Post mortem on defeat

It was a shame that, after a number of impressive performances in recent weeks that Derbyshire chose their latest TV appearance to go back to old habits last night.


I actually switched the commentary off as you could almost hear the ‘tut, tut’ in the commentator’s voices and they came out with comments that were borderline patronising at times.

We’re better than that and once again the fact remains that we have to be at 100% in every game to succeed or to at least compete. Whether we eased off mentally, having beaten ‘big fish’ like Durham, Yorkshire and Warwickshire already and run Lancashire very close, I don’t know. The fact remains that in the context of T20 last night’s target was a relative breeze and we made a right cobblers of it.

Last night I was a little harsh on Ross Whiteley to suggest he was among those who gave it away, when the youngster was one of the better batsmen and at least played a couple of impressive strokes. Wes Durston went to the only ball that really turned and his dismissal sowed seeds of doubt in the minds of others. Martin Guptill chipped an easy leg stump four to deep square leg, Garry Park top edged a sweep and Chesney had the sort of night that highlighted his inexperience.

The big West Indian seemed to adopt a ‘four or bust’ attitude last night, not really the route to success in such conditions, while his running gave a bad name to frantic. The skipper was sold down the river and Hughes almost did the same to Garry Park. He’s a young talented lad and he’ll learn, but his inexperience showed last night.

We just needed a little savvy, the sort that Sutton might have provided. Madsen looked like he’d sussed things too, before playing for turn that didn’t happen. It was disappointing stuff and we need to put it out of our system and regroup before tomorrow night in what is still a very open section. Qualification is there for the taking for any team that can string some results together and that could be us as much as anyone else.

I’d have to say though that the wicket disappointed me. With the club’s new-look facilities there in front of the nations’s cricket audience and a potential local following there to be impressed, the evening produced only two sixes (from memory) and a handful of boundaries. Strokeplay, while not hazardous, was not straightforward either. Those who have seen the club’s impressive attempts at selling the competition and tuned in to see if it would be worth their while will have been mystified at the lack of the accepted T20 ‘action’.

Having said that, it was a good game of cricket with sadly the wrong result and not enough sixes for those for whom cricket isn’t otherwise cricket. It may have been a ‘blip’, such as that experienced by Somerset the other evening. What we now need to do is bounce back against Northamptonshire tomorrow night. Like Worcestershire they have their share of good players; like Worcestershire I wouldn’t say they were man for man any better than us on paper.

The thing is, we need to prove that tomorrow on grass. I said earlier in the week that two wins from the next three games would set us up quite nicely. We’ve thrown one away and now need to address that tomorrow.

Come on though guys. One defeat. No need to get TOO worked up at this stage.