Leave the lad alone, he's played sone lovely shots. I hope he takes the time he needs to get a decent score, he needs one this season!
Surely the clue is in all the scores in the game so far. Taking some time out of the match could prove a match winning innings.
He needs to get his head down and grind out a decent score. I hope he’s still batting tomorrow afternoon and we can declare once he has his century, with a lead of 450
it didn't to me. I understand what you meant. Grinding their bowlers down and hopefully a 200+ run lead by close with 2 days still remaining.
Yeah hopefully. And even though these and Worcester are the poorest two in the Division so far, its good to see us competing and looking to win matches.
One remarkable statistic in our second innings is that Essex have bowled 49 overs and not conceded a single extra. All 114 runs have come from the bat. Slow going but sometimes that’s what is needed. Grind the opposition down and demoralise them. Only then start throwing the bat to pile on a big lead.
No it isn’t and neither does it need to be. But at the time I wrote that he was on about 6!or 7 from 50 ish balls - and he scored 19 from a knock of 93 balls. 80 dot balls from 93 faced isn’t going to win many games of cricket. (Though we should convert this game from here). There’s nothing wrong with defending a good ball - but look to be positive not passive. The lad is out of form and I’m not advocating him trying to blast his way out of it - but he isn’t going to hit form scratching around for about 20 from 100 balls. If he can start to dig in and contribute ugly 40s and 50s fair enough - but there’s nothing of value coming from his bat currently.
Helen at the time I wrote that he had made I think three or four scoring shots from fifty balls. He hadn’t played ‘some’ lovely shots at that point. He went on to scratch 19 from 93. There’s an argument for holding an end up when trying to save a game but in a low scoring encounter batting third with a decent lead, an innings like his serves little purpose other than take time out of the game which wasn’t needed. We aren’t under pressure to set a score and declare yes so a bit of time in the middle won’t hurt much but it was turgid, it really was. I like the lad but you can’t have an opening bat just blocking like a number eleven. I know it’s red ball cricket - that’s the only form I really have that much interest in tbh - but that doesn’t mean you have to deadbat everything and be brigadier block. There’s a game to win - and in the bigger picture a pure form of cricket to sell both to supporters and future players of the game. The pitch isn’t the easiest to score on this week I’ll grant but the lad is eight knocks into the season, is averaging under 15 and at a seasonal strike rate of under 33%. He needs a knock, and soon, as otherwise he can’t be justified keeping his place. I don’t know if it might be worth giving him the gloves and batting him lower - hopefully build some confidence and get him contributing in another way. The first eleven isn’t short of keepers currently is it?
