2009 English Domestic Season

Here in Leicestershire everyone is in a great state of excitement at the news of our overseas player for this season, one of the true world greats.....erm...Ian O'Brien. Another mediocre trundler being exactly what we need, to accompany the mediocre stodge of Boeta Dippenaar's batting.

On the plus side lots of youngsters are set to get a good run in the team this season, the most exciting of those being pace bowler Nathan Buck. Another to look for is 17 year old batsman Josh Cobb, already established in the England U19's, alongside Buck and another of our promising young boys, James Taylor.


Edited by Clobber - 26 March 2009 at 10:40am

Talk of the devil, the young man has just made his maiden FC century today. Coming in still 40 odd runs behind in the second innings with 5 wickets down he's scored them out of 150 odd scored while he's been at the wicket, which suggests he's made of the right stuff.

It will be different for Lancs - they will flatter to deceive before choking at the final hurdle, same as every other year :D

Leics will hardly win a game this season, but if a couple of the young lads do come on, the longer term benefits will be significant.

I hadn't heard anything about that. This is only his 5th season here anyway, so he wouldn't be eligible for one.

Originally posted by Clobber I hadn't heard anything about that. This is only his 5th season here anyway, so he wouldn't be eligible for one.

 I'm getting old Clobs - he's got a benefit here in SA this year !

We might just see either of Vaughan or Bell in the midst of The Ashes. Bopara has a lot to do, and the Aussie bowler won't find him hard to dismiss. Maybe, Bell or Vaughan for the 3rd test.

Phillip Hughes has scored his 3rd 100 in 4 innings, with the 4th innings being a not out half century. He is in awesome touch and is loving the conditions out there in England. His first class average is now a staggering 70 - not bad for a 20 year old. England will have to keep a close eye on this little country kid from NSW. He honestly looks like our best batting find since Ricky Ponting debuted as a 21 year old against SL.

I still think he'll have pickings on the English conditions.
He took consecutive centuries against Safrica after all!!!

He's a fine prospect and through the offside is lovely to watch , but it's early days yet.  I don't think the South Africans did their work on him and gave him plenty of width. Hopefully the English are studying those innings and have plans. Like many freescoring youngsters it'll be interesting to see how he responds to being tied down - will he lose patience ?  If he does do the business over the 5 tests (an average of 40-odd would do it) then I'd admit that Oz has solved one of the problems resulting in the retirement of Hayden and Langer.
            It'll be fascinating to watch - it's always great to see new talent emerge no matter from which country.
   

Absolutely, agree with you both. He's just a great prospect which I'm really proud to see represent my nation. He reminds me a lot of Phil Jaques with his off side play and aggression, but then Jaques changed his style and he certainly scores a lot more slowly now, trying to be more patient. I see this happening with Hughes, he'll grow more patient and value his wicket more. He ended up scoring 195 in the 2nd division, and that goes along with his 198 he scored for NSW... he's got a decent temperament for a youngster to play an innings that long, no matter who you're playing (the attack he faced included Andre Nel, not a bad player I must say).
It's early days, but yes, if he can manage to average above 40 in the Ashes, the selectors will stick with him.
We still have Phil Jaques waiting for a recall, and Chris Rogers and Michael Klinger had the most amazing domestic seasons. So there are 3 back up openers who are capable, and Hughes will know this very well.

Yerp, good stuff from Patel. Not unusual to see the spinners among the runs, a lot of spinners I've seen have batted with some ability. Obviously I'm excluding Phil Tufnell because he's not really a spinner .

Warne has a test 99, Saqlain and Kumble each have a ton, Daniel Vettori has scored a few test centuries, Harbhajan can bat, etc.

Mostly... MacGill was fairly ordinary and Murali is just funny to watch.

Murali and Walsh were the two funniest tail enders I've seen.  Murali will swat after most stuff while Walsh usually would hide the bat between his legs against spinners.

Sad that. I must say you have missed some real fun.

His country man Dany Morison gives him close company though. Dany is equally bad with commentary as well.