GLAMORGAN come to New Road tomorrow for our LV= County Championship Division Two re-match and we owe them one after our defeat at the SWALEC Stadium at the start of the season.
The toss was a big factor in deciding that game down in Wales and we were on the wrong end of it, but they have some good players and it will be a tough game.
Not many people knew much about their Aussie seamer Michael Hogan, but we’ve heard plenty more about him as the season has gone on.
They also have a strong batting line-up with the likes of Marcus North and Murray Goodwin, while they have a decent middle order with Mark Wallace coming in at number seven.
We are pretty much half-way through the season now and, ideally, we would have liked at least one more win in four-day cricket. We need to make sure we go on a decent run now and, if we can manage another four wins in the second-half of the season, we will certainly be in the promotion mix.
We were disappointed to lose at home to the Netherlands in the YB40 on Sunday in a rain-reduced match.
The shorter the game you play, the more of a lottery it becomes. Had it been a full 40-over match, that was definitely a bat-first pitch, but that all changed when it was reduced to 18 overs per side.
It was difficult to know what was a good score and maybe we were guilty of losing wickets by trying to go too hard, too soon. The chase becomes a lot easier when you know the target you are going for and we were probably at least 20 runs short.
If I am being brutally honest, our batting has been very unreliable this season and myself, Moeen (Ali) and Thilan (Samaraweera) are the only ones who have been contributing enough runs.
In the second-half of the season, the other batsmen need to contribute more and stake a claim for their place in the side.
Tom Fell is a good player and he has done pretty well for Oxford University against the counties this season. He made his debut against Holland at the weekend and he has been given his opportunity in the first XI because others haven’t taken theirs — that is the harsh reality of the situation.
Also, Alexei Kervezee received confirmation of his British citizenship yesterday and that is good news for the club as we can now receive a bigger payment from the ECB in terms of our English-qualified players.
Despite the defeat to Holland, the YB40 remains an important competition to us and we go to Northants on Monday.
Although it will be really difficult to qualify from our group, white ball cricket is all similar and we need to get back on track in the shorter formats ahead of the Friends Life t20.
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