Quarter Finals!

Match 1: Middlesex Panthers vs Leicestershire Foxes

Pitch: A batting paradise where the bowlers will be looking at damage limitation rather than taking wickets. This match is likely to be one where both sides score over 200.

Match 2: Worcestershire Royals vs Somerset CC

Pitch: Hard and fast, this will suit pace bowlers throughout. In the second innings the pitch might begin to spin a bit more. Batsmen who can chance their arm might win the game here.

Match 3: Hampshire Royals vs Yorkshire Carnegie

Pitch: The baking heat has caused the Aegis Bowl to turn into the Dust Bowl! Lots of spin throughout as well as a lightening quick outfield will turn this into a titanic battle between batsmen and spin bowlers.

Match 4: Nottinghamshire Outlaws vs Sussex Sharks

Pitch: Although the humidity and temperature is high clouds have come over Trent Bridge which should present some swing to the bowlers early on. The clouds are however predicted to clear at some point which could give a huge advantage to winning the toss if the side has bowlers who can take advantage.

OMG the quarters are here!

Hampshire Royals vs Yorkshire Carnegie
Injuries: Andrew McDonald and Michael Carberry

Starting XI:
1. Graeme Smith - Overseas/Captain
2. Jimmy Adams
3. Michael Clarke - Overseas
4. Umar Akmal - Overseas/U25/Wicket Keeper
5. Ravi Bopara
6. James Vince - U25
7. Steve Smith - Overseas/U25
8. Dimitri Mascarenhas
9. Zaheer Khan - Overseas
10. Danny Briggs - U25
11. Nayan Doshi

Toss: We will bowl first, as we have the batting to chase any score and the bowling to restrict them to a low total.

Bowling Tactics:
Zaheer - Overs 1,3,18,20.
Doshi - Overs 2,4,6,8.
Briggs - Overs 5,7,9,11.
Smith - Overs 10,12,14,16.
Mascarenhas - Overs 13,15,17,19.

Zaheer - Open the bowling and look to take wickets early on. At the death bowl yorkers and cutters, take advantage of the pitch.
Doshi - Opening with you. Look to get early wickets. If you can pick up 2 or 3 early on we will be in a really strong position.
Briggs - This pitch is made for you. Look to bowl aggressively and pick up wickets. You can win us the game by yourself today.
Smith - This is a spinners wicket and you have been bought in to the team to bowl today. Look to keep it tight and pick up a wicket or two.
Mascarenhas - Bowling at the death, look to bowl lots of cutters and slower balls. You are one of the best in the world at this.

Batting tactics:
Smith and Adams: Smith you play through the innings and look to score quickly. Adams get us off to that flying start we need to get ahead of the run rate.
Clarke and Akmal: You two are great players of spin, so look to win us the game today. Both take your time to get in, and when in cash in on a pitch that suits your style of batting.
Bopara and Vince: If you two get in, take a couple of ball to get your eye in, and then look to hit boundaries and keep the scoreboard ticking over.
Smith and Mascarenhas: You two come in and hit the boundaries at the end of the innings. Finish with a real bang, hit those sixes we know you can.
Zaheer, Doshi and Briggs: If you get in, just see ball hit ball. Simples.

Middlesex team to face Leicester

No	Player	Ave	SR	Bowling Ave	Econ
1	Martin Guptil (o,u25)	36.78	132.02	-	9.50
2	Shane Watson (o)	31.29	144.84	24.75	7.28
3	Brendon McCullum (o)	32.55	137.24	-	-
4	Dawid Malan (u25)	32.15	118.00	23.00	6.90
5	Eoin Morgan (u25)	26.33	130.64	-	-
6	Yuvraj Singh (o)	26.98	133.93	23.07	7.21
7	James Foster (,wk)	21.56	132.90	-	-
8	Daniel Vettori (o,c)	19.40	122.87	21.16	6.25
9	Jack Brooks	14.75	134.09	30.15	6.93
10	Steven Finn (u25)	9.00	90.00	25.76	7.54
11	Boyd Rankin	8.00	84.21	16.25	5.41

James Foster comes in for the injured Darren Maddy, and takes the keeping gloves.

Toss: Bat first and aim for a mammoth score, then rely on putting pressure on.

Batting: A lineup full of international stars has a licence on this pitch to go ballistic. Watson, Guptil and McCullum are tasked with taking maximum toll in the powerplay overs, with Malan there to either steady in the unlikely event of early wickets, and to rotate the strike for the hitters through - though he's a pretty quick scorer himself. All of the top 3 are capable of batting through an innings at a fast clip.

Morgan and Yuvraj should come to the fore in the later stages, backed up by Foster, Vettori and Brooks.

