot for James Hildreth. We may get a full game and not have a problem with the light as long as the weather does not close in again. It is however a pretty sparse crowd presently - maybe 70% full at the moment.
Norwell takes the first over from the River End snd Johann takes him for 2 boundaries from the last couple of balls to move the home side on to 13 off 2.
But Allenby puts the first ball of the third over down Hamish Marshall's throat coming in from the Caddick. 13 for 2 after 13 balls.
By the 5th over it is 38 for 1 with Myburgh on 25 and Pete on 6. One man show at the moment but he skies Howell to Klinger before the end of the next one and Jayawardine is in early at 40 for 2 at the end of the 6th. A fouf along the floor that tests Hamish Marshall's fitness brings up the Somerset 50 at the end of the 7th
By the 10th it is still a little pedestrian with 77 for 2. Pete is looking to push it along but isn't quite getting it full on the bat at the moment. His attempts end in the 11th when he is caught on the boundary in front fo the CA by Howell at 85 for 3. In comes Lewis Gregory.
But once again we are watching a T20 side pushing the singles and nothing else, no urgency between the wickets, looking for couples. We still haven't moved past 100 with 7 overs to go. A decent international batsmen will get half of the present score. Since Kent educated us into the new way to play this format, nothing seems to have changed. We are still playing this game the way it was played at the startof it's life and it has all changed.
100 up halfway through the 14th but the visiting bowlers are still holding us even though Jayawardine is dropped just before the end of the 14th trying to puxh it around the corner. 103 for 3. There are suggestions that Mihela was dropped because they don't want the Overtons, Leask or VdM in. !09 after 15 - 6 an over... yawn
Lewis is run out in the 16th which brings Leask in needing to do some smacking and on a hiding to nothing. At least to his credit he looks to go for it hitting a straight four over the bowlers head. He fires a huge six into the Ondaatje in the 17th and takes the strike for the 17th. 3 overs to go 135 for 4 with a par score over 150 here. This is just not good enough.
Leask tries to go big off Taylor and is caught in the Somerset Stand deep for 12. RvdM is next in. Mihela finally tries to hit out, takes on three balls, gails to connect properly with any of them and finally falls as Cobain takes a diving catch to send him on his way and usher in Jove (before Cove). RvdM and Jamie hit out and provides 3 boundaries to take us to 162 before Jamie is run out because he dropped his bat before he grounded it but he made 14 off 4. Craig is in with one to go and it is then all scramble and silly shots to take us to 167 for 7.
Excellent fielding and tight bowling fromthe visitors, pedestrian and old fashioned batting mentality from Somerset. The last few got us some runs but they shold have been in earlier and we shold have been looking at something past 180!
THE REPLY
RvdM starts the reply to Klinger and they have 3 at the end of it..... he caused them trouble in Bristol so maybe that is why. Marshall faces Cove (his last game in Taunton?) from the River end and it is 8 after 2
Lewis takes the third and nearly gets a run out while holding the visitors in check until a boundary off the last ball doubkes the score to 16. By the end of the 4th they have nearly doubled it again to 30 and we introduce Jove to the attack for over 5. Ball 5, dead straight at speed and yorker length. Bye bye Marshall for 9, 40 for 1. Beautiful ball.
The 50 arrives at the end of the 6th and RvdM is on for the 7th from the New Pavilion. Max thenstarts from the River and he keeps them down to 3 in his first. 57 for 1
The spinners coming on quite rightly gets the Glos batsmen moving and they look to push the score while taking the slow men out of the attack. Klinger puts RvdM over his head and they take 11 off the over. Kilinger then goes after Max and goes to 50 with a six between the Botham and the Trescothick. 80 for 1 after 10.
It is 95 by the end of the 12th and the way to win this is to get Klinger. If we get him we have a chance, if we don't this will be over before the 19th probably. An excellent over from Jove suggests we can keep themin check but Max puts Cobain down 2 balls into the 13th. 100 up from Klinger in the 13thbCoveut imortantly it is with 9 wickets in hand. Cove goes for 8 off the 13th. RvdM is rotated again to the River for the 14th and he holds them down to 3 off the first half. He goes for 5 and he finishes with 4 for 23 - well done sir. 107 with 6 to go needing 10 and over - which should be easy.
