Durham match thread 2023

[Durhamfootman]

I don't think Leics will chase it, so we might as well give ourselves as much chance as possible.

feed Pottsy some shredded wheat or something

[captaincolly]

My concern is the conditions and- even with Potts - a weakened attack. Their famous win at Headingley at the start of the season was a 4th innings chase- looked it up and they got 392 in 86 overs. I might be being overly pessimistic because I am not confident we can get 10 wickets in a day so it's one occasion where I'd bat them out of it, take the points ...and hope they somehow self destruct in 2 and a bit sessions.

[KingOttis]

[quote="captaincolly"]My concern is the conditions and- even with Potts - a weakened attack. Their famous win at Headingley at the start of the season was a 4th innings chase- looked it up and they got 392 in 86 overs. I might be being overly pessimistic because I am not confident we can get 10 wickets in a day so it's one occasion where I'd bat them out of it, take the points ...and hope they somehow self destruct in 2 and a bit sessions.[/quote

I agree. I'd bat on for half an hour or so, try to get a 450 lead, and then have a go at them. No need to risk defeat given our position, and some hefty fourth innings chases this season.

[Durhamfootman]

I have a lot of sympathy with both of you, but our philosophy this year is all out, risk losing in order to win, no playing for draws

It's scary, but we are a much better team this season for this new approach, so I guess we have to roll with it. Weather forecast might make the whole thing moot anyway. I think they'll declare, especially if there is the chance of weather to shorten the day. It might also spice the pitch up a bit too... and they have a long tail..... and we have Potts to rough up the top order.... and there's no Rehan to add batting depth. We'll go for it, I'm sure


eek!

[Durhamfootman]

and I think the other match situations will encourage us too. Even if we did lose we'd probably still have a 20 point cushion at the top, because we garner so many bonus points in our games

I think it's great.... scary at times, but great!

[captaincolly]

I have a lot of sympathy with both of you, but our philosophy this year is all out, risk losing in order to win, no playing for draws

It's scary, but we are a much better team this season for this new approach, so I guess we have to roll with it. Weather forecast might make the whole thing moot anyway. I think they'll declare, especially if there is the chance of weather to shorten the day. It might also spice the pitch up a bit too... and they have a long tail..... and we have Potts to rough up the top order.... and there's no Rehan to add batting depth. We'll go for it, I'm sure


eek!

Yes, I think they will declare overnight. I would not do it but as you say , the new aggressive approach has worked wonders so far so they won't change the approach.
Need to tighten up the bowling with regards to extras though - we seem to have a habit of gifting runs that way -45 extras in the first innings and 30 from no balls, without those extra runs we'd not need any debates about the timing of the declarations.

[KingOttis]

I have a lot of sympathy with both of you, but our philosophy this year is all out, risk losing in order to win, no playing for draws

It's scary, but we are a much better team this season for this new approach, so I guess we have to roll with it. Weather forecast might make the whole thing moot anyway. I think they'll declare, especially if there is the chance of weather to shorten the day. It might also spice the pitch up a bit too... and they have a long tail..... and we have Potts to rough up the top order.... and there's no Rehan to add batting depth. We'll go for it, I'm sure


eek!

True enough - we have been loads better with this approach. I'm channelling too much of my inner Alastair Cook instead of my inner Ben Stokes!

[Durhamfootman]

and so to confoud us all, they came back out and pushed the target up to 440, so I guess the short boundary must have been on their mind

Ben Raine demolishes the top order quickly, but it's these next 3 we will have to work to get

[Arthur Crabtree]

What the hell is Potts doing out there?!

[Durhamfootman]

released by England... surplus to requirements

[Durhamfootman]

2 wickets left to get

Lokking around the grounds, I reckon that if we win we'll have something like a 47 point gap at the top of div 2. I think that's right. Glammy are the only team likely to win and they only picked up 3 bowling points so adding 19 points to their total puts them on 95. we could be on 142 by tonight. Even if the light fails us we'd be on 131 for a 36 point lead

I think that's right.

I was sure Leics wouldn't go for it.

[Durhamfootman]

we're not shifting them

still need 2 wickets and presumably time is running out. We needed that extra half hour or so this morning and that would have given us a new ball as well. The delay for light has cost us a few overs as well

I'm assuming that we're coming to the end of the last hour of play, unless that got shifted with the light delay, so I'm not hopeful

[Durhamfootman]

wait a minute, it seems we're off for light again. If we come back out there'll be 6 overs left

although on final days, I have no idea if any of these things count

[Durhamfootman]

it also looks like we've been having to bowl spin at the end, so far from ideal

[Durhamfootman]

draw

6 overs not bowled

could have used those extra overs this morning, but there you go...... draws in all games means our lead has increased. 36 points clear

I hope we didn't put Handscomb down at any stage