Starts Tuesday, heads up too for the 10:30 start. Weather seems pretty good up to now, but a lot can change in no time.
The trip to Canterbury back in early June was the beginning of our current six game unbeaten run (3 wins, 3 draws), we drew that one but put in a fantastic performance against a team hotly tipped for promotion. It was nearly the perfect four day performance, good first innings score, excellent bowling in reply, set them a target and try to bowl them out - only to see their last pair deny us for 7 overs or so.
Aside from Notts, we're quite obviously the form side in the division and had we not lost the 48 points we wouldn't be far off having a sniff at promotion. I said last week that I felt we could get 3 wins from the last four, so with one in the bag, confidence is up.
I believe Jennings will come good and with Latham partnering him I feel he's got good people around him. Steel has been immense, I think I've ran out of superlatives for him and Colly - our batting for once appears to be resembling something that we can be optimistic about for next season.
Mark Wood is expected to feature, reports suggest this game was viewed by 'Team England' as one he could play in, which may come at a very nice time following Coughlin's injury. It's a great luxury to have. I hope he's available for the other two games after this one, but it does likely increase the workload of Rushworth, Onions and Potts (providing the club don't see fit to rest him). It's probable that he'll have orders on how many overs he can bowl per day, but a hungry Woody, with a plane ticket to book, can't be a bad asset to have.
Kent won't be an easy nut to crack, they're still very much in the promotion mix, but as alluded to earlier - we've had the beating of them once this season. What's more, I think our lads are really enjoying their cricket again and with the pressure completely off I'm backing us to play a big part of the promotion shake-up - with Sussex and Worcestershire to finish.
No squad announcement yet. I'm picking:
Latham
Jennings
Steel
Burnham
Collingwood
Richardson
Pringle
Wood*
Potts
Rushworth
Onions
*Arshad if Wood isn't allowed to play. Would also consider Benny for Potts if the club are looking to limit Potts' workload.
The trip to Canterbury back in early June was the beginning of our current six game unbeaten run (3 wins, 3 draws), we drew that one but put in a fantastic performance against a team hotly tipped for promotion. It was nearly the perfect four day performance, good first innings score, excellent bowling in reply, set them a target and try to bowl them out - only to see their last pair deny us for 7 overs or so.
Aside from Notts, we're quite obviously the form side in the division and had we not lost the 48 points we wouldn't be far off having a sniff at promotion. I said last week that I felt we could get 3 wins from the last four, so with one in the bag, confidence is up.
I believe Jennings will come good and with Latham partnering him I feel he's got good people around him. Steel has been immense, I think I've ran out of superlatives for him and Colly - our batting for once appears to be resembling something that we can be optimistic about for next season.
Mark Wood is expected to feature, reports suggest this game was viewed by 'Team England' as one he could play in, which may come at a very nice time following Coughlin's injury. It's a great luxury to have. I hope he's available for the other two games after this one, but it does likely increase the workload of Rushworth, Onions and Potts (providing the club don't see fit to rest him). It's probable that he'll have orders on how many overs he can bowl per day, but a hungry Woody, with a plane ticket to book, can't be a bad asset to have.
Kent won't be an easy nut to crack, they're still very much in the promotion mix, but as alluded to earlier - we've had the beating of them once this season. What's more, I think our lads are really enjoying their cricket again and with the pressure completely off I'm backing us to play a big part of the promotion shake-up - with Sussex and Worcestershire to finish.
No squad announcement yet. I'm picking:
Latham
Jennings
Steel
Burnham
Collingwood
Richardson
Pringle
Wood*
Potts
Rushworth
Onions
*Arshad if Wood isn't allowed to play. Would also consider Benny for Potts if the club are looking to limit Potts' workload.
