Northern Trend or Yorkshire End?

By Grockle et al
May 24 2015

We welcome the second Northern side to face us on the filed of the Championship in the last fortnight to Taunton today. Can we continue the winning ways from Trent Bridge against the next county up the country Yorkshire? Questions about whether Rehman should play abound along with those about WHERE the skipper should play and HOW the top five are going to play in this game. We have yet to have a confident start in a game - even the Notts game had its collapse or two. We need the points and Yorkshire are a little sparse at the moment so now is probably the time.

v Yorkshire CC1 @ TAUNTON 24 May 2015

Scorecard

Commentary

From a CC1 win to a T20 loss to a CC1 selection, it must start to get confusing for the county selectorial committees at this time of year. Although there are few surprises that can occur with the West country side as we have few resources to mix and match. We can mix within a sqaud of about 13 but new faces are not going to be popping in all over the place should the present batch fail to produce the goods.

The first new move is to win the toss and field. We will chase the game for a change. The side is not a huge surprise;

Trescothick, Abell, Myburgh, Cooper, Hildreth, Allenby, Trego, Overton, Barrow, Thomas, Overton

The county have decided to rest Lewis Gregory so the twins play together. Tim Groenewald, as predicted, is going to find getting a berth in this side when all the young guys are fit very difficult and he doesn't this time. No spin option is included, except for Myburgh at a push. Abdur really hasn't justified his inclusion with the bat or the ball and may have to wiat to make an impression for the warmer weather of June July and August.

The other question, which has yet to be answered, or even probably put forward, is where should Marcus bat? He will open in this game with Tom probably but how long can that go on if he loses his wicket at some point in the first 10 overs for very little? Is it coming to the time when a discussion has to be had about how much his desire to open until he retires creates a problem for his side. If he cannot stand at 1 or 2 is the alternative forcing him into retirement by dropping him if he will not move down the order? Many have said that Marcus will know when it is time for him to go. I hope BEFORE that time arrives he'll know when it is time for him to CHANGE and move into the body of the side to bolster up the middle order and get back to producing those devastating spells of strong confident hitting that a unit short on cofidence wants from a battling captain. Is it time for him to take the Collingwood route? Alternatively he can just prove us all wrong by getting big scores in this game and the Durham game and hitting himself back into opener contention. The further question is... if we do decide to move Trescothick down the order, who takes his place at 1 or 2?

Anyway that is for another game. Today we have put Yorkshire in and we've got rid of Lees and Rhodes with less than 80 on the board on the first morning. Lees went at 55 to Pete Trego and then Rhodes was disposed of by Jamie Overton who is hopefully coming back to dangerous contention for a regular place at regular (or more than regular) pace.

Will it be a case of leave it to the bowlers again? Jim Allenby found some form in the Sussex 20 on Friday and also seems to have found his place in the side finally. We need Tom Cooper to now start to find some form in that middle order work room. But first we need ABell, Myburgh and Banger to get the front end doing more than wandering back to the pavilion dejectedly before we pass 50. 10 wickets from now we'll see where we are I suppose.