2016 Hampshire Thread

[st_brendy]

Actually looking at the forecast the weather looks good for our game against Surrey at the Oval next week.

Mind you with Surrey in good form I'm expecting a severe thrashing.

We can't even hope that they take their eye of the ball, with their focus turning towards the Lords Final. There's a whole week between our match and the final.

Big news for us is Dawson being left out of the t20 squad. It means he'll be available. Given how little we've bowled Crane and Carter in this game (and we didn't exactly utilise our whole attack against Somerset either), I'd hope that Dawson will come in for one of them. Same number of bowlers, but CRUCIALLY better batting depth. Put McLaren, McManus and Berg all back down one place in the order like they should be (and no no.11 batting at no.9).

[budgetmeansbudget]

Crane and Carter dropped.

Dawson and Andrew in.

Batting much improved, and probably bowling too.

[st_brendy]

Solid, if unspectacular, first day. We've always been one wicket behind; taking our wickets to get back into the game, rather than taking control of the game. But if we can take them out for under 300 (which is far from certain at this point - only the other month Batty score a 100 against), then I think you do take that. Especially given we've our improved batting line-up (if we collapse again this time, then criticism is deserved).

Great news in the Somerset-Warks game, if Somerset go onto win (and it's clearly not finishing a draw!). Not a single batting point for Warks would leave them walking away with just three points. With that outcome, actually a draw for us in this game with a decent bonus point haul (and we already have two) would not be a bad result. But of course the Somerset-Warks game becomes bad news if Warks go onto win (although still not awful news - they would still have dropped all batting points).

[st_brendy]

Actually, maybe "solid" is too positive. Listening/reading opinions on the day, it sounds like 260-6 is way above par. Great day for bowling, plus lots of grass on the pitch. (I did wonder why on earth we would choose to bowl first, at The Oval in September). We're hoping to get them out for 280 from here, which illustrates (a) how favourable it is for bowling, and (b) how close Surrey are to getting a score that could put the rest of the match to bed.

[st_brendy]

After just one day, I think the updated table looks like:

Warks 156
Lancs 153
Durham 151
Hants 138
Notts 119

Lancs won't move from 153 over the next three days, due to not playing. Whilst Warks will either stay on 156, or jump up to 172. Still bonus points, and ether draw points or win points, up for grabs for rest of us. If we take, say, three more bonus points (one bowling, two batting) and add in five draw points, that's 146. Potentially just 10 behind Warks therefore, with one game left -which is less than the difference between a draw and a win.

(We'd be even closer to Lancs, and potentially Durham too, but with both sides still to play again next week first)

[budgetmeansbudget]

Good positivity Brendy.

[budgetmeansbudget]

Surrey all out for a tad over 300, couldn't get Batty out.

Think our best hope from here is still a draw, so I'm expecting us to crawl along. Three batting points may be if we don't capitulate.

[st_brendy]

Slow going (largely because of Smith, again), but you can't complain at only three wickets down. And great for young Tom, to get his maiden 100 after a few close ones previously. Fortunately these two can score quickly, as well as pretty much everyone else still to come. Even so, it's asking a lot to get to 350 inside 110 overs from here. I think we're probably looking at just the three batting points.

(That said, I would add that I listened to the final five overs whilst driving home from work, and easily over half of the deliveries were down the leg side. Totally negative bowling from Surrey, which you can't blame us for not scoring off. I wonder if they were doing it earlier in the day too.)

We've probably put ourselves into a position where we can only win this by putting on a massive first innings score, say 550, and declaring late tomorrow. The only answer I can see is that Surrey decide to ignore the fact that a draw would secure their survival, and go all out for the only result which would keep them in with having any chance whatsoever of the title (ie a win) - because if they do, they'd almost certainly be left with having to leave us something very chaseable on day four.

So much focus on these final two Warks wickets, which are getting concerning now. I'd suggest the close of the day works heavily in Somerset's favour, and hopefully they can finish the job tomorrow after a night's break.

[budgetmeansbudget]

Yep, the two Warwickshire wickets are key to our continued hope in avoiding the drop.

Massive partnership out of nowhere in the context of the rest of the game.

[budgetmeansbudget]

Great knock from Tom Alsop, he's one of the few positives to come out of this poor season.

[st_brendy]

- Somerset take these final two wickets

- We rock along at around 4 an over, and score 330 in 80 overs

- We reduce Surrey to 25-3 at the close

I guess that would be the equivalent of an early Xmas for us tomorrow. (Middlesex and Yorkshire having good days tomorrow would also be useful, but not as important)

[haggishants]

At last... a wicket at Taunton. 37 runs or 1 wicket now.

[budgetmeansbudget]

At last... a wicket at Taunton. 37 runs or 1 wicket now.

Shame we've lost two already this morning.

But yes, one more wicket at Taunton to keep us in with a shout.

[budgetmeansbudget]

Run rate has started to pick up, 4 batting points a possibility if we don't run out of wickets.

[budgetmeansbudget]

Six an over from here would get us maximum batting points!!