A game that Derbyshire pretty much dominated from lunch time on the first day ended in a draw today, but we can take considerable encouragement from another fine display.
With Gloucestershire and Middlesex winning it was not the best of days, but after outplaying the leaders we can still play our way back into the promotion places - there is plenty of time in which to do so. Would we have won had the rain stayed out of it? Maybe, but then that counts for nothing.
This morning Ross Whiteley played another delightful knock, as did Greg Smith, but the ease with which they scored their runs suggested to me that the wicket had lost its devilment. Although Mark Turner took two wickets in his first over to complete a fine match, their was nothing we could do to force a positive result. Niall O'Brien and Andrew Hall (a good servant to Northamptonshire) saw them to a comfortable draw.
Some may suggest that Luke Sutton could have declared earlier, but he couldn't gift Northants a win after dominating the match and he obviously saw the wicket had eased. A correspondent on Falcons Forum suggested that we should have won and 'others do with five wickets down.' Yes, but not on tracks like that. We did ourselves in the last two matches...
So, another good effort and still plenty to play for. Time for the CB40 tomorrow and an opportunity to cement a strong position in that competition. Solid performances in different formats of the game - good to see!
Also good to see was an improvement in the club's Twitter today. I'll not flatter myself that my comments last night caused it, but regular updates arrived throughout the day and they were doubtless appreciated by all. A good team deserves good backup and support.
This Derbyshire side is shaping up to be a good team. We just need to keep it going now.
PS Another good write up by George Dobell on cricinfo
http://www.espncricinfo.com/county-cricket-2011/content/story/524480.html?CMP=OTC-RSS
A pity we couldn,t win it,but i don,t think we could have done much more. Like you say peakfan,the weather did Northants more favours than us. I think the declaration was about right. We didn,t want to hand them victory on a plate. I think this was one of those games though where the absence of a quality slow bowler came to haunt us. The seamers did pretty well,especially Turner but the lack of variety in our attack is a definate weakness and one we must give serious consideration to.
ReplyDeleteWe do still have a fair few games left and with a positive attitude and better luck with the weather,there is no reason we can,t mount a serious challenge. Well done to Whiteley who had a match he will surely remember for some time to come. Turner can also look back with satisfaction and hopefully this game will prove a catalyst for him. ONWARDS AND UPWARDS.
From now on peakfan,i think we should do a form report for each match,taking all things into consideration. Here,s mine.
ReplyDeleteGUPTILL (4)
MADSEN (5)
HUGHES (5)
DURSTON (7)
SMITH (5)
WHITELEY (9)
SUTTON (7)
CLARE (8)
GROENEWALD (7)
PALLADINO (6)
TURNER (8)