County Championship 2008 Season - Divisions 1 & 2

[Rachael]

Owais Shah's gritty 72 was the only innings of substance on a bitterly cold opening day of the season in which 14 wickets fell at Lord's. Sharing in an unbeaten stand of 57 with Arun Harinath, Shah and MCC outwitted the Champion County, Sussex, and are in a good position from which to take the match by the scruff.

Cricinfo - Shah fifty defies Sussex

[Collyisamackem]

Rach, can we restart this thread and entitle it something like "County Championship 2008 Season - Divisions 1 & 2"? Since the threadstart solicited few replies and all we have for the season thread is this or the prediction thread, I think we need it. You can edit this post and delete this paragraph if you like.

I've entered a fantasy team on CricInfo, has anyone else? Mine is:

Michael Di Venuto, Antony McGrath, FD Telo, Joe Denly (4 batsmen), Tom Westley, Peter Trego (2 all-rounders), Steve Davies (wk), Liam Plunkett, Mushtaq Ahmed (trump player), Paul Wiseman, Chris Jordan (4 bowlers).

All the best to all this season, especially Durham of course .

[Navdeep]

I'm in, team as follows, (Sandhus All Stars)

4 Batsmen - Joe Denly, Dominic Telo, Mark Ramprakash (Trump Card) and Marcus Trescothick

2 All Rounders - Ryan ten Doeschate and Adil Rashid

1 Wicket Keeper - Steven Davies

4 Bowlers - Neil Killeen, Sean Ervine, Ragheb Aga and Matt Mason

Max 1,000,000 spent

[Rachael]

Originally Posted by Collyisamackem

Rach, can we restart this thread and entitle it something like "County Championship 2008 Season - Divisions 1 & 2"?

Sorted.

Did you see the current Yorkshire scorcard? Hoggard's making his case for being England's no 1 in fine style.

See Cricinfo - Yorkshire v Hampshire at Leeds, Apr 23-26, 2008

[Collyisamackem]

Yep, I don't buy any of this 'lost his nip' nonsense - he's been injured and lacked match practice before NZ. He probably needed a rest, but rather should have been left out of the NZ squad if the management feared for his game and were ready to ditch him so undeservedly after one game - the loss of which really wasn't his fault. Hoggy is our best bowler, 200-odd test wickets including that 7-for in the Ashes and countless star performances since the 2005 Ashes (recalling India here, another 7-for IIRC?), and IMO he and Sidebottom can definitely play in the same team alongside a pace bowler such as Anderson, Flintoff, a Harmison who has sorted himself out and been left to regain confidence, or a Mahmood, Plunkett or Onions who has developed sufficiently. Hoggard and Sidebottom swinging away and bowling intelligently with the older ball, in a 5-man attack, in the Ashes 2009 would be a very good idea IMO. Ask Matthew Hayden, Graeme Smith, Virender Sehwag, Upul Tharanga et al what they think about his bowling.

Fletcher is an utter fool if he thinks cheap shots at his best bowler were ever remotely justified. Hoggy has years left in him, just as Vaas, McGrath, Pollock etc. had at his age.

In other news - Bopara's doing well all-round for Essex, Onions has bowled out Surrey including reducing Ramps to 36, Prior's hit a century and is thinking of ditching the gloves (good move IMO), Davies hit 78*, Jones 51* (Kent had Tredwell opening?!), Bell 41 and bowling conditions are looking good for all.

[darksideofthemoon]

Originally Posted by Collyisamackem

and IMO he and Sidebottom can definitely play in the same team alongside a pace bowler such as Anderson, Flintoff, a Harmison who has sorted himself out and been left to regain confidence, or a Mahmood, Plunkett or Onions who has developed sufficiently.

No 3 swing bowlers would not work.

[Collyisamackem]

In England it would, but then Mahmood and Plunkett aren't really swing bowlers, yes they swing the ball a bit but they are seamers. I haven't seen Onions play so I can't be authoritative on him, but from everything I've hear he's a hit-the-deck bowler who can pitch it up too. Hoggard and Sidebottom are the only two swing bowlers out of that lot, and do far more than just swing the ball (at a surprising pace for Sidebottom) anyway. I don't see anything wrong with an attack of:

Hoggard
Sidebottom
Flintoff
Broad/Onions/Harmison/Plunkett/Mahmood (he's last for a reason)
Panesar

Whatever side we play, Hoggard has to be in it - he's done nothing to deserve being dropped save for being the workhorse and class act of the team for years.

[Navdeep]

Originally Posted by Collyisamackem

Whatever side we play, Hoggard has to be in it - he's done nothing to deserve being dropped save for being the workhorse and class act of the team for years.

Exactly One reason why i cant stand the media at times (though i dream of becoming a sports analyst/journalist one day ) is how they over react at things, which then causes things like this.

Surely, 1 bad game in 5 years of test cricket, the highest standard of cricket possible is not worthy of, not only being dropped:

- Your international future under pressure
- Your ex coach criticizing you openly in the papers, saying you lost your "zip"
- People doubting your fitness/form based on 1 game
- People thinking your now a county bowler
- Even your captain, albeit giving some support, saying its time to breed a new selection of quicks?

Shocking. When we watch England in ODIs, do we not see the same batsmen fail time after time? Do we not see Anderson and co get smacked around the grounds time after time? They are given chances to redeem themselves, and in my views if he played in the last 2 tests in NZ he would have come back stronger, cause thats the sort of character he is, and has been.

When watching him in the opening test, he looked fitter, trimmer and raring to go. Yes, fitness wasnt all there, just like it wouldnt for any player whos missed the majority of 18 months through injury, but ask the Hamps batsmen if they think hes back now. Depends how he goes till the 1st test this summer, playing another county game and maybe 1-2 1 day games, how many overs/wickets he gets under his belt.

I still think, when we reach the last test in the English summer, England vs South Africa, he will be in that starting 11, having played in all tests previously vs NZ + SA all summer, and having a handful of wickets to his name too.

[Aurelius]

Originally Posted by Collyisamackem

I don't see anything wrong with an attack of:

Hoggard
Sidebottom
Flintoff
Broad/Onions/Harmison/Plunkett/Mahmood (he's last for a reason)
Panesar

Whatever side we play, Hoggard has to be in it - he's done nothing to deserve being dropped save for being the workhorse and class act of the team for years.

Yes, I like that line-up. I'd go with either Harmison or Broad as the fourth seamer, both of whom have shown steady form so far- probably Broad, as he's a support-type seamer as opposed to Harmison, who's a genuine opener. On the other hand, either Hoggard or Sidebottom would be effective as an old-ball bowler, so Harmison could open with one of them and the other come in second change. I think England's main worry is Flintoff's lack of runs so far.

[Navdeep]

Chased down 382, in less than 1 days plan vs the spin pair of Boje/Panesar...(also with an opening pair woefully out of form...)

What a win! Big ton from Maddy helped, along with some late hitting from Carter + Sailsbury, win with 2 balls to spare, great stuff.

Jamie Pipe's explosive 36 and a composed 77 by Chris Rogers took Derbyshire to a four-wicket victory over Essex in a contrived run-chase.
The rain-hit match was heading for a draw until Essex agreed to set a target of 266 off a minimum of 65 overs.
Pipe smashed three consecutive fours off Andre Nel and Derbyshire got home with four wickets and 32 balls left.




Taken off the BBC Sport site..


Who said the longer form of the game was dull