There was one thing I forgot in my summation of yesterday and the prospects of today's cricket. That was that Wayne White has made a habit of coming back to Derbyshire and proving the decision to release him was premature and more than a little silly.
White is now a good county cricketer with bat and ball and often saves his best for Derbyshire. Today was no exception as our innings never got going and we avoided the follow on only because of Tony Palladino's heroics at the end. With Martin Guptill's injury forcing him to bat in the middle order, Derbyshire's order battled but never got on top of a keen but not especially dangerous attack. Full credit to them though, for persistence and working their way through a side that has thus far been on fire.
Not in this game though. Whether it is over-confidence or unconscious relaxation I don't know, but we will have to do much better tomorrow to get a draw from this game.
A win is not impossible, but occasional showers and today's batting leaves much to be done for that to be attained.
We'll see what happens tomorrow. Irrespective of the bowling or the conditions, we should still be a good enough side to get out of this one with a draw.
Don't prove me wrong lads...
More tomorrow.
We can,t blame the track this time,but we can blame poor batting. Too many of our top order are failing too often at the moment. Even allowing for guptill,s injury i still fail to see what difference it makes coming in a few slots down the order. We,ve paid the price for making the wrong decision at the toss. The ball is now in Leicestershire,s court and if they fancy their chances of winning. We need to show much more resolve second innings if we are to avoid defeat. For a match most people thought we should win,it,s turned into a bit of a disaster.
ReplyDeleteTony Palladino. Crucial contribution at the end of our innings. In with our number 9 and 40 needed to save the follow on, batted in slow and careful style. With number 11 and 25 still needed hit out immediately. Both well thought out and well executed. The vital 25 were scored in just over three overs.
ReplyDeleteWayne White. Pleased for him that his career has moved forward since leaving Derbyshire. However the over the top wicket celebrations and gesturing towards the crowd were disappointing. It was, after all, the former coach who made the judgement call to release him and not the spectators.
SR.
3.15 on sunday and looks as though the rain will dig us out. Yesterday was my first view of the team this year and it begged an alternative question to "how good is Derbyshire" - just how bad were Northants and Glamorgan? Perhaps this was just an off-day (or three) but Leics looked a class above us. There were obvious weaknesses in the batting but Leics quick bowlers looked consistently more threatening than ours in similar conditions, constantly hurrying batsmen into errors. It's not the end of the world, but I think we probably need to adjust some of our expectations for the year.
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