County Championship 2016 - Division One

Discussion thread.

Winners?
Relegation?
Most runs?
Most wickets?
Breakthrough player?

Winners: Yorkshire
Relegation: Somerset and Lancashire
Most runs: Alex Lees
Most wickets: Graham Onions
Breakthrough player: Mason Crane

.

Thanks for the thread, Jimbo. Should be good to go for the season.

Kiss of death from me to:
Winners: Yorks
Relegation: Hants and Lancs
Most runs: Varun Chopra
Most wickets: Chris Rushworth
Breakthrough players: Ben Foakes and Andrew Salter.

No problemg Guildford! Looking forward to the season starting on Sunday

Winners - Warwickshire
Relegation - Hampshire and Surrey
Most runs - Sam Hain
Most wickets - Chris Woakes
Breakthrough player - #ansariforengland

Olly - I'm surprised you think Surrey are for the drop. Not saying you are wrong but you normally seem to look on the bright side when it comes to Surrey. What's your thinking here? Genuinely interested, cheers.

guildfordbat wrote:Olly - I'm surprised you think Surrey are for the drop. Not saying you are wrong but you normally seem to look on the bright side when it comes to Surrey. What's your thinking here? Genuinely interested, cheers.

I do but I simply don't think we have a consistent enough batting line up for division 1 cricket, especially with Sangakkara's uncertain involvement.

Interesting. We'll see.

Winners - Yorkshire
Relegation - Hampshire and Lancashire
Most runs - Adam Voges depending on how much international involvement he is called up for. Jack Leaning if the answer is too much.
Most wickets - Jack Brooks
Breakthrough player - Mason Crane

Also think Josh Poysden of Warwickshire is in for a better season than Mason Crane

.

I don't really know the definition of breakthrough. How are you gents quantifying it?

Has Leaning already "broke through".

Strings Philander wrote:I don't really know the definition of breakthrough. How are you gents quantifying it?

Has Leaning already "broke through".

Each to their own definition, Strings.

For me, it's someone - probably no more than a semi-regular in his county side - who is going to do considerably better this season than in previous ones.

Btw, I did think about your choice of Brooks for leading wicket taker but finally decided Yorks might share the wickets around too much plus him perhaps missing some games through rotation.

Fair shout Guildford.

My thinking was that Sidebottom would take fewer wickets so someone would need to pick up a few extra to make up for it - and Brooks is that man for me.

That said - it could depend how much they are looking to play Willey in the long format, because he will take a few.

.

Difficult to look past Yorks as champions again - unless recent success has dulled their appetite. And I doubt that will happen yet.

Would tend to agree with view that Hants and Lancs are likely candidates for relegation.

Most runs: Ballance (on the assumption he regains full form but that England batting prospers and so he doesn't get an early recall.

Most wickets: I'll go for Footitt but I think it could well be Rushworth

I rate Leaning as well for breakthrough player (if he eligible for that category).

Before lunch on Day 1 of the season Barker's already taken 5-26 for Warks agains Hants.

I've always liked the look of Keith 'Ronnie' Barker since he bludgeoned a century for Warks against Surrey at the Guildford ground. Probably considered too agricultural for England but a mighty effective bowling allrounder on the county scene.

Great day for Durham.
Took Somerset's remaining wickets for a total of 179, Onions and Rushworth doing what they do, then extended the lead to 300 for the loss of 4 wickets.
Keaton Jennings making a century in each innings and well set with Collingwood to hopefully get that lead up over 400 tomorrow.
Not sure what the weather is like up North???

Been following the Durham-Somerset game through score updates and occasional radio commentary and I'm thoroughly disappointed. Is it a tricky pitch? Have Somerset thrown away wickets or been undone by missing front line bowlers?

I was hoping that the addition of Rogers to the top order would lead to some solid totals. Tresco and Hildreth have decent records and Abell has, I think, huge potential (obviously no bias from having been at school with him) but seems like it was a total collapse. Durham's always a tricky place to bat but Jenning's two centuries suggest it's not that hard.

Trott out for Warwickshire off the bowling of.... James Vince

Day 3 rained off and the forecast for tomorrow looks like Somerset have well and truly gotten away with one here.
Its a long summer but those points could have be expensive for Durham come the end of the season - a lot of the pundits have them to struggle.