Cove is there for Klinger's highest T20 score of the season as he finally gets hold of one for six. The young man gets away with slme very loose deliveries and still goes for 15off the over. Max then has to re-exert the pressure that has just been lost by a poor 15th. The good T20 side will not let go from here and Glos seem to be a good T20 unit. It is not helping that the light has gone as darker clouds are moving in from town. 131 for 1 after 16. 37 needed and a conference is being had at the New Pavilion end. There's not a lot to play for. Jamie is given the job of trying to blast Klinger out (probably our only chance) but the first goes into the car park and the second is sgraight back to the Pavilion boundary. The third is also a boundary and it has gone to be honest. I wouldn't blame the fast man - Klinger is in and seeing everything but anyone else would also go and at least Jamie has something that might have got the man out. He gets Cobain with his last ball in fact caught by his brotherin the Ondaatje corner. Trouble is, there is not enough to play with at 147 for 2 and 21 needed off 3 with the rain belting down and dark cloud.
The umpires talk and decide to carry on in sideways rain. It really is foul as Lewis bowls the 18th. Over 150 as the second ball goes past Davies to the boundary. Again the officials talk but again they stay on. Klinger goes to 100 with 10 fours and 4 sixes off 67 balls - a truly match winning innings.
Jamie provided hope by getting Klinger with 9 balls to go leaving Glos with 8 off 9. 163 for 3 with 6 balls to go. Allenby gives the last over to Lewis and they get 4 off the first and they run the winning run off the second. Winning by 7 wickets with 4 balls to spare.
It really wasn't in doubt from the middle of the Somerset batting display I am afraid.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016:07:02:20:59:21 by Grockle.
Even the bit about nibble off the seam is not necessarily something that will persist in second half of match - track may just have sweated a bit under the covers?
A glass half - empty or a glass half - full?
Regardless, both glasses need filling up.
Mybs's 125 is the best we've managed in this one so far.
Gloucs seem to be doing well with pace off the ball which isn't a feature of most of our T20 seamers that bowl in the format (Trego seldom does so just JA really).
Hopefully our spinners will go well.
141-6.
I'd have thought this has a loss by 5 or 6 wkts written all over it unless we bowl and field out of our skins.
I know that it was on the basis of a loan, but it must still cost the club money which could have been better used elsewhere.
I have just finished a cup of tea, and the tealeaves suggest that we are going to sneak a win here.
"We" are Somerset of course to pre-empt any facetious responses.
I'm delighted to hear that Mark Davis has just said that Jamie Overton has 'admitted that he had been bowling too short for years.'
He's chalked up his usual 10 an over conceded once again.
Unless the track is some sort of green seamer then I don't think he should be selected in this format.
Klinger has gone to Jamie in the 19th for 101 but it's 160for 3 so its 8 off 9...
What we have been doing has NOT been working.
Any thoughts on an XI for the rest of this tournament?
I think we should try Roelof up the order.
I think Leask needs to stay in the XI.
Cove needs de-selecting, IMO.
Maybe we should also have a look at Dom Bess. According to Steve Snell Bess has been outstanding for the twos.
Perhaps we should also look at Mahela at three rather than four - have him in for a bit longer?
Perhaps could try something like:
Roelof
Myburgh
Mahela
Allenby
Leask
Trego
Gregory
Jamie O
Waller
Bess
Davies
Worth a go, I'd think?!
No point just sticking with the same XI in the exact same order that are getting modest and mediocre results/batting totals.
Quote:AGod
Clarence - you need a different brand of tea...
You are right there, Mister.
No more Mazawattee Tea for me! I shall revert back to the Co - op brand.
There can be no excuses.
A glass half - empty or a glass half - full?
Regardless, both glasses need filling up.
I'm afraid, I'm rather more interested in the club's oft-stated goal of 'competing seriously in all competitions.'
Currently 6th of 9 in CC1 and 6th of 9 in T20.