Bowling: It's likely to be a tough day for all the bowlers, but we have both strike power, accuracy and variation in the lineup. Finn and Rankin open up in the powerplay, with Finn trying to take a wicket or 2, and Rankin using is steepling bounce off a length to contain. Watson and Brooks come in at the end of the powerplay, Watson with his variations and Brooks with accuracy. After the powerplay Vettori takes up the attack, his mastery of varied pace and flight could be a key to slowing the Foxes' charge. Yuvraj bowls an over of his left arm for variety, allowing a "spare" over for Brooks should Watson or Rankin be having a 'mare at the death.

Steven Finn (4 overs 1,3,9,11)
Boyd Rankin (4 overs 2,4,18,20)
Shane Watson (3 overs 6,15,17,19)
Jack Brooks (3 overs 5,7,13)
Daniel Vettori (4 overs 8,10,14,16)
Yuvraj Singh (1 overs 12)

I'm off to the South of France tomorrow for 5 days, so almost certainly won't be able to vote (unless I magically find a wi-fi connection) before Tuesday evening.

Somerset Vs Worcestershire

Toss - Bat - We have Batsmen who like facing pace bowling so use that and get off to a good start then hopefully use spinners later on to clamp down Worcestershire when chasing a bit total.

Batting Order:

1) Trescothick (C)
2) Gayle
3) Hildreth
4) Kieswetter (W)
5) Van der Merwe
6) Buttler
7) Morkel
8) Gregory
9) Thomas
10) Dockrell
11) Muralitharan

Overseas: Gayle, Van der Merwe, Muralitharan, Morkel
U25: Gregory, Dockrell, Buttler, Kieswetter

Gone for a mixture of Seam and Spin with 3 main options of each

Morkel - 1, 3, 14, 16
Thomas - 2, 4, 18, 20
Gregory - 5, 9, 13, 15
Dockrell - 6, 8, 10, 12
Muralitharan - 7, 11, 17, 19
VDM - to be used if any of the above bowler are got after.

Batting plan:

Explosive start from the openers, Hildreth in the side instead of Trott as he can play the same role but with a better strike rate, Kieswetter, Van der Merwe, Buttler and Morkel mean there is great depth to this batting line up should worcester get a couple of wickets and gregory at 8 can bat pretty well as well.

Worcestershire Royals (on behalf of Mat) vs Somerset CC

1) Kevin Pietersen
2) Upul Tharanga
3) Hashim Amla
4) Adam Lyth
5) Vikram Solanki
6) Shakib Al Hasan
7) Dan Christian
8) Gary Wilson
9) Junaid Khan
10) Azeem Rafiq
11) Stuart Meaker

Toss: Bat first

Bowling tactics:

Meaker(1,3,10,12)
J.Khan(2,4,18,20)
Christian(5,7,17,19)
Rafiq(9,11,13,15)
Shakib(6,8,14,16)

I'll endeavour to do this tonight. If not, is it OK to do it in the next couple of days?

That's fine Shelsey, I want all tactics up by midnight Sunday

Nottinghamshire Vs Sussex

Alex Hales
Michael Lumb
David Warner
Ab De Villiers
James Taylor
Morne van Wyk
Samit Patel
Graeme Swann
Stuart Broad
Pat Cummins
Lasith Malinga

Toss: Bowl first, take advantage of the swinging conditions.

Bowling: Malinga and Cummins to open up, with Malinga only bowling one over before being replaced by Broad. The seamers will look to bowl the first 6 between them, but can bowl more if only wickets go down and we want to keep the pressure on. Samit and Swanny can bowl in the middle overs with Samit rattling through his overs quickly to put pressure on, and Swann bowling threateningly. May use Malinga for a burst in the middle of Kohli is still in so not to let him get in a rythmn against his favoured spin bowling. Malinga, Cummins and Broad to return at the death.

Malinga - 1, 11, 18, 20
Cummins - 2, 4, 6, 12
Broad - 3, 5, 17, 19
Patel - 7, 9, 13, 15
Swann - 8, 10, 14, 16

Batting: Lumb and Hales open as they are both English and have played in swinging conditions many times before so will be used to it and can see of the new, swinging ball whilst scoring quick by punishing bad balls and setting a platform. Once the shine is removed, by destructive middle order of Warner, ABDV and Van Wyk can lash it everywhere with Taylor in the middle to rotate the strike and put the bigger hitter on strike. Then even Patel, Swann and Broad can bash it everywhere as well if it is needed later on,

