Anyone else think our batting line up looks very fragile ?
Crawley availability?? Denly looked well past it last season, Cox’s average is awful if you take out that big knock out of the equation, Bell Drummond struggled in four day cricket.
Great bowling line up but can see it being let down by that batting line up.
Anyone else think our batting line up looks very fragile ?
Crawley availability?? Denly looked well past it last season, Cox’s average is awful if you take out that big knock out of the equation, Bell Drummond struggled in four day cricket.
Great bowling line up but can see it being let down by that batting line up.
Wouldn't disagree with that. I do think that the one difference this season is that we have a bit more competition for places. Billings should be around when Crawley is playing Test cricket and when everyone is available we will have nine players (Crawley, Compton, Cox, Denly, Billings, DBD, Muyeye, Leaning and Robinson) competing for just six batting spots - with Steven (FC av 35) and Linde (FC av 30) to follow at 7 and 8.
With our bowling attack of Bird/Henry, Stevens, Milnes, Linde plus one of our other in form seamers we will, hopefully, not be chasing too many. And unlike some counties we are highly unlikely to lose more than one or two players for international call ups.
We are currently 14/1 to win the CC whereas Surrey are 8/1 (as short as 6/1). I know which is the better value given that Surrey only won 5 of their 32 matches in the last 3 seasons albeit that the likes of Burns and the Curran brothers might be available for most of the season
I assume Joe Denly is ok and raring to go? Weren't there rumours last year about him having issues, and maybe retiring?
I believe he is chumping at the bit now, first winter at home in 6 years, and recharged the battery's.. I think the whole England set up testes players mentally, and he was a little bit used and abused by England, and was a bit of a scapegoat!.
My betting, Denly will have a good season, and will be one of the best players on the circuit again.
Got a couple of matches already in the Wooley upper tier.
We are now invited to purchase our seats for the home Blast games as a priority category following tickets purchased last season.
However, I find it difficult to look so far ahead & due to the fact we've never had a problem purchasing on a match by match basis, I'm assuming there shouldn't be any issues doing the same this time. It's not as though we sit in one of the priority areas or stands.
Thoughts, please .
I would have thought it would be possible to get tickets nearer the time as we got the quarter final tickets ok. We've only bought tickets for the June 3 game as the only one we can go to. Got them where we sat near you for that game
Got a couple of matches already in the Wooley upper tier.
We are now invited to purchase our seats for the home Blast games as a priority category following tickets purchased last season.
However, I find it difficult to look so far ahead & due to the fact we've never had a problem purchasing on a match by match basis, I'm assuming there shouldn't be any issues doing the same this time. It's not as though we sit in one of the priority areas or stands.
Thoughts, please .
I would have thought it would be possible to get tickets nearer the time as we got the quarter final tickets ok. We've only bought tickets for the June 3 game as the only one we can go to. Got them where we sat near you for that game
Decided to buy tickets for us & pal, Don for 25th May v Somerset, 3rd June v Surrey & 3rd July v Glamorgan.
Got a couple of matches already in the Wooley upper tier.
We are now invited to purchase our seats for the home Blast games as a priority category following tickets purchased last season.
However, I find it difficult to look so far ahead & due to the fact we've never had a problem purchasing on a match by match basis, I'm assuming there shouldn't be any issues doing the same this time. It's not as though we sit in one of the priority areas or stands.
Thoughts, please .
I would have thought it would be possible to get tickets nearer the time as we got the quarter final tickets ok. We've only bought tickets for the June 3 game as the only one we can go to. Got them where we sat near you for that game
Decided to buy tickets for us & pal, Don for 25th May v Somerset, 3rd June v Surrey & 3rd July v Glamorgan.
Photo taken in the last hour of Seb with Carl Hooper who has been coaching him in Aus. The two will be going to dinner in the course of the next two weeks before Seb flies home so, hopefully, Seb will have a few stories to tell of his time at Kent
I was lucky enough to see Hooper take Yorkshire apart at Maidstone once in a county championship match. Local lad Gavin Hamilton was playing for Yorkshire as an aside. Hooper seemed to hit 4s and 6s at will that day.
Played a few games with Gavin at Sidcup in my teens, just before he went to Yorkshire
I was the first to give Gavin the opportunity to open the batting for an adult team when I skippered the Sunday 2s - he was 13 at the time and made about 20. I also used to have a bet every week with this dad, Gavin Snr, that the 2s would score more than the 3s who he used to play for on a Sunday. Lovely family but sadly Gavin Snr, Gavin's Mum, Wendy and his older brother, Andy (aka Hoots) have all since passed away.
DBD to captain white ball games in Billings' absence and Leaning doing likewise for the CC which rather confirms the suspicion that DBD will have to fight for his place in red ball
Kent are playing their first warm up match for the season against Warwickshire today. Kent are batting and the interesting aspect it that DBD is back to opening - with Compton. It it Cox that has been dropped down the order to 5 which suggests that Compton, especially as the only left hander in our order, will be the guaranteed opener at the start of the season and that DBD might be his partner until such time as Crawley becomes available - at which point he will either be left out or replace Cox at 5. When Billings then returns at the end of May, until Crawley returns to England, two from Cox, DBD and Robinson will, no doubt, be omitted.