So mission not really being accomplished at present, I'm afraid.
From afar we have looked totally unconvincing in T20, which is unusual.
The problem is in the dressing room and team management NOT the Boardroom.
It looks like simple stuff. We had this lot (including Klinger) with a total of 180 plus.
You cannot put in 4 'specialist' batsmen, think you've done enough and then just shove the T20 specialists in when it goes wrong.
Allenby....provided nothing. Sorry. He has now had time in T20 and he is not getting runs and is not bowling himself so.....why?
Johann gave us a good start, Pete can push one but you have to use your resources effectively.
Leask needed to come in with time to push it along.
Mahela must be used as an anchor if things fall apart - he cannot push the score in the correct way for T20. Class but not entirely for this format. He can hit loose stuff but he needs to manage the innings for a big hitter.
Looking at this game Craig is more of a batsman we are not using than a bowler in this. Lewis is your late 'holder'.
Jamie and RvdM need using more effectively and earlier if you are chasing a score or looking to go up the gears.
Somerset have to look at this form of cricket differently. Kent showed us how far behind we were and since then we have learned NOTHING it seems. Last season we went to the 'hit the leather of it every ball' plan. That works no better than this, construct an innings with singles and twos then 'push on' plan. QWe need somewhere between the two and that means fundamentally restructuring our batting line-up.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016:07:01:21:14:41 by Grockle.
Some (Rehman, Arafat) look unambiguous failures.
Most have been unconvincing.
This side is insipid and our tactics let no player really show anything like their capabilities because it puts us up against it all the time. I'd possibly leave RvdM out of that though. MJ is a name and a class batsmen still but if he plays it simply means that James Hildreth doesn't. Jim Allenby is offering nothing here at the moment. Who signed Johann Myburgh? Well done whoever you are.
Leask might have something IF he was let play. Hose probably could provide but isn't being played. Josh Davey nearly played this one it seems.
First sentence edited for better meaning
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016:07:01:21:17:24 by Grockle.
Edited because of unnecessary use of the quote function
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016:07:01:23:18:07 by Grockle.
[www.espncricinfo.com]
He's not exactly lighting up anywhere else.
You seem to want to use him as a scapegoat for Allenby but he really wasn't.
He was surplus to our requirements at the end of the season before Allenby arrived. We offered him a way out rather than release or finish in the seconds. He took it, didn't change much in his year away, wouldn't have been offered anything particularly different this year and cut his losses for division 2 cricket
Allenby hasn't done anything phenomenal but we haven't suffered from a loss of Craig and I don't enjoy saying it. I had high hopes for the man about three years ago and it just didn't happen. Now if we'd got something that was what we wanted Craig M to become then.... maybe or if we used one of the Overtons more inventively....
Edited to remove unnecessary use of the quote function
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016:07:01:22:53:34 by Grockle.
I am still hoping that JA will improve but I'm afraid it's not obvious why he would do at this stage of his career. I'm afraid he simply seems somewhat out of his depth in CC1.
Show me where he was invaluable and I'm happy to change the view. I was as outraged as many others but over last year I realised that the club were right and it had very little to do with Allenby. I think personally that they were very good to give him a year to work at it but it wasn't to be and still isn't to be honest.
Allenby should step down but I'd much rather see Adam Hose or Josh Davey or Michaael Leask take that spot than CM who had been tried and tested and found wanting more often than he had consistently provided what Somerset needed.
And...let's not forget that a) we do not know how much of the initial move was Craig's desire and b ) he did not choose to stay when offered the opportunity because we could not confirm first team cricket in a significant batting position to him. c) Is his injury totally healed? Was his bowling as good after it as before? I don't know does anyone?
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2016:07:01:23:04:26 by Grockle.
Blaming it on Matt Maynard. Blaming it on Jim Allenby. Assuming Craig Meschede was incapable of deciding his own future. All are pointless. We simply go around the same houses.
CM went to somewhere to be more than he was. He still isn't on most assessment criteria. He isn't the solution to our problems. Neither is or was Jim Allenby though many hoped different there as well.