Sussex Sharks Tactics v Nottinghamshire Outlaws

1 Chris Nash
2 Luke Wright
3 Virat Kohli (c)
4 Matt Prior (wk)
5 Scott Styris
6 Andre Russell
7 Ben Brown
8 Michael Yardy (c)R
9 Dale Steyn
10 Clint McKay
11 Reece Topley

Overseas (5): Kohli, Styris, Russell, Steyn, McKay
U25 (4): Kohli, Russell, Brown, Topley

Toss: Bowl First. Steyn and McKay will be dynamite in swinging conditions

Bowling Tactics: If we bowl first we'll bowl mainly seam. Steyn and McKay are two of the best in the world in English conditions, whilst Topley was one of the best bowlers in this year's FL t20 and showed he can cope with big matches by taking wickets in the quarter-finals. Russell's pretty good too, whilst Styris can swing it under cloud cover

Steyn - 1, 3, 18, 20
McKay - 2, 4, 6, 19
Topley - 5, 7, 9, 17
Russell - 8, 13, 15
Yardy - 10, 12, 14
Styris - 11, 16

If we bowl second I might not bother with Styris, and instead Yardy will bowl out.

Batting Tactics: Nash and Wright are experienced in English conditions, but Wright will be given license to go after the bowlers, including Malinga. Kohli has recently scored lots of runs in a series against SL where Malinga played, and I'm confident that he can master him and play the big innings on the big occasion. Prior and Styris play only one way in Twenty20. Styris's form in quarter-finals is ominous, hence his selection after a long spell on the sidelines. Russell, Brown and the rest also hit.

I think we are great in the field. Only Styris and Yardy are slow, whilst Prior is a good keeper and Russell, Kohli and Wright can be dynamic.

Leicestershire Tactics vs. Middlesex

1)K. Sangakkara
2)G. Gambhir
3)K. O’Brien
4)S. Raina
5)A. Razzaq
6)J. Allenby
7)P. Trego
8)C. Henderson
9)S. Ajmal
10)C. Langeveldt
11)C. Tremlett

Toss – Bowl, rely on the misers I’ve selected to restrict The Panthers and then let my long order blast away at the total.

Bowling

Razzaq – 2,4,18,20 (4)
Allenby – 8,10,12 (3)
Trego – 11, 14, 16 (3)
Henderson – 5,7,9 (3)
Ajmal – 13,15,17,19 (4)
Langeveldt -6 (1)
Tremlett – 1,3 (2)

We’re relying on variation to restrict Middlesex’ top batting order here. Razzaq is known for his miserly bowling and array of variations, as is Ajmal who will be able to extract wickets out of such a batting friendly pitch. Tremlett will bowl 2 early doors to extract any life out of the pitch with the new, hard ball, but will look to vary between block hole Yorkers and crunching bouncers to keep Watson and Guptill guessing. Allenby and Langeveldt offer experienced medium pace, on a pitch where being able to mix up the pace is essential, Trego will be able to pinch a couple of wickets, while Henderson is one of the most miserly and successful t20 bowlers there is.

Batting

It’s felt that an anchor is needed for the chase and Gambhir is that man, as he can marshall the strike at one end but can also score quickly if there is a big total to be chased. Sanga can perform the same innings but with Gambhir there with him, he’ll be able to play a bit more expansively. KOB and Raina know where the boundary is and are capable of big innings, whilst Abdul Razzaq can play the role of game changer and finisher depending on the situation – if he gets going, then he may be the reason The Foxes make the semi’s. Allenby and Trego are also canny operators with the bat.

Sorry for the delay!

Yorkshire Tactics

V.Sehwag
J.Denly
R.Sharma
M.Samuels
M.S.Dhoni (w)
J.Bairstow
A.Mahmood
A.Rashid
T.Bresnan
A.Shahzad
S.Warne (c)

Toss: Bowl.


Batting: Sehwag will play his natural game and go after the opening bowlers. Denly will play a bit safer and look to get set before attacking himself. Rohit, and Marlon will adapt to the match situation; both can anchor or attack. If we get to the tenth over without losing a wicket, Samuels will be demoted to 7 and eveyone else will move up a spot. Dhoni and Bairstow will look to get set before hitting out, whereas the rest of the line up will look to hit it out of the park after the 15th over. The whole batting line up can clear the ropes on their day.

Bowling: Bresnan and Shahzad will take the new ball and look to extract early swing. Mahmood will bowl first change. There'll be spin through the middle before the return of the seamers at the death.

Over allocation :

Bresnan: 1,3,17,19.
Shahzad: 2,4,18,20.
Mahmood: 5.
Warne: 6,8,10,12.
Rashid: 7,9,14,16.
Samuels: 11,13,15.

Rohit or Sehwag could fill in if necessary.