FP semis

[pie_chucker]

Just looked at the score in the Durham match. Essex are 40 odd for 7!

Edit: Now 66 for 9!

Surely we cant throw this away now?

[Notts Exile]

How do Essex do this? They get to the semis then fall apart. I see they're not too far from the top of CC Div 2 as well yet fell apart at Trent Bridge in a big way.

Can Hampshire defend just over 200 against Warwickshire?

Who will I be seeing at Lord's on 18 August???

Edited twenty minutes later: Durham are 36-6 !!! Can someone tell me if neither can bat or if it's an appalling wicket?

[pie_chucker]

I'm not sure if it was a bad wicket but Durham lost 7 wickets getting there!! I wonder if they re used the test strip??

MoM for Plunkett 4/15 and 30*

So I suppose Essex arent entirely to blame. With hindsight it looked a good toss to win.

[Moss]

Warwickshire are making heavy work of it at the Rose Bowl, which has always been a bizarre wicket.

[cantplaycantalk]

Problem was that the groundsman was effectively unable to prepare the pitch for the 5 days running up to the semi. Slight matter of a test match being played just slightly to one side of it. So we had fielders running around all over the semi final pitch and the groundsmen unable to work on it along with about three weeks of fairly consistant rain with an absolute downpour last night and a ground which is right beside the river with a high water table. The pitch was damp and green. After about 12 overs of the Essex innings it evened out a bit as todays blazing sun got to work and the tail were able to add a few to the score. For some unknown reason Benkenstein then chose to put the roller on it in the mid innings break and that only succeeded in bringing the dampness back to the surface. Once Durham got past (only just mind) about 10overs the pitch again eased up and Liam began to show the true qualities of the riverside pitch as it now is.

[pie_chucker]

I know the weathers been **** up here for the past few weeks. Thats why i wondered if they had played on the test strip??

[adamberry]

Originally Posted by Moss

Warwickshire are making heavy work of it at the Rose Bowl, which has always been a bizarre wicket.

Hampshire won through, Tim Ambrose got stuck with a tail-end that made precisely bugger all. So Durham v Hampshire it is.

The Rose Bowl wickets are, quite frankly, awful. True, they've got better of late, but compared to Lord's and other Test grounds it's like an average club strip in Southampton. Why on earth Hampshire's chief executive reckons they should host a Test is beyond me, what with the added burden of the poor infrastructure to boot.

[Rachael]

What was the problem with the pitch? "Crawley looked set for a hundred when he failed to beat Heath Streak's throw": decent batsman... and no talk of problems with the pitch. The other quality player in Hampshire's line-up made an unbeaten 40. Sangakkara made it to 44 and then holed out to midwicket: not sure what shot he was attempting... but methinks it was probably NOT a late dab with soft hands.

I've never had a major problem with Rosebowl pitches: in truth, for the first season they were been closer to a sporting pitch that anything produced at Lords or the Oval in the last 20 years! In the era of uncovered wickets the players would not have batted an eyelid at the conditions at the Rosebowl: they'd have recognised a pretty standard wicket.

Of course.. some of the pitches then settled down a bit too much.... but how much of that was over-reaction by the groundsman?

The problem has not, as a rule, been Rosebowl pitches... it's been batsmen who can't cope on anything other than a flat track: too many guys who try and hit the ball too early and who try and hit through the line.

[adamberry]

Originally Posted by Rachael

What was the problem with the pitch?

Erm... I'll be honest here and admit I'm guessing. The problem with the square at the Rose Bowl, from memory, is that pitches on one side of the square are just dead and lifeless. I don't know which strip was used today - but I'd guess it's moving to that sort of area of the square.

By the way Rach, where did you get the Crawley comment from? 'Cos if it's cricinfo I would disregard it entirely, they seem to have forgotten everything they know recently!

[Henners]

Outof curiosity, was the pitch a seamer's paridise or was it just poor batting. The most likely is that it was a bit of both. Still, Liam Plunkett stole the show, 4-15 and the highest knock of 30 to wrap a famour win for Durham. Good luck to them and (probably) new England ODI captain Paul Collingwood.

As for Essex, well Cook didn't play much did he but then again, neither did any other batters. And to think there are those who think this game is turning into the batsman's game.