Tuesday 26 June 2012

A Peak from abroad

Greetings to all Derbyshire fans from Memphis, where the weather is currently consistently 95 degrees-plus every day and likely to top the hundred in the days ahead.

Self and family have been doing the music trail, with Graceland, the Rock n Soul Museum and Stax currently visited and Sun Studios scheduled for today. It is 8am here and tomorrow we head across to Nashville for ten days in the world's capital of country music.

Modesty (almost) forbids me saying that I am perhaps the first Derbyshire man to hit a six into the Mississippi at the end of an impromptu game of cricket at Mud Island yesterday. It is quite a claim to fame, though the "ball" was actually a pine cone - but boy, did it travel...

I note that we lost to Leicestershire in the T20, but given that we apparently needed miner's helmets, rather than batting ones, when we batted I wouldn't get too upset. At the risk of being repetitive, we've a long way to go before we're a good limited overs side and sadly neither of our overseas stars have fired in this competition.

A quick look this morning at the T20 averages told its own tale - only Naved, by dint of some not outs, averages above 20 among the batsmen and no one has yet made a forty. We'll win nothing with those sort of stats, no matter how steady the bowling.

I'll be back later in the holiday, but it appears that T20 quarter finals are still a somewhat distant pipedream, at least until we have two proven performers in the format on top of their game.

Now its time to go. The recording studios that gave a start to Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison and Carl Perkins, among many more, awaits...

19 comments:

  1. The way we are playing at the moment Peakfan,i would be tempted to stay in America.

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  2. I'll trade a t20 trophy (actually any number) for being in the Stax studios with Otis Redding at the peak of his powers (OK, any day). Not so sure I'd trade even that for Derbyshire as champions though.

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  3. Once again we suffer a far too easy defeat. Gibbs proves the value of an overseas batsmen that can hit the ball hard and often.

    Quite frankly i,ve lost interest and disappointment has been replaced by apathy and acceptance we will probably lose every one day game we play. Even Unicorns will be rubbing their hands with anticipation.

    We weren,t that good last season,as a whole,though Guptill masked a whole number of potential problems which have now been laid bare for all the world to see.

    One day cricket is far too important to ignore or brush aside as an irrelevance. It covers the meat of the season and basically,it,s what the vast majority will actually turn up and see.

    Lack of experience is no excuse and cuts no ice with me. We are more experinced than last season and yet we seem to be heading backwards,at an alarmingly fast rate.

    Without mentioning names,one of the problems we face is we have too many players who do,or should only play Championship cricket. For a club like derbyshire to carry such players is unrealistic. Specialist one day players can adapt to longer forms of the game much easier than the other way round.

    To put it bluntly,too many of our batsmen are virtually incapable of knocking it off the square,unless they revert to improvised shots that usually leads to their dismissal.

    It would be interesting to hear Krikken,s thoughts on where he feels we,ve gone wrong and more importantly,how he intents to put it right.

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  4. The big queston is will our poor one-day form hinder our championship campayne ?

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  5. The most appropriate comment tonight is "do what you've always done, get what you always get". There haven't been many reasons to question Krikken / Madsen selection policy this season, but the stubborn persistence with a failed formula is one of them. We had it with Borrington, it's well under way with Lineker, and it's here in spades with the persistence with a T20 batting order that has now failed five times in succession in exactly the same way. Durston, Khuwaja, Whiteley, Madsen looked wrong to start with, hasn't worked, and won't work. We are not T20 champions in any combination, but we aren't even giving ourselves a starting chance with this combination. This is well on its way to being our most futile and embarrassing T20 ever, and now that it's a lost cause, we'll probably see the towel being thrown in and half the second XI being played to rest front-line Championship players. Great way to build momentum for the resumption of 4 day cricket.

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  6. Absolutely right,Notoveryet. There is an almost endless catalogue of mistakes been made in CB40 and T20. Mistakes that could and should have been avoided,starting with the CB40 match against Warwickshire.

