Durham match thread 2022

[Durhamfootman]

the bowling has been criticised this year for only taking 2 or 3 wickets on the final day in a few of the matches. We'll find out what our batters are made of tomorrow after watching Leics, Worcs et al batting with no alarms for hour after hour on day 4.

we did it at Hove, of course, but Dickson was fit and firing then

hopefully tomorrow will meander aimlessly to yet another draw. I doubt I could cope with Alex Lees telling his teammates that they can chase down 350 in 2 and a half sessions, as long as they charge at the bowlers every ball and throw everything at it..... 'it works, man, I'm telling you'

[Durhamfootman]

[captaincolly]

the bowling has been criticised this year for only taking 2 or 3 wickets on the final day in a few of the matches. We'll find out what our batters are made of tomorrow after watching Leics, Worcs et al batting with no alarms for hour after hour on day 4.

we did it at Hove, of course, but Dickson was fit and firing then

hopefully tomorrow will meander aimlessly to yet another draw. I doubt I could cope with Alex Lees telling his teammates that they can chase down 350 in 2 and a half sessions, as long as they charge at the bowlers every ball and throw everything at it..... 'it works, man, I'm telling you'

Yes, it'll be interesting to see if Derbyshire dangle a carrot but this is the kind of pitch where a solid start against the new ball is essential. If only we hadn't gifted those wickets yesterday.

[Durhamfootman]

we've been wishing that all season

[Durhamfootman]

Harmy was defending the Key policy of preparing batter friendly wickets (except at Cheltenham, of course) and he was asked about whether the Riverside snore draw pitches were good for the spectators. He acknowledged that it wasn't ideal, but noted that the square had been relaid again and said that the club knew that this was likely to be the result for a couple of years while everything bedded in. I might rebook my membership for 2024 then, because the entertainment value this year has been as poor as I can remember

Chelmsford, of course... not Cheltenham

[westoelad]

Harmy was defending the Key policy of preparing batter friendly wickets (except at Cheltenham, of course) and he was asked about whether the Riverside snore draw pitches were good for the spectators. He acknowledged that it wasn't ideal, but noted that the square had been relaid again and said that the club knew that this was likely to be the result for a couple of years while everything bedded in. I might rebook my membership for 2024 then, because the entertainment value this year has been as poor as I can remember

Chelmsford, of course... not Cheltenham

You're having a 'mare DF. ESSEX play at Chelmsford and Key's allegiance is to KENT.

[Durhamfootman]

I was referring to Rob Key the Director, WL. He's the one who asked the counties to prepare batter friendly pitches. I mentioned Chelmsford (eventually) because Essex have reverted to type after a slow start to the season. Their first 3 home matches were high scoring snore draws and they were languishing in the bottom half of the table. For the last 2 home games they've gone back to preparing the Harmer friendly pitches that won them 2 of the last 3 county championships, won them both in a little over 2 days and are flying back up the table

Rob Key can ask for whatever he wants, but Essex ain't going to risk relegation for anyone. Kent in their loyalty to Key have been stuck with a string of 500 plays 600 draws and are at real risk of relegation... Darren Stevens couldn't buy a wicket and now can't get a game.

I'm not criticising Key, btw... I rather suspect that he's right and as well as batters having time in the short term to score heavily and develop their skills with England in mind, eventually counties will have to find fast bowlers with the pace to extract something out of these pitches, but also get more spinners into more games in the hunt for elusive wickets. Surrey and some of the other big boys will just buy the personnel they need (Warks have already started), but non test ground counties will have to develop them..... Surrey can poach them later

[Durhamfootman]

From a Durham perspective, we've already seen that Rushy and Raine, worthy cricketers though they are, accurate though they are with boatloads of experience and skill, just haven't got the pace on these pitches and with these rubbish balls to be anything like as prolific as they have been in recent years. And they're getting a bit long in the tooth to keep running in hard for hour after hour, day after day. The players we have who can do that have been snaffled away and if things go as well as I hope they do, are unlikely to be back much moving forward. In the meantime we can't win games, because we can't take 20 wickets. Eventually though, we'll develop new quick bowlers, of that I have no doubt. Can we develop the next generation of spin bowlers? That's harder because we have no track record of producing any and I doubt we have good mentors and coaches to bring them on, but maybe.... Trev is playing every match now which would never have happened in previous years. If we any have sense at all we'll try to get 2 spinners in the side working in tandem later in the season, especially now that our div 2 status is safe for another year and next year we can try to sign a good spinner from somewhere else who can help the team and work with young players and help them develop their skills and their bowling brains


or............

we can sign another couple of top order batsmen and stay in div 2 next year as well

I'm sure you can guess what my money will be on

[captaincolly]

From a Durham perspective, we've already seen that Rushy and Raine, worthy cricketers though they are, accurate though they are with boatloads of experience and skill, just haven't got the pace on these pitches and with these rubbish balls to be anything like as prolific as they have been in recent years. And they're getting a bit long in the tooth to keep running in hard for hour after hour, day after day. The players we have who can do that have been snaffled away and if things go as well as I hope they do, are unlikely to be back much moving forward. In the meantime we can't win games, because we can't take 20 wickets. Eventually though, we'll develop new quick bowlers, of that I have no doubt. Can we develop the next generation of spin bowlers? That's harder because we have no track record of producing any and I doubt we have good mentors and coaches to bring them on, but maybe.... Trev is playing every match now which would never have happened in previous years. If we any have sense at all we'll try to get 2 spinners in the side working in tandem later in the season, especially now that our div 2 status is safe for another year and next year we can try to sign a good spinner from somewhere else who can help the team and work with young players and help them develop their skills and their bowling brains


or............

we can sign another couple of top order batsmen and stay in div 2 next year as well

I'm sure you can guess what my money will be on

Borthwick's close of play interview with Martin Emmerson was a good one. He decided to bowl first because he thought our best chance to win was chasing a target as opposed to bowling the opposition out on the last day.

[Durhamfootman]

the England philosophy

hey... it might work

[captaincolly]

the England philosophy

hey... it might work

Yes, quite a revealing interview because he pretty much said our attack can't take 20 wickets in these conditions.
Assuming there's no overnight declaration- would be a surprise if there is - we'll have around 2 and a half sessions to win/draw. It surely shouldn't be beyond us to at least get a draw but I'm not confident!

[captaincolly]

The sun has gone in! Let's hope it's back out when we bat.

[Durhamfootman]

collapse has begun

[Durhamfootman]

day after day the ball hasn't done a thing outside of the first 20 overs, yet we are somehow contriving to lose wickets. A run out the latest example

oh and another straight after, so we are 6 down with 30 overs still left in the day

I think Borthwick has the answers to his 4th day question

we can't take their wickets and we can't keep our wickets on the final day.... must be the pitch.... or the ball..... or something

[Durhamfootman]

we are relying on the new keeper and the bowlers to get us out of jail..... again. There will be no handshakes in this one

hopeless