We are currently 71-0 off 30 overs with Compton 36* (104) and DBD 34* (76)
Kent are playing their first warm up match for the season against Warwickshire today. Kent are batting and the interesting aspect it that DBD is back to opening - with Compton. It it Cox that has been dropped down the order to 5 which suggests that Compton, especially as the only left hander in our order, will be the guaranteed opener at the start of the season and that DBD might be his partner until such time as Crawley becomes available - at which point he will either be left out or replace Cox at 5. When Billings then returns at the end of May, until Crawley returns to England, two from Cox, DBD and Robinson will, no doubt, be omitted.
We are currently 71-0 off 30 overs with Compton 36* (104) and DBD 34* (76)
Incredibly lucky weather for March, don't they normally go overseas (in non Covid times) to practice in March?
I imagine Kent will play around with the batting order a bit, I can't see Compton with his uninspiring previous record for Notts being an automatic pick to open the batting
Kent are playing their first warm up match for the season against Warwickshire today. Kent are batting and the interesting aspect it that DBD is back to opening - with Compton. It it Cox that has been dropped down the order to 5 which suggests that Compton, especially as the only left hander in our order, will be the guaranteed opener at the start of the season and that DBD might be his partner until such time as Crawley becomes available - at which point he will either be left out or replace Cox at 5. When Billings then returns at the end of May, until Crawley returns to England, two from Cox, DBD and Robinson will, no doubt, be omitted.
We are currently 71-0 off 30 overs with Compton 36* (104) and DBD 34* (76)
Incredibly lucky weather for March, don't they normally go overseas (in non Covid times) to practice in March?
I imagine Kent will play around with the batting order a bit, I can't see Compton with his uninspiring previous record for Notts being an automatic pick to open the batting
They've gone from training indoors this season to out in the middle in a specially erected tent!!! My spies tell me that it worked well until the minimal number of wickets became very worn and batsmen were somewhat apprehensive of facing the bowling.
Compton did really well for us in the 2s last season. A bit like a horse moving stables or a footballer moving clubs, sometimes sportsmen just do better in a different environment. We signed him because of his 2s performances but also because he is that left hander - we must be the only County side in the country that hasn't had at least one of them - and that puts him ahead, in my opinion of Cox who has gone backwards in red ball since he scored that 238* - take that out and his average drops from 32.46 to 24.53. Cox also averaged 27.57 last season and DBD was even worse at 26.18 so Compton doesn't have to improve that much to command a place. In fact, he's been playing First Class cricket in Zimbabwe where his scores have been:
33* 0 13* 102 109* 42 79 41 110 45 56 17 22
The standard might be questionable but it does prove that he can score runs and if he does get a score in these warm up games then I do think he will be first choice. As I have learnt from experience, counties tend to give opportunities to those that want to play in the team rather than those that they don't.
Comments
With our bowling attack of Bird/Henry, Stevens, Milnes, Linde plus one of our other in form seamers we will, hopefully, not be chasing too many. And unlike some counties we are highly unlikely to lose more than one or two players for international call ups.
We are currently 14/1 to win the CC whereas Surrey are 8/1 (as short as 6/1). I know which is the better value given that Surrey only won 5 of their 32 matches in the last 3 seasons albeit that the likes of Burns and the Curran brothers might be available for most of the season
My betting, Denly will have a good season, and will be one of the best players on the circuit again.
We're on the North Bank area, Block 2 for all 3.
See you there !
DBD to captain white ball games in Billings' absence and Leaning doing likewise for the CC which rather confirms the suspicion that DBD will have to fight for his place in red ball
We are currently 71-0 off 30 overs with Compton 36* (104) and DBD 34* (76)
Live stream link below
https://www.kentcricket.co.uk/fixture/kent-vs-warwickshire/
I imagine Kent will play around with the batting order a bit, I can't see Compton with his uninspiring previous record for Notts being an automatic pick to open the batting
Compton did really well for us in the 2s last season. A bit like a horse moving stables or a footballer moving clubs, sometimes sportsmen just do better in a different environment. We signed him because of his 2s performances but also because he is that left hander - we must be the only County side in the country that hasn't had at least one of them - and that puts him ahead, in my opinion of Cox who has gone backwards in red ball since he scored that 238* - take that out and his average drops from 32.46 to 24.53. Cox also averaged 27.57 last season and DBD was even worse at 26.18 so Compton doesn't have to improve that much to command a place. In fact, he's been playing First Class cricket in Zimbabwe where his scores have been:
33*
0
13*
102
109*
42
79
41
110
45
56
17
22
The standard might be questionable but it does prove that he can score runs and if he does get a score in these warm up games then I do think he will be first choice. As I have learnt from experience, counties tend to give opportunities to those that want to play in the team rather than those that they don't.
Compton 59* (139)
DBD 56* (127)
Summer's nearly here !
Denly 30* (57)
Cox 12* (26)