Cricket-Match-Special ... A forum for discussion

The County Championship season begins next weekend. A time of year where squads are preparing for an action packed five months and fans hopes and optimism are at their highest.

I'll do my predictions later.


How do you think your county will do in each major competition?

Who will be the key player and why?

Who will be top run scorer?

Who will be top wicket taker?

Which youngster will emerge?

Biggest weakness?

Biggest Strengths?

Player you hope will do well?

ESSEX



How do you think your county will do in each major competition?

3rd in CC
semi final in one day cup
Finals day in t20

Who will be the key player and why?

Jesse Ryder..with bat and ball...with the ball he will get wickets on div 2 pitches, but we need more runs this year

Who will be top run scorer?

Jesse Ryder

Who will be top wicket taker?

David Masters

Which youngster will emerge?

Nick Browne

Biggest weakness?

Spin bowling

Biggest Strengths?

Batting

Player you hope will do well?

Monty Panesar

Hampshire

How do you think your county will do in each major competition?

Struggle in D1, unless we can regularly put runs on the board and use scoreboard pressure to help get us wickets.

A big threat in the limited overs, as always these days.

Who will be the key player and why?

James Vince - important runscorer for us in all three formats, and is now captain in two formats.

Who will be top run scorer?

James Vince

Who will be top wicket taker?

James Tomlinson in four day cricket (unless Jackson Bird ends up playing the whole season).

Yasir Arafat or Danny Briggs in limited overs.

Which youngster will emerge?

Tom Barber, quick young bowler (if a little inaccurate)

Biggest weakness?

Ability to take 20 wickets.

Biggest Strengths?

Top seven batting. Knowledge of how to win in limited overs cricket.

Player you hope will do well?

Michael Carberry, especially in four day cricket.

Durham

How do you think your county will do in each major competition?
CC top half
50 why not?
20 Oh dear!

Who will be the key player and why?
Colly, as always. his captaincy equates to having an extra man in the team

Who will be top run scorer?
Stoneman

Who will be top wicket taker?
Hastings probably, but I'd prefer it to be Onions because it will mean he's stayed fit

Which youngster will emerge?
Paul Coughlin

Biggest weakness?
small squad

Biggest Strengths?
home grown talent

Player you hope will do well?
Hastings

Lancashire

How do you think your county will do in each major competition?

LVCC: Promotion
50 overs: Group stages
T20: Semi finals

Who will be the key player and why?

Tom Smith: New club captain, led the way with the ball last season and did well enough with the bat. With Kyle Hogg gone and Glen likely on the way out he will need to lead from the front this season.

Who will be top run scorer?

Peterson or Prince

Who will be top wicket taker?

Smith,

Which youngster will emerge?

Hameed is already been talked up in the press, but we have a horrible record of converting promise into runs and wickets.

Biggest weakness?

The batting and an unproven pace attack.

Biggest Strengths?

Spin bowling, two young spinners with international experience.

Player you hope will do well?

Buck, he better bloody do well!

Kent

How do you think your county will do in each major competition?
Not got high hopes for this season. Expect mid-table in the Championship and probably out in the group stages in the limited overs comps.

Who will be the key player and why?
Matt Coles. With no overseas bowler Coles will be expected to lead the attack and be a key strike bowler. Also, will be hoping he can contribute some lower order runs.

Who will be top run scorer?
Sam Northeast.

Who will be top wicket taker?
Matt Coles.

Which youngster will emerge?
Ryan Davies. Reserve wicket-keeper who has done well for the 2nd XI and plays for England U19s. Billings may be off with the Lions or the main side so Davies will have to step up in his absence.

Biggest weakness?
Seam bowling - have a few decent seamers but none of real quality. Still hoping for an overseas bowler.

Biggest Strengths?
Spinners - have two of the best in county cricket in Tredwell and Riley.
Batting - Key, Northeast, Bell-Drummond, Denly, Cowdrey, Nash, Stevens, Billings - plenty of decent batsmen there.

Player you hope will do well?
Fabian Cowdrey - really good young batting all-rounder. Hope he gets more chances this year.

How do you think your county will do in each major competition?
CC: 4th - the Yorkshire squad is likely to be ravaged by England call ups, making it nigh on impossible to defend the title.
T20: Quarter-Finals - a lot depends on the availability of Glenn Maxwell or whether Yorkshire can find a like for like replacement.
RLODC: Quarter-Finals - potentially can go all the way, but anything goes in the knockout stages.

Who will be the key player and why?
Aaron Finch - He will be the kingpin of Yorkshire's batting once the season is in full flow. Wasn't quite prolific in Twenty20 last year, although he did make two big scores in big games against Lancashire and Notts. However his red ball game exceeded expectations, giving licence to attack as a number 6 bat and scoring plenty.

Who will be top run scorer?
CC - Alex Lees
Limited Overs - Aaron Finch

Who will be top wicket taker?
CC - Jack Brooks
Limited Overs - Richard Pyrah

Which youngster will emerge?
Jack Leaning is the next big thing. Had a good full debut season last year with the bat, averaging 39 in CC and 55 in RLODC. If he can kick on like Alex Lees did last year then the England selectors will come sniffing.

