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

and free postage

Free transport-I'd drive him there myself.

I'll lend you my car

room in the boot for Wor Nige

Just amused myself browsing the pre season predictions on here as to likely CC champions , relegations , etc...

If there was a prize for the worst bunch of pundits ever assembled this board would be a certainty

Are most of the posters on here off duty economists , by any chance ?

The CC is beyond the reach of sensible punditry. A pin and a blindfold would be as useful as a following of the game. The champions invariably struggle for no good reason. England call ups are an unpredictable factor. I bet no expert without a connection to Essex predicted Essex would win the CC.

Plus the format is crazy. Surrey finished second with the second fewest wins in the division.

And I'm not just saying that because I picked Warks as CC winners.

Arthur Crabtree wrote:The CC is beyond the reach of sensible punditry. A pin and a blindfold would be as useful as a following of the game. The champions invariably struggle for no good reason. England call ups are an unpredictable factor. I bet no expert without a connection to Essex predicted Essex would win the CC.

Agree and the fact that the promotion and relegation issues went to the last day, with any of 5 teams trying to avoid relegation, confirms it. The impact of new signings is also a significant factor which can't always be predicted- who would have forecast that Simon Harmer would have adapted so well?

and impossible to predict points deductions too. Somerset should have received points deductions for every pitch they prepared, but didn't get any, whilst Middlesex got points deducted for being behind the over rate at the moment that some tosspot fired a crossbow quarrel over the wall into somebody ele's ground.

the rationale behind the points deductions seem to be entirely arbitrary and not clearly defined in the laws, yet decided one of the two promotion places and one of the two relegation places

Why on earth should somerset have recieved deductions for every pitch? I believe that a home side should prepare pitch to match their strengths....we need to play on more pitches that turn for when we go to sub-continent....some sides over the years prepare green seamers and nothing is said...you play on what your up against...most of the time the pitches at Taunton didn't go up and down, they just spun... so what..?

andy wrote:Why on earth should somerset have recieved deductions for every pitch? I believe that a home side should prepare pitch to match their strengths....we need to play on more pitches that turn for when we go to sub-continent....some sides over the years prepare green seamers and nothing is said...you play on what your up against...most of the time the pitches at Taunton didn't go up and down, they just spun... so what..?

We need to produce spin bowlers and our batsman need practise against the turning ball;clearly you're only going to do that if you prepare pitches that will allow this. The criteria is whether the pitch will last 4 days. Somerset v Middlesex did and indeed Somerset made a competitive total in the 3rd innings of the game as did Lancs in the previous game. Taunton had a reputation as a featherbed; Which of the 2 types of pitches produce the most absorbing cricket?
Fact is, teams now know what to expect when they go to Taunton so go prepared.

I like the taunton wicket now, much prefer it producing results, go there and take spinners....

Durhamfootman wrote:I'll lend you my car

room in the boot for Wor Nige

Big boot?

We won our trip to Taunton this season, so it shows it can be done. But fortunately, we did have Crane and Dawson. Not many other counties who can match Leach and Bess (and RVDM, when he plays with them) in the spin department - Middlesex using Patel and Stirling being a prime example.

We also took the dangerous, but ultimately successful, tactic of treating our second innings like a t20 match. We weren't going to hang around for the ball to get us out (again, like Middlesex). Beyond our openers, every batter looked to put the ball to the ropes from ball one. Two of them, I recall, hit more 6s than 4s. Some guys were basically going boundary, boundary out. But the score we made was by some distance the biggest score of the four innings. I suspect it was Bailey's tactic.

Now there is no way that I would like us to regularly bat like that in FC cricket, and for that reason I am happy that the Rose Bowl wicket is not the Taunton wicket. But as a one-off match for us, we got the better of Somerset. And as it transpires, it kept us in the division.

fair contest between bat and ball

old fashioned view, I know