The Bears/Pears/County Cricket Thread 2015

[junxs]

First time I went to Edgbaston since the redevelopment, was well impressed with the new stand and the funky 'e' shaped floodlights!

As for the match, great result!

We do look short in the batting lineup though.
As good as Porterfield and Chopra are as an opening pair, the wickets seem to tumble once they go.

[tomd2103]

The Pears snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Which was nice.

Eh? They had a decent start, but never looked like they were going to make that total.  From a Bears perspective, McCullum can't arrive soon enough as we are seriously lacking batting firepower in the T20 game.  With all due respect to Worcester, better sides would have blown us away like Notts did last week.

On a different note, I went to Trent Bridge last week and despite the result thought it was a much better all round event than the game at Edgbaston tonight (I'm not sure if being on SKY made any difference).  It isn't going to be for the purists, but T20 should be appealing to youngsters and the casual cricket fan.  Sitting in the Raglan Stand tonight, you could hardly hear the PA and there seemed to be little effort in terms of anything else going on.  Again, regular cricket watchers might not like that kind of stuff, but that is what T20 should be about.  Also, there was some serious daylight robbery going on in those food stalls outside.  I couldn't quite believe it when after ordering a burrito at one of the stalls, the guy said £7.00 (I couldn't see the prices listed).

Anyway, rant over.  Good to be back on track, but a lot to improve on.

I agree with your point about rip-offs outside the members' areas.

My remark was based on the fact that they should have easily won given that target on that wicket. We have an exceptional fielding side with Rikki Clarke, Will Porterfield and Laurie Evans among the best in the country, and no lame ducks whatsoever in this regard, but the only concession made for this format of the game is dropping Westwood and Barker.  We still seem to think that Chopra will play anchor and let the rest rip.

I was genuinely amazed when we won it last season.

Ah, got you.  I agree that better sides would have easily reached that total, just as Notts did last week.  The problem with Chopra is that his inability to hit boundaries puts pressure on everyone else. 

[adrenachrome]

LV= County Championship Division One, Sussex v Warwickshire at Hove, May 24-27, 2015

Warwickshire 180
Sussex 140/5 (41.0 ov)
Sussex trail by 40 runs with 5 wickets remaining in the 1st innings

Our top scorer was Extras(38) followed by Trott(35).

Young medium trundler Oliver Robinson took 6 for 33 in 13 overs.

[adrenachrome]

Grauniad

Sussex make Warwickshire suffer for reading the skies wrongly

• Warwickshire 180; Sussex 140-5
• Oliver Robinson rips through Warwickshire with six for 33

Elizabeth Ammon at Hove

On a gloomy day in Hove Warwickshire crumbled to 180 all out in 49 overs. Their captain was deceived by the pre-match bright blue skies and, winning the toss, chose to bat. Ten minutes later the clouds rolled in, the gloom descended and, as it turned out, the pitch was far from easy with a good deal of variable bounce that is bound to feature in the umpires’ and captains’ post-match reports.

Having safely negotiated a very testing first hour against Steve Magoffin and Chris Jordan, who has returned to the warm embrace of his county after being left out by England, Warwickshire capitulated from 35 without loss to 100 for seven.

The 21-year-old Oliver Robinson, in his third first-class match, rattled through the Warwickshire top and middle order, taking all five wickets in the morning session. Robinson, released by Yorkshire for breaches of discipline, has knuckled down at Hove under the watchful eye of Mark Robinson and Jon Lewis and seems to be thriving. Sussex’s reputation for picking up cricketers who have lost their way elsewhere and getting the best out of them is well talked about and it is certainly one of the reasons why England use Mark Robinson as part of their coaching team for development programmes.

Oliver Robinson finished with six for 33 from 13 overs. He has an economical run-up but generates good pace and shows great skill for such an inexperienced player. His ability to move the ball both ways will stand him in good stead in first-class cricket. He removed Laurie Evans with an away-swinging ball which was edged behind and then immediately trapped Tim Ambrose with an in-swinger, finishing the morning spell with five for 17.

He picked up another wicket after lunch and then Jordan, who had bowled an aggressive but wicket-less spell in the morning, got the wicket of Jonathan Trott, who was looking good before, attempting a pull, he bottom-edged into his stumps; he gave a rueful look at the pitch before trudging off. Only a fifty partnership for the eighth wicket between Keith Barker and Jeetan Patel prevented Warwickshire from being dismissed for an embarrassingly low score.

Sussex’s reply began steadily in the continuing gloom. Chris Nash was the first to depart, for 17, getting a thick edge off Rikki Clarke who was the pick of the Warwickshire bowlers, generating brisk pace coming down the slope and getting some steep bounce. He could count himself unlucky not to have picked up a couple more wickets.

The Sussex opener Luke Wells, who was dropped from the first team after two poor matches at the start of the season, began his innings looking very much out of form but he battled his way admirably through in testing conditions and began to find some fluency once he had reached his half-century. In the context of the day it was the sort of gritty innings that no one else from either side had managed and will have impressed his captain and coach.

Patel, as he so often does, found turn and bounce and managed to drag Warwickshire back into the match by picking up three wickets late in the day.

[cdbearsfan]

Fifteen wickets in a day? If Warwickshire were at home, we'd be awaiting a points deduction by now.

[PGW]

Sussex 167-8 now
3 each for Jeets and Rikki and 2 for Barker

[Villan For Life]

Sussex 191 all out, a lead of 11.

[Chris Jameson]

Bresnan scored a century for Yorkshire.

[PGW]

Bears 25-1 Chopra out LBW

A strange look to the batting order though Ateeq Javid opened with Chopra and Chris Wright has gone in at 3. I don't understand that, perhaps
trying to get through some difficult conditions and attempting to save batters for when conditions improve

30-1

[PGW]

46-1 which is effectively 46-2 as Ian Westwood not expected to bat due to injury
Wright 21, Javid 12

[PGW]

49-2
Wright ct Jordan b Hobden 22
Trott in

50-2 Trott off the mark with a single

[PGW]

87-2
Javid 27
Trott 16

76 lead

[PGW]

87-3
Trott Ct Jordan b Hobden

[PGW]

91-4
Javid Ct Nash b Javid 27
Lead of 80
Tim Ambrose in

On this track 130 lead may be enough. Effectively 5 down don't forget.

[PGW]

116-4
Tim Ambrose has just been hit on the helmet to follow on from Chris Wright being hit on the jaw earlier in the day
Evans 5
Ambrose 24