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Sep 2019
5:56am, 5 Sep 2019
114,446 posts
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GregP
Bonners is spot on by the way. I watched it downstairs with all gadgets upstairs hence the lack of commentary- but it was T20 for lovers of the championship. The long long boundaries helped - made it more like cricket and less like a six-hitting competition.
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Sep 2019
6:29am, 5 Sep 2019
114,450 posts
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GregP
There was a dropped catch at the death that made me briefly think of match fixing but it was under lights with a wet ball so maybe I’m just being neurotic.
How the heck we’ve snuck our way to the finals is beyond me. We were shocking for the first two thirds of the T20 campaign.
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Sep 2019
7:02am, 5 Sep 2019
1,096 posts
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Oscar the grouch
On the Somerset FB site, a fan suggests the fact that you have T20 finals day 2 days before you meet us, means it is 'written in the stars'. He meant for a Somerset championship win. I would just as happily argue it the other way and there are games before that which may be pivotal in any case. I wonder if rain might be the winner one way or another and bonus points crucial. We shall see...
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Sep 2019
7:06am, 5 Sep 2019
114,451 posts
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GregP
We've got Surrey and, er, looks blank, first. I'll get back to you.
Meanwhile this from Cricinfoe:
This was one of the great county cricket fixture shambles of all time. Lancashire forced to play a home Vitality Blast quarter-final on a neutral ground because of a clash with the Old Trafford Test.
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Sep 2019
7:07am, 5 Sep 2019
114,452 posts
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GregP
Warwickshire then Surrey. Both at home, although I think the BBC shows one of them as away.
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Sep 2019
7:11am, 5 Sep 2019
114,453 posts
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GregP
The cross-your-fingers-and-hope-for-the-best approach to the staging of a big night in the county calendar defied belief. Here was the arrogance of administrators who still regard T20 cricket as an entertainment, as a money-raiser rather than a sporting competition with intrinsic importance. Here was yet another example of the ECB's shameful undermining of the county game that has underpinned professional cricket in this country for more than a century.
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Sep 2019
7:28am, 5 Sep 2019
114,455 posts
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GregP
I'll let The Times have the last word, then you can go back to your test matches and other sideshows:
Essex’s cricketers were naturally delighted to reach their fourth Finals Day but it was still rather a low-key opening to the competition’s knockout stages. The Blast has been brilliantly promoted by the counties and shamefully unsupported by an ECB already obsessed by The Hundred. The 1,017 spectators at the Riverside, on the other hand, deserve some sort of medal.
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Sep 2019
8:51am, 5 Sep 2019
1,348 posts
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bonners
Nope, absolutely no argument there Greg. However, think Lancs missed a trick by not staging it at somewhere like Blackpool
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Sep 2019
9:13am, 5 Sep 2019
114,456 posts
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GregP
Absolutely. Saw ‘Riverside’ as the venue and assumed it was a Lancs festival ground.
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Sep 2019
11:09am, 5 Sep 2019
19,547 posts
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TRO Saracen
Smith to bat all day, declaration to give us a nasty 30-40 mins, Eng 3 down at stumps.
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The Ashes 2009
Jun 2022