A bit late for predictions but:

Winners - Yorks
Relegation - 2 from Hant, Lancs and Somerset - Relative lack of strength in bowling attacks.
Most runs - Ian Bell - Always score big in county cricket
Most wickets - Rushworth
Breakthrough player - Foakes - A younger keeper who can actually keep and bat

For Lancs a huge amount of pressure for CC bowling will be on Jarvis and Wagner.

Ian Bell gets a hundred.

Topley injured whilst batting so can't bowl. Leaves us very short

A good draw for us. Can see Warwickshire being real contenders this year. Strong in all areas, Chopra, Bell, Trott - Patel, Woakes, Clarke, Barker - they bat deep too.

Warks will be strong with Bell and Trott at 3 and 4. Whilst both have faded from when they were at their international best they are still far too good for most CC attacks. I wouldn't be surprised to see both right near the top of runs scored for the summer.

Sam Hain is also an excellent young batsmen. Batting at 5 below those two will do him the world of good from a development perspective.

Batting first against Lancs

Broad and Anderson playing for those with an international interest

And Yorkshire have left out David Willey in their first game.

Middlesex off to a good start vs Warwickshire. 75-0

Very impressed with the Middlesex line-up - looks very capable of a credible championship challenge this year. Who have they got in the spin department though? Anyone of note?

The Yorkshire line up though, looks ridiculous. Fearsome!

Sam Robson is on an unbeaten 50 as Middlesex bring up the 100 without loss against Warwickshire

Hi Strings and all - the lack of quality spin is probably the weakness in Middlesex's armoury. The two main guys they've got for that are Ollie Rayner and Ravi Patel. I see from Playfair that Rayner is aged 30 - difficult to see him really coming on now. Rayner's batting has sometimes won him a place over Patel although I feel the latter is better with the ball. Neither playing in the current game where they'll probably use Malan for a bit of slow stuff and to give the seamers a blow.

Yorks are my tip for the Championship, strong team for their opening match with importantly strong players waiting to come in. As well as Willey, Bresnan should be fit before long and pushing for a place. From this distance, feel it was right for them to go today with the 4 seamers they have.

Olly wrote:Sam Robson is on an unbeaten 50 as Middlesex bring up the 100 without loss against Warwickshire

120/0 at lunch.

Perchance Bell regrets skipping the toss and sticking Middlesex in?

Cheers Guildford. Top reply as always

Duty281 wrote:

Olly wrote:Sam Robson is on an unbeaten 50 as Middlesex bring up the 100 without loss against Warwickshire

120/0 at lunch.

Perchance Bell regrets skipping the toss and sticking Middlesex in?

I would think so. By choosing to bowl first, Bell has also denied Jeetan Patel the opportunity to bowl in the fourth innings where he would be likely to be most effective.

Unless the conditions and/or the wicket very strongly favour bowling, the captain imo should back his batsmen and try to win the toss to put runs on the board. I suspect away captains are being overly influenced by the new option available to them. Once more - the advice given to David Lloyd when he became Lancs' captain in the early '70s by Cyril Washbrook, Lancs' first professional captain two decades before that, - ''You have two choices on winning the toss. Bat ... or ... think about it and then bat.''

100 for Sam Robson, Middlesex 173-0

Century for Adam Lyth too

Yorkshire battle back from 41-3 to 240-3. Sigh.

Jimbo - don't feel too bad, Yorks seemed to do that a lot last season as well!

Meanwhile, a sixfer for Wagner as Notts are dismissed for 240 odd by Lancs, Read top scoring with a half-ton.

Hi Guildford, yep Yorkshire seem very good at that. They bat deep!

2 wickets since that post. 260-5 now. Could do with a couple more this evening...

Bairstow hundred as Robson passes 150...

Good day for English bats today

Gurney has bowled 5 overs today. Figures of 0-1

Hameed for Lancashire getting 18 off 99 balls. (3 fours....)

Robson passes 200 - well played young man

150 for bairstow

Should also mention I said it was a good day for England- I missed Compton getting a duck - so not all good

Yorkshire 418 - 6 and rattling along at a tremendous pace (77 in the last 10 overs ). Bairstow and Plunkett putting Hants bowling to the sword!

Good recovery from Read, Broad and the tail. Gets us to something to bowl at.

In the balance at 77-3, good session could tip this game either way.

Bairstow and Plunkett with a 100 partnership in under 11 overs. Plunkett with over 70 of the runs. Obviously forgotten that he is no longer at the T20 world cup

Double ton for Bairstow. Remarkable partnership going at nearly 9 and a half an over.

Fidel Edwards 145/0 from 23 overs, very unflattering.