Pertinent comment

There's a pertinent comment from Derbyshire La La La on BBC 606 tonight, suggesting he has little optimism for Derbyshire's T20 chances this season.

To a point I would agree with him and anyone who has followed us over recent seasons will know we have been poor at 20 over cricket. Last season we came to terms with the batting side of the game - this year we need to maintain that AND bowl in the right areas more often.

I've suggested some names in the frame on this blog in the past couple of weeks. Morkel, Kallis, Parnell, Duminy, Langeveldt, de Villiers - we'd not say no to any of them would we? Realistically though, no one of them could win us matches alone. With a batting order of something like Rogers, Madsen, Smith, X, Peterson, Park, Goddard, Wagg and maybe Redfern, we should put on a decent total. We then need to bowl well, as even the best of batting line ups will falter in the face of decent bowling, full and in the blockhole.

If we score 150 in 20 overs we should win more matches than we lose, but as a few have said on the boards, we then need to bowl well, as a flying start too often last year gave the opposition the initiative they never lost.

There was an example of that tonight in the MTN40 semi final between The Titans and The Cobras. For once the Cobras bowled badly, allowing their opponents to post 274-4 in 40 overs. Robin Peterson bowled 7 overs for 30, but most of his teammates went for eight an over. With Prince, Kallis and Boucher in the opposition they had their work cut out, but even the Cobras line up, featuring Smith, Gibbs and Duminy struggled to match that and lost by nine runs. Peterson got a run a ball 24 and Kemp 71 but the big guns failed to fire.

For Derbyshire to do well in 2010 we need eleven players performing to the best of their ability in most matches. Sometimes a brilliant individual performance can win a game, but successful teams have contributions from everyone. Look at Durham. Their big names are obvious, but sometimes it is Coetzer and Stoneman, lesser lights, who win the games for them.

I'm sure John Morris will be impressing on his charges the need for team efforts in all cricket next year. We should be reasonably confident and expectant that Peterson and our other new man will give us eight decent overs in the T20, but the key to success will probably come from the other twelve and how well they are bowled.