v Essex (H) Mon 14th Sep T20 Blast

Thomason comes in for Jordan otherwise unchanged.

Sussex win the toss and bowl first.

Bottom of the table but spanking it everywhere!🙄🤦‍♂️

Doesn't Ravi still have an ankle injury? A miracle if we win this one. Run rate required already 11 an over
after just 6 overs.

Down to Wiese and Bopara now if there is any chance left of victory. 12.7 runs an over required. Eek!

edit: Ho-hum. Bopara has been a really disappointing signing to date.

Wiese and out! 

Fine margins.

I will come onto the batting order in a moment, but here is another thought.  Against Hampshire, Luke Wright's captaincy was faultless, everything he did was right for the moment and came off.  Not so much in this game.

Whilst at times the bowling was yet again disappointing, we seemed to have no answer for Lawrence (who is making a habit of this against us) and whilst you cannot legislate for Mills picking up an injury, after 16 overs they were 150-5 to our 146-4.  Harmer and the inexperienced Pepper took 47 off the last four overs (Robinson (12), Mills (13), Garton (8) and Wiese (16)).  Yet we failed to bowl out our best bowler Rawlins and Briggs, who whilst expensive early doors went for just three singles and a leg bye and bowled Walter in his third over, just as we started to wrestle back control.

Whilst nothing is certain and hindsight a wonderful thing, bowling them their full allocation would have negated the need for two of those expensive overs at the end and possibly saved 15 to 20 runs.  Garton can be expensive and is still learning, Wiese a part time sixth bowling option in this format, Mills erratic and Ollie despite being an exceptionally talented and gifted red ball player is an average T20 seamer.  In addition, is the risk of him getting injured really worth it? I was so pleased to see him get up unscathed after that horrible fall on the boundary fielding.

As for the batting order, if it ain't broke why try fixing it?  I still maintain our bowling was the bigger issue and this is no criticism of Thomason who not for the first time has been handed the poison challice, but if a 63 opening stand between Macleod an Wright with Rawlins coming in at 3 worked in the last game, then why change it?  It just puts extra pressure on Luke and the mid order with all those dot balls being chewed up.  It has to be one or the other and given we signed Macleod specifically to cover for Salt, surely we go with him?

With no Salt and Jordan for the Surrey game and Mills possibly injured, qualifying may suddenly have become less than straightforward.

...and yes Flash, a polite request from me as well to whoever is managing the replay on the live feed, really appreciate the coverage, but can we limit the replays to either between overs or during a break in play, not whilst the match is actually in play.

Totally agree about CJ. Jof will miss the start of the IPL due to his England commitments and CJ should have stayed with us at least until Sunday. Shows where his priorities lie.

No Salt and a bit too much Pepper for my liking (actually I'm the other way round) contributed to this defeat. Salt's absence from the opening pairing is, I think, stretching our batting resources too thin and is likely to bring about our downfall this season. It means that unless Luke Wright gets 50+, there is too much reliance on Rawlins and Wiese. Rawlins has had plenty of practice with T20 cricket this season as his ten innings in the Bob Willis Trophy were more T20 than CC, but I think his best contribution is a quick 30. Unfortunately, we are looking at the likes of McLeod, Thomason, Finch, Bopara, Garton and Brown to score runs reliably at a decent rate and they are not contributing much to date. The bowling is also missing Jordan now and you just feel that one or two of Mills, Garton and Robinson will go for 10 an over or more. It's a funny season and shouldn't be judged too harshly. Head, Carey, Rashid and Evans are top class T20 players and sorely missed. I have feeling we are going to fall short this year. The departure of Evans also leaves a gap that will be hard to fill next season.