    Many of our wounds are self inflicted with poor captaincy,team selection and a batting order that has never looked right from the start. Even the most pessimistic can scarcely believe how bad we,ve become.

    Will this carry over to the Championship?. Who knows. There is every chance that it might,particularly when looking at our remaining fixtures. Losing becomes contagious and the fact we have lost so many games by a country mile can do little for anyone,s morale.

    We cannot afford to repeat these errors beyond this season. Cricket fans tend to be tolerant people but a similar one day campaign next season will test even the most loyal fans patience.

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  7. I've contacted the Samaritans for you lads. They said that they'll be in touch........but don't hold your breath.

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  8. There's one thing for sure, Al - Navad and Khawaja won't be returning next season. Navad has been an absolute disaster in this T20 campaign up to yet, whilst Khawaja has only looked slightly better. Like everyone else says, our batting is pathetically weak now Guptill's gone. Plenty more embarrasment ahead in the one day game yet lads.

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  9. Khawaja should never have been signed for one day cricket. It was a big mistake. Signing Naved looked okay on paper but yes,he has been a disaster. I was never really in favour of signing a bowler for T20. I can,t really see the point in it. It,s batsmen that win these sort of games (or in our case,lose them).

    There is little we can do now other than accept we are the worst one day side in the country. The thing that worries me is the fact we are much poorer than last season and i don,t see how the current squad can possibly change it. I repeat,we have too many players unsuited to one day cricket and for some of them,that will never change.

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  10. Hard to express the utter disbelief I feel about tonight's match. Leics need 34 off 2 overs with 4 wickets left - there's barely been a bat laid on the last two overs from Park and Naved (at last showing why we were so happy to see him signed in the first place). Surely a no brainer for the captain - another dibbly over from Park and a last over from Naved. Job done, surely?

    Instead, with Park, Chesney Hughes and Clare with 3 overs left, Groenewald with 2 and Knight with 1, Madsen decides on Alex Hughes in his second match to seal the deal for Derbyshire. Even the Radio Derby commentator managed a "surely not" at this, reflecting my, and surely every other sentient being's thoughts. Sure as day follows night, 23 runs came off Hughes' over, and with 11 runs needed off the last over, Leics were home and dry with a collection of snicks and flicks and a laughable dropped catch by Chesney Hughes.

    For once, we'd seen some flexibility in Derbyshire's approach. C Hughes batted where he should in the first three and repaid the faith, and for the first time, we managed to set a more or less competitive target. The bowlers pulled it back after a poor start, and at last the weight of having enough runs on the board began to tell.

    I'll paraphrase my starting line last night of "Do what you've always done, get what you always get" and suggest "Do what you've never done and see what happens next". I'm sure there'll be some idiot words about "Hughes hadn't gone for many and it was good experience for him to have faith shown in him by the skipper."

    No, he had the chance to look like a complete idiot, lose single-handedly the only game we're likely to in this competition, and destroy any confidence he has built in his fledgling career.

    This was crass, brain-numbing stupidity that reflects the management of this horrific sequence of matches. I say again - we were never going to have a great T20 competition, but our shocking inadequacy is incomprehensible.

    This isn't a "heads must roll" call, but they need to be kicked and kicked hard. Again, I recall the Luke Sutton / Steffan Jones comments on Twitter a few weeks ago, when they were wondering at Derbyshire's incompetence at 40 overs. Jones said he'd love a conversation with Karl Krikken about selection and tactics. If this hasn't happened, perhaps Chris Grant should find out what Jones sees that Krikken doesn't.

