It is rare that I am able to write a match report before the end of the game, but sadly this one could probably have been written before it started.
Warwickshire are simply too good a side for a fledgling Derbyshire outfit that rested several key players ahead of this week's Championship game at Leicester and was forced to omit Martin Guptill from his season swansong at the request of Cricket New Zealand.
When one considers that the likes of Bell, Trott and Carter aren't in this Warwickshire side and they are still able to field a side of that ability, you see the gulf between the two and what Derbyshire need to aspire to. There is no magic formula that will get Derbyshire's young players the requisite experience to compete at that level. For the second time this season we were well and truly hammered by Warwickshire.
Mark Turner bowled well, Alex Hughes didn't let himself down and Tom Knight had the onerous task of bowling at England players when they were going well, but 240 always seemed too many for Derbyshire, especially when Chesney Hughes and Wes Durston both went for ducks.
It is a shame that such displays always seem to happen to Derbyshire when they have done a lot of promotional work on bringing people in, or when TV cameras are present. The occasional fans will look at the score and think that it is the same old Derbyshire, nothing has changed and probably be on the boards having a moan about it tonight.
To be fair they are entitled tonight, as we didn't cover ourselves with glory, but there is a bigger picture.
Warwickshire are simply too good. Way too good for us at the moment. More important is an improved display against Leicestershire, who as I write look like going down to a much improved and very impressive Netherlands side. Sarwan is once again showing what a class player he is, but there is little support at the other end.
Here's hoping he used up his week's run allocation in this one...
The batting was rubbish peakfan. Warwickshire didn,t have to bowl well. The bowlers were nothing out of the ordinary,just a well set field combined with line and length and a distinct absence of short and/or wide stuff. The basics in other words.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn,t matter who the opposition is,if you play bad shots and get out the end result is defeat. It was not a mammoth total we faced and should have made a much better fist of it than we did. The only positives were Turner who bowled as well as iv,e seen him and Clare who at least didn,t lay down and die. Outside of that it was very poor. Even Poynton had a stinker today.
Marc - 100% agree - no use giving excuses here Peakfan as that was abysmal - i agree Mark Turner bowled well but rest (Knight aside) were poor and our fielding was shocking. Batting - well want can you say - was a joke (JC hitting aside)- you cant just roll over and die when you have a half decent crowd in the ground. No surprise to me - with basically a second X1 out there - as a long suffering member but how many will be persuaded to come back after that effort - i can probably count them on one hand - poor KK and Mr Grant
ReplyDeleteStill Crewe won at Wembley last weekend (and what a fantastic day it was) so still a few positives in last week
Dont think its worth giving gary park a new contract he looks shocking, he cant bowl and cant hit the bowl off the square. he just lost it.
ReplyDeleteI found yesterday to be a real shame as I thought we were in it until Clarke started to tee off.
ReplyDeleteWasn't too impressed with Wayne yesterday... at 66 for 3 we had made an excellent start, yet then I felt we waited for things to happen, rather than trying to make them happen. Fielders were all out on the legside for the spinners, giving easy singles as an example. Then, when Clarke was going at it I don't know why they didn't bowl the spinners more. To me, if a batsman is really going for it, take the pace off the ball and make the batter create the speed.
Still, as mentioned, there were some positives: Clare batted well, Alex Hughes looked the part, and Mark Turner (who I dismissed as 'fast but erratic' to my Grandfather prior to play) bowled extremely well.
Sadly, it was just a very poor day. But lets look at it objectively, one very poor day, in a summer that has - so far - been full of very good ones.