Essex Outfielder : The Unofficial Essex CCC Forum

Cricket => Essex Eagles T20 => Topic started by: dazedpenguin on May 29, 2023, 05:50:26 PM

Title: Gloucestershire (H)
Post by: dazedpenguin on May 29, 2023, 05:50:26 PM
It's that time again.

Squad: (surprised there's no Richards). Lawrence off with England which weakens the batting and the bowling options (it may be eccentric, but his bowling is effective in T20):

Harmer, Allison, Cook, Critchley, Das, Khushi, Nijjar, Pepper, Sams, Snater, Rossington, Walter, Westley

Westley is in good form this season so that might carry over to T20, but I'd choose: Pepper, Rossington, Das, Critchley, Walter, Khushi, Sams, Harmer, Allison, Snater, Cook.

Grant Roelofsen is in the Gloucestershire squad.
Title: Re: Gloucestershire (H)
Post by: JasonP on May 29, 2023, 06:07:23 PM
Richards figures in the T20 2XI matches this year
4.0.63.0
4.0.52.2
2.0.39.1
2.0.31.0

Not that surprising he’s not in the squad.
Title: Re: Gloucestershire (H)
Post by: Perov on May 29, 2023, 06:11:44 PM
I think Nijjar in for Snater would be my only change. I agree that Richards leaks runs. Allison hit 100 of 53 balls today at Hampshire and  clubbed 7 sixes, and deserves a chance.
Title: Re: Gloucestershire (H)
Post by: nat on May 29, 2023, 06:32:11 PM
Richards figures in the T20 2XI matches this year
4.0.63.0
4.0.52.2
2.0.39.1
2.0.31.0

Not that surprising he’s not in the squad.

It's surprising he makes the 2XI squad.
Title: Re: Gloucestershire (H)
Post by: dazedpenguin on May 29, 2023, 07:29:33 PM
Players do get better as they get more experience. But let’s stick with the relentless negativity.

I wasn’t suggesting he should walk into the team. None of the seamers, Cook excepted, covered themselves in glory last season.
Title: Re: Gloucestershire (H)
Post by: Caughtright on May 29, 2023, 09:04:02 PM
I acknowledge that it was not T20, but Richards took a fifer on his first class debut for us, against what is nowadays a Test-playing nation.
Title: Re: Gloucestershire (H)
Post by: SirChef26 on May 29, 2023, 10:54:31 PM
This will be the team

Rossington
Khushi
Pepper
Critchley
Walter
Sams
Harmer
Nijar
Allison
Cook
Westley (will float depending on the match situation, e.g if we lose two early wickets in the PP he'll come in).

Same team as 2022 and it'll be the same outcome. It's a decent side and we may have enough to sneak through the group, but then we'll come up against a Lancs/Bears/Notts away in the quarters and get smashed. In order to take the next step, we needed a world class overseas (either frontline bowler or opener) but decided to keep Sams which was a big mistake. They'll never replace Ravi no matter how much they keep trying.

Lawrence being unavailable is a real pain as I suspect/hoped he'd have opened with Rossington. The most important part of T20 cricket is the powerplay and not having a proven/settled opening pair will hurt us across the comp as it did last year, unless Khushi surprises us all and has a Pepper-like breakthrough, which I can't see as he lacks the raw hitting power you need to open effectively in T20 cricket.

Finally, he's not been mentioned on the thread, but Beard will be missed as well. He's no world-beater, but a decent T20 bowler who did alright last year. Certainly better than Allison, who leaks runs like a sieve.
Title: Re: Gloucestershire (H)
Post by: Perov on May 30, 2023, 08:39:27 AM
At least the game is on You Tube, although on the downside,  Simon Ward is the commentator. 
Title: Re: Gloucestershire (H)
Post by: Andy on May 30, 2023, 10:01:29 AM
At least the game is on You Tube, although on the downside,  Simon Ward is the commentator.

He died a few years ago? Excellent performance in Young Winston.
Title: Re: Gloucestershire (H)
Post by: bwildered on May 30, 2023, 11:06:13 AM
 Mark Adair looked useful the other day, certainly had a good eye, worth T20 rookie contract .
Title: Re: Gloucestershire (H)
Post by: JasonP on May 30, 2023, 12:28:59 PM
Mark Adair looked useful the other day, certainly had a good eye, worth T20 rookie contract .

Irish players count as overseas players since they got Test status so no chance of that happening.
Title: Re: Gloucestershire (H)
Post by: Perov on May 30, 2023, 02:26:46 PM

Mark Adair looked useful the other day, certainly had a good eye, worth T20 rookie contract .

Irish players count as overseas players since they got Test status so no chance of that happening.

I'm sure you are right Jason, which throws into question, how were we able to field 4 overseas players when the limit is 2?
Title: Re: Gloucestershire (H)
Post by: JasonP on May 30, 2023, 02:47:38 PM

Mark Adair looked useful the other day, certainly had a good eye, worth T20 rookie contract .

Irish players count as overseas players since they got Test status so no chance of that happening.

I'm sure you are right Jason, which throws into question, how were we able to field 4 overseas players when the limit is 2?

