County Season 2012 (II)

Pears 295/8

Mitchell 129*

Moeen 0: If he ever harboured thoughts of playing for England, he can surely kiss them goodbye after this season. Apart from his obvious lack of application, some blame must be layed at Bumpy's door for trying to turn him into a frontline spinner.

beamer wrote:

tricycle wrote:DId Kent's loss to Unicorns cost them a place in the semis? Also heard that Key's century against Yorkshire was his first in 4 years.

Well, first in one-day cricket for 4 years anyway... remember when Blobert was the future of English batting?

I take it Trev did for him.

GACH! - No play before lunch for a second day running at Aigburth.

Is this a blessing in disguise for Red Rose fans? (There is only so much punishment etc)

See KP got over half of Surrey's runs(163 / 317) on a toughie. Oo err.

Somerset getting royally shirty after Murali Kartik "Mankaded" Alex Barrow and cap'n Gazza Batty upheld the appeal.

Kartik says he warned Barrow a couple of times and is unrepentant.

Cheers D. Just saw the article and wondered whether prior warnings were given.

Seems like Kartik was in prick mood yesterday, but I can't buy this spirit of the game argument with such appeals. How is it in the spirit of the game to run half the length of the pitch when the ball is not yet bowled?

Aye, I tend to agree on that one, t.

HTF is Anthony Ireland playing FC cricket?

Colly scores a century.

England looking to shore up the Test lower middle order, and have a dobber-plus relief option in the bowling? Look no further!

Mind you, it was only v Lancs (on their way to the liftshaft ..)!

Seems everyone was desperate to shove him out of the door towards the end, just waiting for that series in which he didn't scrap out a career-saving century, and it came in the 10-11 Ashes when everyone else performed so well there was no problem with moving on... well for all the moving on in favour of more talented young batsmen we haven't sorted out the number 6 slot since, and now there's potentially three vacancies in the batting line-up after having a settled top six.

And his one-day career was unceremoniously ended one short of being the first Englishman to 200. Still think he was an undervalued player in all formats really.

I think so too (though obv joking in suggesting a recall at this stage).

But he did sort of founder in his innings at that time, so it would have been a question of backing quality (and grit) over repeat (rather poor) form to keep him in, I guess.

It's the sudden, peremptory axeing (of a still now current T20 World Champ skipper!) which seemed so badly handled at the time.

PeterCS wrote:I think so too (though obv joking in suggesting a recall at this stage).

But he did sort of founder in his innings at that time, so it would have been a question of backing quality (and grit) over repeat (rather poor) form to keep him in, I guess.

It's the sudden, peremptory axeing (of a still now current T20 World Champ skipper!) which seemed so badly handled at the time.

Yeah, we could have treated him a bit better in terms of white ball cricket. Always an "unfashionable" player who made the most of what he had - averaged 40 in Tests despite a poor finish to his career (something a few notable names of the previous decade didn't manage, though admittedly they had better bowlers to face), probably won/saved more Tests than Ian Bell has, and let's not forget, one of the best fielders we've ever had.

Indeed. We could have done with his catching and returning alone in this year's Tests!

Mind you, he might have had to bat at about 9 - with our long batting line-up, like!

Well that was a gash finish by Sussex.

Remember that time the mighty Derbyshire were top with 2 games to go?

tricycle wrote:Well that was a gash finish by Sussex.

Great binary scorecard, full of 0s, 1s and 10s!

Looks like easy wins for Hampshire and Warwickshire anyway.

Nice, didn't notice that.

Warks walking it to the title.

Have rapidly overhauled Baz's Pears' 60 ao - without loss.

Glos in deep doo-doo. Northants bowlers pulverise the first 8 bats (yet again).

Glos finished off. 220 ao.

What a flucking joke - we are going down without even a whimper

I was 12 when we last made such a low score in the championship. It's beyond shoite!

Varun Chopra a shot at England's free opening slot? Another solid season, 25, plays for Gilo's lot - seems like it's all in his favour to be a long term option up top.

Only ever seen him play one-day stuff and can't say he struck me as looking anything special, but I know he got the rave reviews as an England u19 back in the day and has been a bit of a late bloomer.

Anyone rate him?