Cricket 2015

[grecian greg]

So I made my way up to Taunton today for the last Championship match of the season for the Cidermen against a Warwickshire side which included Ian Bell but no Jonathon Trott. The home side batted first and made a steady start before losing youngster Tom Abell with the score on 30. This brought Tom Cooper to the wicket to join skipper Trescothick and together they put on 68 before Cooper had his middle pole removed by Ricky Clarke with what proved to be the last ball before lunch. After a rain delay play finally resumed at 150pm with Leading run scorer James Hildreth joining the captain. Hildy set about his task quickly and elegantly, notching up several boundaries on his way to his 50. The pair then strangely became stuck on 199, the partnership 101, with some good bowling from the Pavilion eng by Jeetan Patel. The beneficiary of this was bowler Mark Laird who induced a rash off drive attempt by Trescothick,getting a thick nick which saw keeper Tim Ambrose fly to his left to pouch the chance in front of slip. Great catch! However a fine 87 from Banger to continue his fine late season form. Allenby then joined Hildreth and soon went about the visitors' bowling with elegant and inelegant shots in equal measure. He was removed by the first ball after the tea break by left arm quickie Barker with the score on 252-4. Crowd favourite Trego then strode purposefully to the wicket with the goal of pushing Somerset's score up to the magic 400 in 110 overs to secure the necessary 5 points which would guarantee First division cricket at Taunton next year without having to rely on the failures of Hampshire or Sussex in their respective fixtures. Rain returned shortly afterwards which combined with the bitterly cold wind signalled an end to my day of viewing. On return home I was surprised that play had got under way once more and delighted with the news that Hildy had completed a magnificent century to take his team to 360-5 at stumps, 40 shy of safety. How keeper Ambrose, skipper Chopra and the rest of the WArwickshire team were to rue his drop,seemingly straightforward enough when Hildreth had just reached his half century. Here Hee Hee!

 

[Jason H]

Middx confirmed second place thanks to Hampshire beating Notts. Last remaining thing is whether it's Hampshire or Sussex who go down - Sussex now 8 wickets down needing to avoid defeat to Yorkshire to stay up.

 

[Alistair20000]

Much to my surprise, the Hampshire corpse not only twitched it got up out of the coffin and hauled itself to safety with a bit of style................ and some help from the outstanding red ball team of the moment Yaaarkshire. Relieved also that Somerset stayed up at the end of a difficult season for them.

Time to focus on the footie now.

 

[RedPaul]

After the debacle of Saturday, a good way to end the season for Surrey - with the 2nd division trophy. Played some good stuff at times and been consistent. I think I questioned Sanga's motivation but he has been a revelation and a fantastic ambassador / influence.

Lots of young players have come through well this year - Burns, Harinath, Roy, Ansari, Foakes and Burke but story of the season is clearly the emergence of the Curran's. I thought Tom would do well but wasn't expecting Sam to almost overshadow him.

Looking forward to seeing how we compete in Div 1 next season. It is a big step up and Yorkshire aside, looks very evenly matched across the other 8 sides.

 

[Jason H]

Much to my surprise, the Hampshire corpse not only twitched it got up out of the coffin and hauled itself to safety with a bit of style................ and some help from the outstanding red ball team of the moment Yaaarkshire. Relieved also that Somerset stayed up at the end of a difficult season for them.

Time to focus on the footie now.

I see Berg got the Hampshire POTY award - delighted for him.

 

[Alistair20000]

I see Berg got the Hampshire POTY award - delighted for him.

I was not overly enthused when he was signed and am very happy to be be proved wrong. You did say he would be a gem if he had recaptured his fitness.

He has been consistent across all the formats and contrary to your thoughts that he might do better in the OD stuff he has performed really well in the red ball format playing all 16 games. Batting average of 32.00 when the top batsman in the averages, Carberry, averaged just under 39 and bowling average of 28.12 taking 42 wickets, bettered only by Fidel Edwards with 45 at an average of around 20. Impressive stats for an all rounder.

He has got the runs and wickets in games where they counted and has bowled with decent pace in some of the games and excellent line and length in others. Thoroughly deserves the POTY award and hoping he can perform to the same standard in 2016.

Have you got any other hidden gems languishing in and around Lord's ?

 

[Jason H]

Have you got any other hidden gems languishing in and around Lord's ?

You'd do a lot worse than to have a punt on Gurjit Sandhu, released by Middx. Actually nah, I don't think he'd do particularly well.

I see Somerset have signed Chris Rogers. The lucky gets.

 

[HH12]

[QUOTE

I see Somerset have signed Chris Rogers. The lucky gets.[/QUOTE]

Likes the Westcountry as former overseas pro at Both Exeter and North Devon

 

[Jason H]

Best make sure you don't give him any comp tickets, mind.

 

[grecian greg]

Tonight the local cricket club at whimple they have a special night with Sky Sports pundit David Lloyd who is doing a fund raiser for a new roof and a new electronic scoreboard it should be a good night. not bad price either £30 each or £400 for a table of ten. Tickets are all sold out now though so anyone thinking of attending are out of luck now. there is also an auction of cricket memorabilia from this summers ashes. I have my ticket and looking forward to this.