Natwest T20 Blast 2016

Starts today, and Tom Kohler Cadmore of Worcs has a 43 ball hundred against Durham already!!

Another Surrey game on TV...



Games tomorrow:

Middlesex vs Hampshire
Lancashire vs Durham
Northants vs Derbyshire
Warwickshire vs Worcestershire
Yorkshire vs Leicestershire

I struggle to see Yorkshire scoring enough runs to win tomorrow. We played some warm up games against Yorkshire League Select XIs and failed to get to 130.

Missing the likes of Willey, Head, Williamson, Root & Bairstow will make us a powderpuff team.

LT Yorkshire do seem to struggle a bit when it comes to the shorter format. Seem like a specialist '4 day side'.

Aye, just one finals day. In general there arte just not enough runs from the top order (now a 4 day failing too). Bringing in thelikes of Finch and Maxwell was meant to help with this - but it never did.

Dizzy is trying to get them to play fear free cricket - but just not sure there are enough players who can strike the ball with the names I mentioned missing.

Ian Bell with one of the all time match losing knocks ever tonight

50 off 50 balls at one point. Just not good enough in a t20 I'm afraid Ian

Would be nice for the Sky comms to make even a passing mention of Ed Barnard's fantastic spell. 1-14 off 4 overs effectively won them the game - the Ian Bell fawning was awful. It was a rancid knock.

Liked D'Oliveira when he just bowled with the white ball for the last couple of years but this year I have been amazed at his batting. 62* from 38 balls and 4-0-17-1. Compare that to Bell's 66 from 63 balls.

Jetty wrote:Liked D'Oliveira when he just bowled with the white ball for the last couple of years but this year I have been amazed at his batting. 62* from 38 balls and 4-0-17-1. Compare that to Bell's 66 from 63 balls.

Jetty - no disagreements there about Dolly but it is worrying for me that his grandfather was playing in the first Test I went to.

2 wins out of 2. Looking very strong.

Chris Gayle didn't look like he wanted one piece of Tymal Mills bowling rapid tonight. Bit poor really.

More worrying matters for Somerset though, they look bang average in the T20 - especially the bowling. Overton bowling into the wind was a bizarre one, Mills looked brilliant charging in down breeze, but I can't see where their wickets are going to come from or where their death bowlers are. Overton still sprays it a bit, Waller is okay to good but the rest are one dimensional against the better sides. I only see an early exit this year unfortunately.

David Willey likely to play purely as a batsman for the Vikings, having scored 108 from 45 balls in a 2nds match on Tuesday.

For the fixture at Old Trafford tomorrow, Root and Bairstow have been made available.

LT Roses match should be a cracker. How come Root and Bairstow can't play tonight though? (or am i wrong?)

Only been released by England for the one game. With the location of the last test, the lads home and Old Trafford I guess there is rewduced travelling - rather then schlepping down to New Road today then up the M5/6 tonight/tomorrow.

D'Oliveira 3 innings 3 not outs

Dolly's on fire, na na na na na na.

First T20 game I've been to this season last night, thought we were very impressive all round, bar the last two overs of Yorkshire's innings. Chase was timed to perfection and credit where it's due, marshalled very well by Kervezee who I can't say I'm a huge fan of.

Mat impressed with Worcestershire last night. Mitchell always leads from the front, underrated cricketer.

All aboard the Liam Livingstone bandwagon

JOS

Never seen anybody so angry to have scored 91 off 51 balls as Joe Root tonight

That shot over midwicket for 6 - the wrists were just unreal

Lovely knock from Root, as Olly says never seen anyone look quite so angry having played quite so splendidly. That six over midwicket was great, you could almost hear Root going "f*ck this sh*t, I'm just going to whack this one". Entertaining stuff

Probably as good a advertisement as to what the English T20 comp could be like! Full house, England players playing and it is incredibly entertaining (and actually on TV!).

Cracking game at Hove last night. Sussex weren't bad, Surrey were just outstanding. Great entertainment.

Buttler with an unbeaten 56 from 29 balls, including 43 from his last 16. Special player.

It's great to see the England players playing the T20s, and for the most part doing pretty well. Tournament needs that...

Notts squeaking home though, by two wickets with two balls to spare. Seems there was a bit of controversy at the end. Notts started the last over needing 15 to win, but were awarded six penalty runs, presumably for a slow over rate? This left them needing 9, and a six from their n°8 made it straightforward. Anyone see/hear what happened?