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  11. Tend to agree notoveryet - im still numbingly shocked at the defeat. Agree re Alex Hughes although i think the Chesney drop finally killed us - easy catch then stroll to the ball and let them run 3. wtf? Agree re team selection - it baffles me - think our T20 and CB40 was shot with the Warwicks team selection debacle - great crowd in and we put a second X1 out saving the players in form for a championship game that had a wet weather forecast all over it! Bonkers and it set the trend - nowhere near competetive - dreading the championship restart - we have to go all out v the Yorkies at Chesy - think Gups papered over some cracks methinks - hope im wrong

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  12. I hesitate to disagree, and in so doing I may end up being the only other one (apart from Madsen) who would have given Hughes the ball for the penultimate over - up until that point he had only gone for a shade over 6 an over (3 overs for 19 runs). So I can see the captains logic.

    Apart from Chesney (twice) there was another piece of sloppy fielding, when Jon Clare fumbled the ball and they ran 3 as a consequence.

    So to lay it all on the Captain's shoulders, and Alex Hughes, is a tad unfair methinks.

    Another thing, Naved's last over went for 12, but then again I dare say someone will blame that on Madsen as well!

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  13. At the risk of repeating myself,the way in which we throw matches away is almost beyond belief. Even Pakistan wouldn,t have dared risk it from the position we were in. They should bring in a Coroner to conduct the inquest on this one.

    Can you really afford someone to bat 20 overs for 50 runs?. No,is the simple answer to that. Durston seems to have joined the ever growing list of anchor batsmen we have. On the face of it our score was a competetive one,but it should have been much nearer 200. At least the usual machine gun clatter of wickets was reduced to the sound of someone having target practice.

    The bowling was very poor from numerous players,not helped by the usual extras we inevitably concede and some fielding that would make a schoolgirl blush. I,m not sure if Hughes can blush,but he damn well ought to after last night. His fielding is atrocious and always has been. People on here may recall my commenting on both Knight and Hughes last season. Whereas Knight has visibly lost weight and looks better for it, Hughes looks neither interested,nor concerned.

    Capaining Championship cricket is a far simpler task than limited overs,where you have to act quickly and think even quicker. Madsen has been ruthlessly exposed for a combination of naievity,inflexibility and in some cases downright blundering. It all goes to prove what a good captain Luke Sutton was. He was seriously under-rated by many,but not by me. I am quite certain we would boast a far better one day record had Sutton still been around this season. Two wins in twelve matches tells it,s own lamentable story and highlights there is much wrong and much work to do.

    As i,ve said before,the danger is this sort of form and a never ending run of defeats will carry over to the remainder of the season. If it does then we only have ourselves to blame and any tears shed will not be out of sympathy.

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  14. Although I share everyones disappointment in losing a game which was their for the taking I have to take issue with a some of the above comments.

    Alex Hughes had bowled his first 3 overs for only 12 runs so I think Madsen's decision to go with an in form bowler on the night was not unreasonable. I actually think his captaincy throughout the season has been excellent.

    Although Durston was not at his beligerent best he did score 55 from 50 balls, which suggests he did not see as much of the bowling as he would have liked but is still a strike rate in excess of 100. His innings helped us to a competitive score in a competition where the lack of batting partnerships as been our downfall. He tended to'sit in' whilst Chesney was firing at the other end. I would call that sensible batting. Ultimately, poor fielding cost us this game.

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  15. watch us collapse like a pack of cards in the championship now.

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  16. Fair points jasper and as always,everyone is entitled to their opinion. I still think Madsen has alot to learn in captaining one day cricket. For me he has made a number of crucial errors. Maybe he will learn from them.

    As i said earlier,yesterdays score was an improvement,but when you lose narrowly another 10 or 12 runs would have won it. That,s not to excuse some dreadful bowling,but nevertheless. No team should ever lose from the position we were in,but then that,s Derbyshire for you.

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  17. Some very sensible views there. I'm sure all were ery pleased to see that we beat Lancs in the same competition.

    Interesting times!

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  18. The "sensible views" seem to have dried up following a win !!

    Well played lads !!

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  19. Anyone else wondering why Durston hasn't been used as an all rounder as he was last year in t20? Seems a complete waste not to bowl him specially when hextakes two for not many against lancs!?? Is he not rated as a limited overs all rounder?

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