Northants

Let's hope you are right. The pitch inspectors don't mind  movement and they don't mind bounce. What they have little tolerance towards is uneven bounce. Don't suppose we will find out tonight. They will interview captains, umpires and groundsman -but  isn't the announcement of their decision  kept until after the match has concluded? Or may be that's just the announcement of the penalty if its bad news;  if there is nothing wrong with the pitch per the clean bill of health probably is issued immediately...

Given how tight and strong Division 1 is this season with most teams beating Northants, while I agree with your comment, even 4 wins may not be enough. As Lancashire are present relegation contenders, the match at Hove on Sept 9th could be critical. If Sussex lose that, yet still gain 4 wins, it could be close.

At least, there are still 5 LV1 games left and anything can happen. Momentum is vital and if any team apart from the top two lose two games in a row, they could find themselves in the relegation mire. One senses this season could go down to the wire for the second relegated team with 3 or even 4 contenders fighting it out.

Just back from the game. A couple of thoughts on what's been said by others today, from my own perception and the general feelings of the crowd.

Hobden is a work in progress, its true, but he is the real deal. He was menacing coming down from the Cromwell Road but erratic and inclined to overstep. Once he resumed from the Sea End the difference was very noticeable: the gears shifted, cogs interlinked and the machine became something close to irresistible. Hatchett tried hard, bowled usefully, but didn't look to be in the same class, as well as being perceptibly slower.

Grounders was conducting a little seminar for intersted spectators at the edge of the pitch at lunchtime. Of course he's protective of his creation and would speak up for it if the inspectors showed signs of interest, but as always, he was extremely knowledgeable, genuinely informative and very optimistic. He felt that relaid wickets like this one might well show cracks given the weather conditions - but that's because of the high proportion of clay in the soil. It hasn't deteriorated significantly since yesterday, but neither has it flattened out into a pudding, like so many we have seen. Good batsmen will score runs on it, lesser ones may find that the combination of bounce and short grass will find edges. By the same token good line and length bowlers will find those edges, and the way through to the stumps, as Magoffin did, while lesser ones will struggle to adapt what they normally do to these conditions.

Northants 2nd innings shows that they had learned and were adapting their game, but still losing wickets. Ultimately that just shows the difference between Divisions - something we need to be very aware of. Once you go down you find it hard to get the quality players.

Finally, yes anything can still happen, but a win here will raise spirits and give back some optimism and self-belief, which is something that can't be acquired on loan. And if it makes us re-address the balance of the side and question some myths about who has a right to play then it will also have terrific effects.

 I tend to agree. But points deductions  have little to do with the number of runs scored. The last match I saw when the host county suffered an 8 pts deduction, the scores ranged between 260 and 144 so it was far from impossible to bat on the surface and no side was skittled in any of the four innings. It seemed like a good  'result wicket' to me with an even contest between bat and ball.  But Tony Pigott and John Jameson  ruled that the pitch failed to meet the required standard because the bounce was "uneven".

On the other hand, I recall a first day at Lord's in 2011 when one side was bowled out  for 87 , the second side responded with  153 and the first team then ended on  46 for 3.  23 wkts in the day and the pitch panel - again led by Pigott - ruled that the only problem was  poor shot selection by the batsmen (sub-text 'it's frigging Lord's and the ECB knows better than to mess with the MCC')...

If you are happy, fraudster, I'm sure that everyone on the Board is happy. Conversely, when you're sad, somewhere a kitten dies, usually by being strangled by Piers Morgan, who is of course, Skypeing the whole event for Kevin Pietersen to view on an endless loop.

I think it's fair to say Northants have actually got away with one only to be drubbed by this much.