It was a tour match so they can play who they like, I guess?  There probably isn't a limit of 2 for those games.
Title: Re: Gloucestershire (H)
Post by: dazedpenguin on May 30, 2023, 04:50:14 PM
Essex won the toss and will bowl first. Nijjar and Pepper left out (Pepper as precaution due to a minor injury he got playing in a game last week). A big blow missing both Pepper and Lawrence.

Rossington, Khushi, Das, Critchley, Walter, Westley, Sams, Harmer, Snater, Allison, Cook
Title: Re: Gloucestershire (H)
Post by: dazedpenguin on May 30, 2023, 05:06:59 PM
The YouTube feed appears to be down. At least the audio commentary is working.
Title: Re: Gloucestershire (H)
Post by: nat on May 30, 2023, 06:15:19 PM
It 's like Marchant De Lange is playing in his back garden. Love him. Box office.
Title: Re: Gloucestershire (H)
Post by: dazedpenguin on May 30, 2023, 07:16:34 PM
Fantastic innings by Das. Great to watch.
Title: Re: Gloucestershire (H)
Post by: Gilders on May 30, 2023, 08:06:41 PM
Good to get over the line in the end. 

Too many wickets given away from unnecessary big shots late in the innings when we were already well up on run rate and the only way we could lose was being bowled out.

But a win is a win.

Is Pepper injured and if so, does it look short or long term?

Assume Lawrence absence was because he is in the England squad?  Does he get released and become immediately available if he is left out of the starting XI by England or does he have to stay with them and carry drinks?
Title: Re: Gloucestershire (H)
Post by: dazedpenguin on May 30, 2023, 08:27:06 PM
Westley in the finisher role could work well this season. Last season Essex would probably have lost that. Interesting to see who drops out with Lawrence and Pepper back.

Pepper was left out as a precaution apparently, so I think it's short term.

I guess they'll keep Lawrence with the squad until Thursday and then let him go. It'll probably be some Middlesex or Lord's ground staff players doing the 12th man duties. So he should be available for the Sussex game on Thursday.
Title: Re: Gloucestershire (H)
Post by: SirChef26 on May 30, 2023, 08:47:08 PM
Westley in the finisher role could work well this season. Last season Essex would probably have lost that. Interesting to see who drops out with Lawrence and Pepper back.
I was getting annoyed at Westley initially because him scratching around was putting pressure on us and Gloucs were getting right back into it. But he had the 15th over to compose himself at the non strikers end, then took 16 of the 16th over, which effectively won us the match.

Bar the wickets, that was a well-managed chase to be fair. We got ahead of the rate early on and never let it slip. Not at any point did we need 10 an over, which is impressive when chasing a score just south of 200. Das rode his luck at times and needs to develop some more muscle in order to start hitting those short balls from the spinners for six. But a good knock.
Title: Re: Gloucestershire (H)
Post by: bwildered on May 31, 2023, 07:49:09 AM
 On the pitch a wins a win.
 
But when the non members pay wall is in place, refunds would be required. Big countdown twice and no pics with eventually constant rebuffering and out of focus stream . A unimpressive production due to hard/software problems.
Title: Re: Gloucestershire (H)
Post by: dazedpenguin on May 31, 2023, 07:59:22 AM
It was shockingly poor. I know the funds aren't there to compete with the quality of streams that some other counties can offer, but they could save some money by just taking the BBC audio stream, as with the county championship stream, rather than trying to provide separate commentary. If it's going to end up behind a paywall, then it does need to be a lot better quality- and more reliable.
Title: Re: Gloucestershire (H)
Post by: mawallace on May 31, 2023, 09:11:52 AM
It was shockingly poor. I know the funds aren't there to compete with the quality of streams that some other counties can offer, but they could save some money by just taking the BBC audio stream, as with the county championship stream, rather than trying to provide separate commentary. If it's going to end up behind a paywall, then it needs to be a lot better quality- and more reliable.
Just as play started last night parts of the ground suffered a power outage. This meant that the entire site's internet and computer network crashed and had to be rebooted. It also meant that the electronic ticket system did not work, the bars etc could not take credit cards etc etc.

I think it was about 20 mins before they could start things up again. Meanwhile, we had play with no scoreboard. It was good to hear Tony manually announce the scores at the end of each over though .

EVen when the scoreboard came up it was slow. I noticed during the Essex innings there was someone (I think it was the third umpire) operating a manual scoreboard and updating it at the end of every delviaery - bit like the Colchester days.


Title: Re: Gloucestershire (H)
Post by: mawallace on May 31, 2023, 09:14:18 AM
Westley in the finisher role could work well this season. Last season Essex would probably have lost that. Interesting to see who drops out with Lawrence and Pepper back.

Pepper was left out as a precaution apparently, so I think it's short term.

I guess they'll keep Lawrence with the squad until Thursday and then let him go. It'll probably be some Middlesex or Lord's ground staff players doing the 12th man duties. So he should be available for the Sussex game on Thursday.

It was a good win and a good match. But the opposition's fielding was awful.  11 extras and several missed catches - including two which were knocked into the boundary