Do You Believe in Miracles?

THE FOUR MIRACLES OF ST MICHAEL?


Confidence is Rock Bottom
Batsmen's form is Rock Bottom
Notts are Rock Bottom

Would you remain loyal to the same batsmen that have brought us to this point, in the hope that this game is that game when they turn their red ball form around after waiting for nearly five months?

Mick Newell must have the patience of a saint with regards to the fallen angels that comprise his top order. Only a miracle can save Nottinghamshire from relegation this year, if not the four miracles listed below.

Is Tahir carrying a hand injury that will hurry his escape from this situation, I've not seen any announcement to the effect, nor have I read any mention of an injury, slight or otherwise. We know however that Stuart Broad has cried off with an injury for the rest of the season, slight but warranting complete rest from cricket with his county. [please insert your own sarcasm and disbelief]

So what little twists of fate do we need to turn in our favour, Michael's required miracles:

• We need others to lose.
• We need the weather to be favourable, at wherever we're playing but also where Hampshire, Durham and Lancashire are also playing. 
• We need to have the bowlers in an eleven to be able to take a further 60 wickets before the end of September.
• This fixture will partly help in this first round of miracles, with regards to a competitor losing and the weather, but Notts also need to win, something that we haven't looked like doing since April.

So who is in the firing line?

Apart from Mick Newell and his merry red shirts, who are the under performing senior batsmen:

Michael Lumb, who has only been saved to date by one week of fabulous form with the white ball and being a senior batsmen, who should have turned it around by now.

Riki Wessels, was dropped in the last game to hopefully sort his head and technique out, still one of the most popular players with supporters, but has not delivered the goods this year despite being a match winner with the white ball, except when it really mattered.

Samit Patel, some say that you never can drop Samit because he has always the potential to produce that special innings or that magical bowling spell and that he brings so much to each game, but Samit has let Notts down this season, a lack of concentration has led to rash shots and not going on to produce an innings of note when we need it.  Samit is Notts through and through and has only kept his place because he can turn his arm over to improve the over rate and stave off point fines. Samit has probable saved more points than has earned with the bat or ball this season. It is unlikely Samit would be dropped, as he is one that the eleven that the rest are built around but he is in the firing line. But Samit being Samit, you can't ever drop Samit.

Brendan Taylor, firmly established as one of the boys now in the Notts dressing room and that perhaps is where it all gone wrong. He started with a flourish last season, fresh from the World Cup, but then got found out by bowlers in the middle of the season to some extent. To his credit he sorted some of those problems out and finished in a better place.  However this season, Brendan arrived with no form at all. In the friendly against Leicestershire, he couldn't time the ball and hardly hit the ball off the square and it was a blessed relief that he retired out after the whole of the first session in which he yielded 20 odd runs. All with the bowlers not at full tilt that day. Yes that was only a friendly, warm-up game but that lack of being able to accumulate runs with the resulting pressure to himself and team mates, has dogged him all season. The one player that could bat time and allow Notts to build an innings in the championship this season, has largely been absent in deed, usually getting a start but generally not converting it.   

Conventional averages can be deceptive so I've used the scores from this season for each of the batsmen, stripped out their 5 lowest (because Riki Wessels has managed 5 ducks so far) and their 5 highest scores.

Michael Lumb's modified avarage is 16.4 whereas Brendan Taylor leads the way with 24.6, closely followed by Samit on 24.0; Wessels is on a lowly 8.8, and probably deserves a spell in the seconds as does Lumby who has only scored 50 or more on 3 occasions all season (going back to the original data).

So what can you conclude other than it's not good enough?

Playing someone of new blood wouldn't have much if any impact if they were found to be out of their depth and drowned. Yes these senior stars have the underlying known potential to produce those large match winning scores but just haven't done it of late, when it matters. If Tom Moores found some familiar company within the eleven, then perhaps that spirit for hope, change and renewal would rub off on the others....... perhaps. No one is calling for change for change's sake but because change is necessary and is overdue.

Notts go to Chester le Street this week, a game both teams need to win. Notts also need Somerset to beat Lancashire and Yorkshire to thrash Hampshire.