CC Home versus Essex, 17-20 April

That's a better over

And George Garton obliges

fraudster will have been delighted to see that his faith in Briggs was amply vindicated in his spell this afternoon where he gradually built pressure and succeeded in inducing a false shot from Westley.
Pretty good reason for picking a spinner in a 5 man attack.

Yeah looks like Briggs has done alright, for a first innings, but if anything he's proving me right - but really it's too early to prove anything. It isn't that you shouldn't play a spinner in a five man attack, you definitely should, but there's no point him being a defensive holding spinner, is what I meant. Briggs has bowled the most overs in the first innings again, as he did against Northants - not necessary in a five man attack. Unless you think the track is best suited to spin on day one, in which case, call the inspectors. If we'd have bowled our seamers more, particularly Garton, they'd probably be out by now.

Fraudster is broadly right, I think  - not about leaving out Briggs, but certainly that if you play him and he's going to bowl more overs than anyone else, then there is no way you need  four quicks.

The four seamers bowled 56 overs in the day. That's an average of 14 each. If there were only three of them they would have had to bowl 18 each. I know David complained at the AGM that  Robinson had left him with a squad that was unfit; but surely  three  seamers could have managed an extra four overs each? And if that left the poor lambs a little tired, then rotate them and let each of them carry the drinks once every three matches. Either that, or introduce a fitness regime more suited to the demands of pro cricket and which is  a little more rigorous than the flabiness which Davis complains he inherited.

Meanwhile, the result of this indulgent policy towards the seamers is not only a tail that begins at seven but that Harry Finch scores a big f/c hundred, which earns him a place v  Northants - but then is dropped despite not getting a bat at Wantage Road. What did he do to get canned - fart too loudly in the dressing room while watching the rain fall?

I should add that , given the size of the dressing rooms at Wantage Road, had anyone broken wind I doubt there would have been many survivors.