Well I am going to shout it out loud and I don't care who thinks I have cursed the side -
WE CANNOT LOSE THIS GAME NOW!
I'm not so sure. We will have difficulty bowling them out twice. Our best chance to win may be to set them a total in the second innings which they have a chance of getting.
Breakthrough, Shah gets Newton caught behind for 57.
113/1.
Sorry, not caught behind, just caught by Rouse. Billings has the gloves.
Must be strange for Rouse to be an outfielder, I'd imagine Billings is far more used to it seeing that he always seems to be a batsman only for England. I wonder which is the better keeper?
Billings, easily.
I personally don't think Billings is up to it with the bat at international level, but with the gloves I would rate him higher than Bairstow and Buttler, let alone Rouse.
Breakthrough, Shah gets Newton caught behind for 57.
113/1.
Sorry, not caught behind, just caught by Rouse. Billings has the gloves.
Must be strange for Rouse to be an outfielder, I'd imagine Billings is far more used to it seeing that he always seems to be a batsman only for England. I wonder which is the better keeper?
Billings, easily.
I personally don't think Billings is up to it with the bat at international level, but with the gloves I would rate him higher than Bairstow and Buttler, let alone Rouse.
I'm not convinced that Billings is miles better then Rouse although I agree he is the best of the three England keepers. Rouse is a very good keeper and has an excellent understanding of the craft - he is already an excellent coach at the discipline - it has been the lack of runs that has held Rouse back but he has certainly improved on that score in the last year. But Billings is better than Rouse as a fielder.
What is interesting is that Kent, on their own website, stated:
Adam Rouse keeps the gloves and Sam Billings will play as a specialist batsman in his first full Championship match of the season.
So why is Billings keeping? I would suggest that Billings asked to do the job as he's only done so once in the last six weeks and as much as you can train, there is no substitute for actually doing it in the middle.
We might even find that Rouse keeps in the second innings.
Even if Billings is slightly better than Rouse with the gloves, I'm sure he's much better as an outfielder. I can understand Billings wanting to take the gloves though
If Ryan Davies had stayed with us, he would have played a lot of cricket for us, either covering for Billings or alongside him. Instead he's now behind Steve Davies, who's well away from international recognition at the moment
If Billings has ambitions of keeping for England, which I am sure he has, then he needs to keep wicket for Kent. Maybe some pressure was brought to bear
Lead to believe Billings will be leaving Kent end of the season.
In the first half of this season, with his IPL, and England commitments, we'd hardly have noticed the difference anyway. It's not as if he's on a central contract either
Lead to believe Billings will be leaving Kent end of the season.
In the first half of this season, with his IPL, and England commitments, we'd hardly have noticed the difference anyway. It's not as if he's on a central contract either
Next year might be different though as he might not get an IPL gig and will still be behind Buttler, Bairstow and possibly even Foakes for England.
Comments
I personally don't think Billings is up to it with the bat at international level, but with the gloves I would rate him higher than Bairstow and Buttler, let alone Rouse.
What is interesting is that Kent, on their own website, stated:
Adam Rouse keeps the gloves and Sam Billings will play as a specialist batsman in his first full Championship match of the season.
So why is Billings keeping? I would suggest that Billings asked to do the job as he's only done so once in the last six weeks and as much as you can train, there is no substitute for actually doing it in the middle.
We might even find that Rouse keeps in the second innings.
If Ryan Davies had stayed with us, he would have played a lot of cricket for us, either covering for Billings or alongside him. Instead he's now behind Steve Davies, who's well away from international recognition at the moment
2nd wicket for Shah
150 is the follow on mark isn't it, so 23 to reach it?
The pitch being too good will probably affect attendance as well. I would have gone today if there had been a chance of a result