Tomorrow is T20 Finals Day with all the teams in Divs 1 to 4 taking part. Those who won their qualifying league will be playing for 1st, 2nd and 3rd, with the top two promoted to the higher league next season. Those who finished bottom of their qualifying league will play for 7th, 8th and 9th spot, with the bottom two being relegated. Those who finished second in their qualifying leagues are playing for 4th, 5th and 6th which means.......nothing much. Don't expect to see too many England players taking part in Div 1 (B). As for Div 1 (A) Kent are keen to win so you would expect a full compliment of England stars, plus they are batsmen rather than bowlers.
I have still not seen the NRR calculations which show how many of the teams finished up in their qualifying leagues. I assume someone has done the calculations somewhere? And the draft tables for the finals similarly have no NRR calculations imbedded into them. With each team playing their opponents just once NRR IS going to be a deciding factor in many leagues - good luck everyone!!
Div 1 (A) - Kent, Middlesex and Notts at RAF Sports Ground, Middlesex
Div 1 (B) - Surrey, Sussex and Yorkshire at Middleton CC
Div1 (C) - Berkshire, Essex and Warwickshire at Wokingham CC
Div 2 (A) - Ireland, Somerset, and Staffs
Div 2 (B) - Cheshire, Lancashire, and Wales
Div 2 (C) - Devon, Durham, and Worcestershire
Div 3 (A) - Derbyshire, Hampshire, and Netherlands
Div 3 (B) - Gloucestershire, Northants, and Scotland
Div 3 (C) - Hertfordshire, Leicestershire, and Oxfordshire
Div 4 (semis and final)
Div 4 (A) - Bucks, Norfolk, Cumbria and Cornwall
Div 4 (B) - Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Northumberland and Dorset
Div 4 (C) - Shropshire, Bedfordshire, Lincolnshire, Wiltshire
MD
02/VIII/14
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Surely Notts and Middlesex will put out their strongest team as all three teams would want to win.
ReplyDeleteMiddx have no England players and they are keen to win so should have their strongest team out. Notts have Wyatt and Gunn, who will probably play if only as batsmen.
ReplyDeleteIf 2 teams get relegated from Div 1 (so 2 of the teams in Div 1 (c) tomorrow) that must mean that 2 teams get promoted from Div 2 (so 2 of the teams in Div 2 (a) tomorrow). I take they are going to be sensible and ask the winning team in the 1st Div 2 (a) match to play in the 2nd match - if they ask the losing team to play in the 2nd match there is a 50-50 chance that they lose (again) and the 3rd match becomes totally pointless because both teams would be guaranteed to finish in the top 2. By asking the winner of the 1st match to play in the 2nd you guarantee that the 3rd match is meaningful.
ReplyDeleteNeedless to say the same logic needs applying in reverse for the sequence of the Div 1 (c) matches - so the loser of the 1st match must play in the 2nd match.
ReplyDeleteNote to ECB:-
ReplyDeleteRather than play rather pointless 4th, 5th, 6th matches in T20, why not allow, should the case arise, the 3 teams to play any cancelled matches from the CC on the day. Granted it would need at least two of the three to have had a mutual cancelled match (and this is not the case this year) but it would seem a more worthwhile use of time - especially if, as is the case this year, there are important promotion and relegation issues that could be resolved if cancelled matches were played.