After a long, long journey that included Dallas and Heathrow, we're finally home after a wonderful holiday that will live lon in our memories. Certainly longer than Derbyshire's T20 campaign will do...
On only the first three days of it was the temperature below 100 degrees and it peaked out at 112 on a day that broke local records and could easily have seen you fry eggs on pavements. If you are in any way interested in music I would strongly urge anyone to go to Memphis and Nashville and we managed to see some old favourites as well as some hot new acts. We also enjoyed a liberal dose of southern manners and hospitality, both commodities that are increasingly difficult to find.
I had planned to blog a time or two from Nashville but time overtook us and, to be honest, the computers in the hotel had so much rubbish on them (and an inactive firewall) that I was loathe to jeopardise my security arrangments on the site, so didn't bother. Sincere apologies to those who logged in during this period and found no updates. I can only assure you that normal service will now be resumed.
As for Derbyshire, what can I say that hasn't been said by contributors already? I obviously didn't see any of the games in the past two weeks, but to be fair, if you know your cricket you didn't really need to do so to understand where things were going wrong. In eight matches prior we had only two fifties, both from Wes Durston, and that is simply not good enough.
My concerns about Usman Khawaja's ability in this format were (and I have no pleasure whatsoever in saying so) sadly justified. His record for us was pretty much what he has done back home so far and with a highest score of 36 in eight innings he didn't come off. I think that his coming to Derbyshire depended on him playing T20, something in which he wanted greater experience and can only say that he now needs to get serious runs when we resume "proper" cricket in the near future. I think he will do that, but we need a major re-think on overseas players and on strategy for next summer's T20 if we are to be in any way competitive. That is something for another piece, another day.
It is handy to have a "go to" bowler, someone who can take the pressure when the going is tough, but it is fair to say that Rana Naved has not been the player we expected either. He was out of season and rusty when he got here and it showed in early matches when he was hit more than in his prime. He has improved as the tournament progressed and has finished with an economy rate of just under nine, but that sees him seventh among regular Derbyshire bowlers. A few decent cameos with the bat (especially today) were appreciated, but the feeling persists that he could and should have batted higher to better effect. I don't feel Naved has done enough to warrant a return next summer, but much will depend on the availaibility of players in what will be a very hard season in which to recruit overseas stars.
The bowling hasn't generally been the problem, with most of the players returning decent economy rates but no one proving especially penetrative either. Jonathan Clare is not yet the T20 bowler that he is in the Championship but there were decent efforts by most of the rest of the attack. With a little more to bowl at, a few more results could have been possible.
Young players such as Alex Hughes and Chris Durham got an opportunity and let no one down, but T20 is an unforgiving game and the merit of old heads in tight situations is obvious. We didn't have enough of them in the side, period and I just hope that players like Dan Redfern and Ross Whiteley, both of who made way as the tournament progressed, rediscover their mojos when the serious business starts again.
I suppose it is ironic that a team that has batted so well as a unit this summer in the County Championship did so poorly with the bat in the shortest form of the game. They will come again, I am sure, but no one will claim that the T20 saw any genuine form of progress in 2012.
Certainly not me.
Welcome back peakfan. Glad you enjoyed your hols and i hope you,ve brought some of that weather back with you. Heaven knows,we could do with it.
ReplyDeleteI can,t argue with your summary of an extremely disappointing 20/20. I don,t think any of us expected miracles but neither did we expect to do so badly. Most things have been said already and it,s now over to Krikken to come up with some solutions to spare us further pain next season. Our two overseas players just haven,t done it,but then neither have most of our own. We have shot ourselves in the foot at almost every opportunity. The whole thing has been wrong,from team selection through tactics and not least,some shoddy performances on the field itself. The word disaster sums up our entire one day campaign.
What were we playing at today. Naved could've won us that game, but in the penultimate over there were 5 dot balls with Naved not on strike. Very poor indeed. Why don't we ask if we can pull out of future T20's, because we're an embarrasment and not competitive at all. Let's get back to the proper stuff please.
ReplyDeleteWith respect mark,the one day stuff is just as important as the Championship. At least it should be,considering the obvious financial benefits from being remotely successful. So few people watch 4 day cricket these days. That,s not to say I wouldn,t be rejoicing with everyone else,should we gain promotion,but we simply have to turn things around in limited over format.
ReplyDeleteGiven a choice,the majority of people would sooner have a good one day side and a less good four day team.
I've found the T20 both frustrating and disappointing this year.
ReplyDeleteFrustrating that, as was evident last year, we have difficulty converting good situations into wins e.g. both games v Leicesteshire.
Disappointing that so many players seemed to be totally out of form at the same time, especially the batsmen.
However, the main business of the season returns soon at Chesterfield with the home v Yorkshire.
I've read this weekend that Yorkshire will be without Mitchell Starc for their next two CC games - don't forget they are away at Hampshire this week, which is their game in hand on us and the game at Queen's Park.
They also are missing Ryan Sidebottom until the end of July at the earliest and Andrew Gale is also doubtful for at least this week.
To strengthen their bowling, they have signed Steven Harmison on loan for a month - a move that doesn't seem to have gone down too well on the White Rose Forum as they let Shahzad go to Lancs earlier on in the season. The Forum suggests Yorkshire will have difficulty bowling sides out twice and that Harmison doesn't add a great deal to their probable attack of Patterson, Pyrah, Wardlaw, Rafiq etc. So far this season, Harmison has taken 6 wickets at a cost of 38.17 in three matches.