Biggest weakness?
Batting - the lack of depth will be shown in the first few County Championship matches, featuring a makeshift opener and a bowling all-rounder to bat at 6.

Biggest Strengths?
Plenty of bowling options, Yorkshire can two field separate attacks that won't look out of place.

Player you hope will do well?
Andrew Gale - Hasn't been prolific with the bat for a while and being made a scapegoat by the ECB for his slurs won't have helped. It would be nice to see him back amongst the runs in all formats and lead Yorkshire to more silverware.

SUSSEX

How do you think your county will do in each major competition?

CC - High end expectation - 2nd// Low end - relegation . Not enough proven bowling quality in the team to provide a sustained title challenge, team will lose key players to call ups and cant cope with it. Best players are ageing and questionable as to when their quality will wane.

Limited overs - Quarter Finals would be positive, more likely group stages.

Who will be the key player and why? Magoffin - he needs to take wickets if Sussex are to win games.

Who will be top run scorer? Ed Joyce

Who will be top wicket taker? Magoffin

Which youngster will emerge? So much of Sussex's current team is based on Tymal Mills being able to lock down his place in the bowling attack, and we really need him to be the real deal.

Harry Finch will hopefully get a chance this year to make his mark after an impressive winter in Australian club cricket.

Biggest weakness? Spin bowler - Zaidi is not a frontline spinner, and Will Beer has played 8 games in 8 years, and if there was anything about him he would have played more than that. With an oldish attack, we will look too much to part time spinners to roll their arm over.

Biggest Strengths? Depth of Batting.... Wright, Zaidi and Jordan in the same team levels a lower middle order that takes some removing.

Player you hope will do well? Shehzad. Big fan in the England setup on test debut, would love to see Sussex get that quality out of him finally

How do you think your county will do in each major competition?
CC: 4th - the Yorkshire squad is likely to be ravaged by England call ups, making it nigh on impossible to defend the title.
Actual Result: Title winners at a canter, an unbelievable achievement considering Yorkshire were at the barebones in April. Squad availability got better from May as the season progressed and Yorkshire were at good strength.

T20: Quarter-Finals - a lot depends on the availability of Glenn Maxwell or whether Yorkshire can find a like for like replacement.
Actual Result: Group Stage, started okay but overall a very poor campaign although crowds have actually increased due to the installation of floodlights. Maxwell and Finch have not expectations, though the latter was injured.

RLODC: Quarter-Finals - potentially can go all the way, but anything goes in the knockout stages.
Actual Result: Semi-Finals - Had Yorkshire not got ravaged by international call-ups and silly ECB rules, then Yorkshire could have gone one step further.

Who will be the key player and why?
Aaron Finch - He will be the kingpin of Yorkshire's batting once the season is in full flow. Wasn't quite prolific in Twenty20 last year, although he did make two big scores in big games against Lancashire and Notts. However his red ball game exceeded expectations, giving licence to attack as a number 6 bat and scoring plenty.
Actual Result: Was injured for most of the season, replaced by Maxwell for most of the campaign. Played a couple of good CC innings and was influential in the RLODC campaign before called up by Australia for the limited overs series.

Who will be top run scorer?
CC - Alex Lees
Actual Result: Jonny Bairstow with 1100 CC runs. Lees cored 795 runs @ 33.45, not terrible but he says it's been a disappointing season.
Limited Overs - Aaron Finch
Actual Result: The Big Show racked up 312 RLODC runs in 8 innings, Finch wasn't allowed to play in the knockout stages when he was fit! Leaning scored 338 T20 Blast runs @ 42.25 with a 134 s/r.

Who will be top wicket taker?
CC - Jack Brooks
Actual Result: 65 wickets @ 22.76 with a 38.8 s/r, another excellent return. Be interesting to see if Brooks can maintain good form when bowling on test match grounds or graveyard Taunton.
Limited Overs - Richard Pyrah
Actual Result: Steven Patterson took 13 RLODC wickets, 17 year old Matt Fisher took 16 T20 Blast wickets. Pyrah barely featured in white ball cricket and when he did, he was not in usual reliable form.

Which youngster will emerge?
Jack Leaning is the next big thing. Had a good full debut season last year with the bat, averaging 39 in CC and 55 in RLODC. If he can kick on like Alex Lees did last year then the England selectors will come sniffing.
Actual Result: Started off brilliantly in the CC, though red ball form did suffer later on. T20 and One Day credentials have risen more than anything else, a batsman who can genuinely play in any format.

Biggest weakness?
Batting - the lack of depth will be shown in the first few County Championship matches, featuring a makeshift opener and a bowling all-rounder to bat at 6.

Biggest Strengths?
Plenty of bowling options, Yorkshire can two field separate attacks that won't look out of place.

Player you hope will do well?
Andrew Gale - Hasn't been prolific with the bat for a while and being made a scapegoat by the ECB for his slurs won't have helped. It would be nice to see him back amongst the runs in all formats and lead Yorkshire to more silverware.
Actual Result: Racked up 1006 runs in CC @ 40.24, though could not replicate that form in white ball cricket.