We have won about 10 matches in this format in the past 2/3 seasons with all kinds of captains, management, line-ups.
We play the game wrong so whatever we use is not effective. Get a plan first, relate it to the resources we have and then play to it. Craig Meschede would not have saved our bacon and Jim Allenby did not cook it and continuing to post either will never make it true.
We are a poor strategic T20 side with limited resources. How good or bad we are will never be clear until we find a way to play the game that makes the most of whatever eleven we put out on the pitch.
In Craig K, Jos and Alfie T we used to have all three. Robbed of these by the passage of time, inability to compromise and desperately bad luck we have failed to find adequate replacements from within or without the Somerset ranks. OK maybe Gayle, but he's only there for a few matches so doesn't really solve the problem. Shunting players in & out of the team, and up and down the order, isn't helping much.
Nor does the scheduling with the T20 spread over a large chunk of the season. That at least will change next year.
Nipping and nurdling at six an over may (sometimes) work in 50 over cricket, but not in T20.
We do seem to be struggling for an effective strategy in this form of the game. Unfortunately, I think it extremely unlikely we will retain an interest in the competition beyond next week, for this season anyway.
Grizzzly
Edited for unnecessary use of quote facility
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2016:07:02:14:06:19 by Grockle.
Is it Lamb's Navy they guzzle?
a) Where are they at a given moment in time? i.e. how good are they at the moment?
b) What is the direction of travel? i.e are they getting better, or worse, or no change?
In terms of white ball cricket, the answer to a) is that we are pretty ordinary.
But what's the answer to b)?
Do folks think there are signs of improvement?
Personally, I can't really say that I think the side is improving in this form of the game.
One T20 loss at home and 4 pages and rising in under 24 hours!
There proves my correlation argument.
We have a young bowling attack all still learning.
We have blown our budget on a massive PR coup with Gayle, he did ok, but only here 5 minutes, then we get smashed by a team with Klinger.
These div 2 teams focus on T20 cricket.
We I am very glad to say are a long standing stable strong division 1 county team.
If anyone would prefer to be as Gloucestershire member I hear they are very much in need of new supporters!
Of course we all want to win every game, and many come on here to air their frustration when we don't. But as a club and a team we do an awful lot right.
If we bomb in T20 at expense of mid table safety in championship and a shot at later stages of RL50 I can cope with that.
What ever we are told we only have 4 proper 1st team seamers.
I hope and assume we will rest Craig Jamie Lewis for Pakistan, and assuming the T20 is now over I'd happily let Davey and a n other seamer come in for the rest of T20 saving the main 4 to concentrate on the other 2 competitions.
Off tack- a reminder to all platinum plus still applies tomorrow so the farcical sight of our premium 2 members areas being next to empty likely to be the case again tomorrow!
They are both scapegoats for a bigger picture very clearly identified by Bagpuss. The loss of three colossal figures in our T20 side that were not totally our own fault has created this problem and maybe we should take into account WSM's point.
Why not accept we have to restructure out T20 format. Use it to bring on the younger batting line up we have coming through and give them first team experience while accepting the fact that it may be difficult in the short run and meanwhile use our older batting line-up where it can be more effective in the longer formats.
I simply fail to understand buying in players with international experience however minor and then letting them languish in the second team format where, certainly in Leask's case they are ready for more. Either don't buy them or use them in a format to see if they have it. If they don't then move on but use the resources we have and get them ready for first eleven games if they can stand the pace.
Time to be brave, have a flexible order and make sure that from the very start we have one of these strikers at the crease and they are given license to go big.
Controlled aggression and momentum not blind trashing as the balls tick away. I think you need two or three batting orders for the second half of a T20 based on what happens in the first 10. Survival order, Momentum order and Mayhem order.
No one can feel touchy about their place in a T20 batting line-up and it should never be set in stone before the start of the innings because the situation changes quickly and you have to change with it if you can.
England learned this with Jos. Send him in at 12 if possible not at 16. If you get it right you more than double his scoring. If you get it wrong then he doesn't leave the good one and is out in a small number of balls.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016:07:02:14:19:28 by Grockle.
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