The successful run continued at Derby today, though there were a couple of points when my earlier observations about the poor finish to our innings coming back to bite us looked like a nasty premonition. Last week I wrote that Darren Stevens is a very underrated player and he played a good hand today. Then James Tredwell, another man with international experience, started to open out after a steady start and looked dangerous until Chesney had him leg before.
As a one day game it must have been good to watch. Nearly 500 runs, a century for Martin Guptill, a fine all round display by Greg Smith and crucially a win that keeps Derbyshire in contention in the group. There was some erratic bowling today and both Clare and Hughes were more expensive than we might have liked, but at the end of it all a win is a win and thoroughly deserved it was.
Martin Guptill's innings illustrated how important it is to have one man bat through in one day cricket. With a little support it guarantees a total of substance and although we should have been nearer 270 we can reflect on another job well done.
What it does, of course, is set up a battle royal with Middlesex on Thursday evening at Lords. While Sussex still look the team to beat in the group (and we're still the only side to beat them...) our rivals oop north Yorkshire can do us a favour on Wednesday evening by beating them at Hove. Tall order I know, but it just needs someone to have a special game for them. If they did, and we then beat Middlesex, we would be top of the group on Thursday evening.
Still, that's getting ahead of ourselves - all we can do is continue to compete, win matches and see what happens elsewhere in the fullness of time. It is possible that we could make a mess of things in London, but again that should not detract from what is becoming one of the best seasons in some time.
They did a job today and full credit to them. Good show lads.
Would agree with just about everything you,ve said peakfan. One or two need to tighten up on the bowling front and we need one or two more batsmen to start contributing more runs. Too many keep getting out for single figure scores and not just in this form of the game. A bit more consistency required.
ReplyDeleteA good win nevertheless. Im not predicting anything about this week because normally when you do that with Derbyshire it all goes belly up. Fingers crossed though.
Notice Thornley got a few more runs for Unicorns. Gotta be worth a try,this lad.
Agreed on Thornley Marc and our innings was a crious mix of binary batting and four contributions of note.
ReplyDeleteYet still we won. When you manage to do that without all of them firing its a sign of improvement.