Kent OT 3/5/24 4 Days

[John W]

Further inspection at 12 o'clock...there should be an inspection to determine whether this ground is fit for first class cricket

[Dave Towers]

It looks like Derbyshire have taught Morley how to bat!

[chris]

May 4, 2024 10:42:04 GMT Dave Towers said:

It looks like Derbyshire have taught Morley how to bat!

Stumped for 28 previous HS 9.  Wonder if he'd ever hit a boundary before?

[John W]

Great reception from the spectators for Matt Parkinson when he came in to bat.

[Rob]

Oh dear this is yet another disaster in progress. Bruce turning out to be one og the worst overseas signings in quite a while.

[MickeyG]

Just got back after going out for an hour, my 38 for 6. Looking like a relegation fight is on for this season.

[John W]

Well I didn't think it could get any worse than what I witnessed at Chelmsford but I'm sat here freezing at this soulless place and wondering just what the hell is going on?

Too good to go down?

[exile]

Unless something completely unforeseen happens, we are going to lose this by an innings.  I'm sure Mark Chilton is a good public school chap with all the right attitudes but he is going to just as useless as Director of Cricket as he was as an opening batsman (average in FCC - 22) and captain.  He has a knack of consistently making poor decisions both on and off the field.  Getting rid of seriously talented Parkinson and capping journeyman Hartley sums it up.  I don't doubt that Hartley has all the right attitudes but he won't take wickets in FCC in England. 

[man in the stand]

All out for 92....similar conditions to yesterday but Kent bowlers making better use of them.

[anyportinastorm]

Surely Chilton can't survive beyond this season at the latest? What possesses anyone in their right mind to hire the no win coach of the bottom club?Trips to Derbyshire next season already looking on the cards. I thought CDG was the worst NZ import by a distance but Bruce proving me wrong.

[Rob]

We were bailed out by the superb form of the top 3 last season but the total failure of the high ups to develop or sign a couple of middle order specialists has left the batting, supposedly our forte, desperately exposed. Balderson imho is way too high at 4 and Bruce has been abysmal so far. Bell at 6 has shown some promise and we need more from him today.

Crazy they didnt make more effort to keep Rob Jones, given that they lost both Croft and Vilas.

[lancsdes]

Chris ; re your earlier post on franchises. Yes, Atherton did write about it. He is careful not to say anything against the hundred because of his Sky relationship. He thinks they will struggle to get an agreement this season with enough counties.

I’m completely in agreement with Huw Turbervill the editor of the Cricketer and George Dobell in the same magazine. The latter says “ It would be interesting to see how much enthusiasm there was for private equity if nobody within the game was able to benefit personally. “

It would be nice also if decisions were made by people to whom cricket is important but I realise such things are impossible on boards of big clubs nowadays.

[slipstream]

May 4, 2024 18:33:49 GMT Rob said:

We were bailed out by the superb form of the top 3 last season but the total failure of the high ups to develop or sign a couple of middle order specialists has left the batting, supposedly our forte, desperately exposed. Balderson imho is way too high at 4 and Bruce has been abysmal so far. Bell at 6 has shown some promise and we need more from him today.

Crazy they didnt make more effort to keep Rob Jones, given that they lost both Croft and Vilas.

Benkenstein has to go as well as Chilton. 

[John W]

It's as if the coaching staff including the DOC just assumed that Salt, Wood, Mahmood and (partly) Anderson would be available for the start of the season and were then left scratching their heads when that wasn't the case. They were quite happy to allow three experienced squad players to leave, two overseas batsmen (and replace with one that hasn't worked out) and they must have known that another would be retiring from red ball cricket. This has left the squad totally threadbare with only Lavelle as the alternative batsman and Aspinwall as bowling all rounder plus the untried Singh and Boyden. The whole Lancashire organisation went overboard and starry eyed at the signing of Lyon thinking that he would spin them to the county championship, in theory he was a great addition but as soon as the ACB pulled rank he became an albatross round the Lancashire neck, a world class player who has no influence at all. Lancashire then suddenly think April is the new August by playing two spinners in the same team so giving the starting XI a totally lobsided look. It all feels like a complete mess.

Another slight concern is that two of our absolute 'go to' players over the last couple of years have had a very average start to the season. Bohannon had a decent start against Surrey but since then he's had scores of 31, 9, 30, 0 and 5. Meanwhile Bailey has bowled 81 overs and taken just 3 wickets, in two of those innings bowling conditions were perfect for him. We have to hope that these two recover their form pretty quickly.

Batting wise the team has had 4 collapses out of 5 completed innings. 1 collapse is acceptable, 2 collapses are a concern, 4 collapses and that dressing room should have the alarm bells ringing. The only batting points we have acquired was with the kookaburra on a featherbed.

Worrying...

[lanky]

First post from me on here. I watch a lot of County Championship cricket and i have to say this is the poorest team i have seen in years. I appreciate we are without a lot of so called stars at the moment but the fact that we let some very experienced pros leave and replaced them with players not as good or not yet ready is a disgrace. Someone needs to be held accountable. Further why have we signed coaching staff who finished bottom of Division 2 last year. Its like Liverpool hiring Chris Wilder as next manager. Doesn't make sense. Again, this needs explaining. Anyway up the Lancs. Things can only get better.