The over had to start by 5:17 and started at 5:18. Never liked that rule personally and think common sense should be used, use it in drastic circumstances but anything like that is daft.

I'm all in favour of the fielding side having to get a move on but the slow over rate rule doesn't appear to be applied consistently or take sufficient account of a lot of wickets having been taken. In the latter case, umpires should probably be taking more consideration of how quickly a new batsman arrives at the crease after a dismissal.

A close game last night, Kent edged it in the end. Great effort by Afridi and Sammy. Bizarre decision putting Will Smith in before those 2.
We're struggling in the t20 this year, No Vince, Carberry, Chris Wood. Then Topley is injured too.

PaulHv2 wrote:The over had to start by 5:17 and started at 5:18. Never liked that rule personally and think common sense should be used, use it in drastic circumstances but anything like that is daft.

The clock is stopped regularly, batsmen have only 30 secs to get to the wicket at the fall of a wicket - it is not difficult to bowl 19 overs and be at your mark for the 20th within 75 minutes of playing time. Some teams regularly come close to run penalties (Lancs and Essex) and the rules are very clear. They have no-one to blame but themselves. If we were equally strict in all forms of cricket we would see much less urine taking going on.


Of course we could follow the IPL lead and take two hours to bowl the 20 overs instead.

Hugely impressive performance yesterday from Liam Plunkett. 1-13 from 4 overs (two in powerplay) and 12 dot balls. As Durham needed 11 an over this spell earned wickets for his team mates and allowed the yorkies to capitalies on what was for once a decent (well v good) batting show.

Yorkshire probably need to win both remaining games against a Northants team that have already qualified for the ko stages.

The Fizz has arrived and put in a MOTM 4-23 last night in our must win game at Esssex. Sir Chris Jordan with a quickfire 45 not out as well.

Another big game away at Surrey tonight, was very impressed when i saw them at Hove. But with the Fizz in town, anything is possible.

Eventful first over of the match Sussex v Glam bowled by Tymal Mills. Included 3 no balls, a wide and a wicket.

Well, we come to the final round of group matches.

North

Notts are guaranteed a home QF
Northants guaranteed a QF and will be at home unless they lose very heavily to Yorks
Yorks need one point to guarantee a QF, small chance of making it a home one.
Warks win over Lancs will see them in the QFs. Anything else and they probably miss out.
Durham and Derbs meet with the winners hoping one of Yorks or Warks slip up.


South

Glouc & Glam guaranteed home QFs
Middx guaranteed an away QF
Essex and Surrey can seal the 4th spot. Surrey have to win and hope Essex lose at home to Glamorgan.

Re: Essex or Surrey sealing 4th spot. As well as currently having 2 more points, Essex also have a better goal difference. Not impossible to overturn but a narrow win for Surrey and a narrow defeat for Essex would still see Essex through.

The T20 Blast quarter-final line-up:

Nottinghamshire v Essex (Monday, 8 August)
Northants v Middlesex (Tuesday, 9 August)
Gloucestershire v Durham (Wednesday, 10 August)
Glamorgan v Yorkshire (Thursday, 11 August)

First quarter final tonight - Notts currently 146-5 off 18 overs. You'd think they'll need to somehow get to 180 because this is a fabulous pitch and lightning quick outfield

Dan Lawrence injured for Essex though - blow to their batting that

Ryan Ten Doeschate - 4 overs, 19 runs, 3 wickets

Magnificent spell of T20 bowling

Nick Browne currently playing one of the worst T20 innings ever

Browne now out for 22 (29)

Atrocious

Quite the choke from Essex this

Essex after 6 overs - 62-0

Essex after 16 overs - 104-5

One of the all time chokes

Graham Napier scored a hundred in the recent county match - and hasn't even come in at 105-5 with Essex needing 58 off 22

Someone explain the thinking to me - don't get it

They've sent in Dan Lawrence ahead of him and he literally cannot move his feet to play a shot

Thanks Essex

Horrendoues collapse by Essex at the end - but I suppose that is always likely to happen when things go wrong and the run rate gets out of hand.

Northants breezed past Middlesex last night

Durham posted 180, Gloucester 6-2 after 2 overs

Mark Wood just bowled a fabulous first over - proper heat

14 balls into the chase and Klinger yet to face a delivery...

Noema-Barnett has to be the worst cricketer in the county game at the moment and it's not even close

Got a fiver on Gloucestershire at 100/1.

Come on lads...!