I don't know if Wayne Madsen knows any magic tricks, but if he can perfect a little sleight of hand that can produce a two-headed coin and an appropriate call at Headingley tomorrow it will get us off to a good start...
The skipper has lost three tosses running and we've lost two matches, the ensuing decision from the opposition skipper on whether or not to bowl being easier than that made by a hungry man who is offered a sandwich.
In the first round of rain-affected matches, every captain who won the toss fielded. Two subsequently won their matches, while Somerset lost at Durham. In the next round of six fixtures, five won the toss and fielded, three going on to win their game. In the latest round of six matches, five skippers actually chose to bat, but only one went on to win the game, two of them losing, with the other drawn.
It suggests that fielding first at this time of year pays dividends, but certain wickets (The Rose Bowl, The Oval) are already good for batting first. If one were to look at Headingley, Yorkshire were skittled for just 96 by Sussex on the season's opening day, so it would be a brave captain who won the toss and batted tomorrow.
Karl Krikken has named a thirteen-man squad, effectively the side that played Nottinghamshire, plus Mark Footitt and Chesney Hughes. Based on two decent innings for the seconds, I think Chesney will come in against Yorkshire at the expense of Ross Whiteley, who has yet to hit form this summer. I'd be inclined to give him a go at the top of the order, allowing the skipper to drop to the middle order where he would be so much more effective. The worry would be his footwork against a new ball, but maybe we need to see if it can work rather than base judgement on supposition. I just hope that Chesney, who has been involved in a few run outs over the past couple of summers, and Billy Godleman, who was involved in two at Lords, can get their calling sorted should it happen...
Mark Footitt deserves a call up to the squad after his six wickets against a Surrey/Hampshire XI for the seconds and would give us useful variety and pace. While Tony Palladino in top form would enjoy Headingley, he's not yet reached that and a blow on the foot yesterday from Stuart Broad might affect the decision to play one over the other. For what its worth, my team would be:
Godleman
Hughes
Durston
Chanderpaul
Madsen
Redfern
Wainwright
Clare
Poynton
Groenewald
Footitt
The irony being, of course, that omitting Palladino would weaken the batting - and substantially, based on his sterling efforts so far. Yet we need the guys above him to contribute now and reveal their true ability. When you depend on nine, ten, jack to score runs it is a worry, for sure. It has been a poor start, but the players know what to expect now and are going to play no one better than they've already faced. Yorkshire were, after all, behind us in the table last summer.
The Yorkshire side will likely be as chased down 338 to beat Durham, with England man Joe Root in top form and one of seven internationals in some format. Gary Ballance will no doubt fancy his usual runs against his former county, but the side is substantially one that we played last year. They have greater experience, but the sooner our lads go out mentally feeling they are on a par with the opposition the better we will do.
Fingers crossed the season proper starts tomorrow. Come on lads!
Postscript: Ryan Sidebottom rested for tomorrow, with the Yorkshire squad as follows:
Gale
Root
Jaques
Lyth
Bairstow
Ballance
Rashid
Bresnan
Plunkett
Patterson
Brooks
Pyrah
It will be interesting to see what team Krikken puts out tomorrow. There are several options open to him batting and bowling wise.
ReplyDeleteHaving been named in the squad one woud assume both Hughes and Footitt will play. Where Hughes bats remains to be seen,but I see little point in batting him loweer than 5. He may open but I feel krikken may resist moving Madsen after a better second innings against Notts.
Whoever plays,we need to hit the ground running and if we bat first then so be it. I don,t doubt we would have batted second in all matches up to now,but we can,t keep rolling that out as a reason for failure. There have been a number of contributory factors which have hindered our progress,some of which can be laid at our own doorstep.
I sincerely hope we can do ourselves justice in this game and lay some of our early season problems to rest. We need to respect Yorkshire but we certainly don,t need to fear them. Let,s get up there and get at them.
Player for player Yorkshire still look a lot stronger than us. Sadly I can't see us getting much from this match aswell.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand the angst here and elsewhere about our start to the season. Our batting was poor all through the second half of 2012, and we were promoted more in spite of than because of it.
ReplyDeleteAccepting that it’s mostly a young side that will hopefully learn from the experience, it was unreasonable for anyone to think it was going to be easy to do this quickly in Division 1 - particularly given our opposition in the first three games.
Even with the addition of Chanderpaul, all that’s happened so far is a continuation of last year’s second half pattern, exacerbated by the higher quality of some of the bowlers we’ve had to face. No-one should underestimate the challenge, as exemplified by our latest nemesis, James Taylor, who’s found Division 1 life a lot harder than Division 2. Given that none of our batters have his track record, why are we surprised that they are struggling?
Some will adapt (hopefully we’ve started to see the signs of that with Godleman, Redfern and Madsen) and others will be found out (hopefully not Whiteley, Durston and Poynton, who perhaps have the most to prove at the moment).
We’re still going to find things a struggle, and perhaps we’ll all adjust our sights to the reality of avoiding relegation rather than competing near the top of the table.
As I suggested a few nights ago, perhaps we should focus on why we’re missing catches and run-outs, and inflicting our own run-outs. As a matter of interest, if we’d taken our catches and run-out opportunities on day 2 against Notts (and everything else had gone the same afterwards, of course) they would have been 241-8 in their first innings. Cricket revolves on these small margins that can play almost as big a part as top bowling and batting.
In the meantime, Yorkshire and Durham look like the weakest links we need to focus on. But let’s not forget that we didn’t beat Yorkshire last year, and if my memory is correct, we got the worst of both matches. And Durham may be fading, but still would not have lost to Yorkshire if they hadn’t got over-confident with their declaration.
For the game against Yorkshire, I’d have liked to see Johnson given an opportunity to show what he could do as Tom Poynton looks out of his depth as a batsman in this league at the moment. But from within the chosen squad, Whiteley hasn’t delivered with the bat or ball yet (although he might have spat on the spot that Patel slipped on) and Hughes looks the better option. I’d like to see him bat in a more familiar position at three with Durston moving down. I’d want to keep Wainwright, who offers a containing option even on early season pitches that we’ll need with only three quick bowlers, and showed against Notts his qualities in a supporting role as a batsman. Finally, unless his bruised toes prevent it, I can’t see the case for Palladino being left out. He looked to me on Friday as though he’s found his rhythm and if the two catches off his bowling had been taken, his figures would have looked a great deal better.
Good points Notoveryet. As you say,the batting in general has mirrored the second half of last season and that is the most worrying aspect for many. Sooner or later the question may have to be asked about how many of the current crop of players are really good enough,even for division two.
ReplyDeleteI don,t wish to sound overly pessimistic but neither am I convinced players will necessarily become better through experience. If you,re good enough then you,re old enough. Most of our squad are no longer first or second season professionals and all have a fair number of games under their belt now.
I do feel we still haven,t really addressed the root cause of many of our problems;namely a pair of good quality openers. I,m not writing Godleman off by any means. He may prove to be the real deal,but then again,he might not.
We have rather muddled through in recent times with Madsen,Borrington,Khawaja,Lineker,Durston and others who have opened with only limited degrees of success. We can,t forget Guptill who in many ways masked the shortcomings of his opening partner.
I know it can,t happen in every game,but until we can make some solid starts we are always going to struggle. This was the problem last year when the middle order was exposed to a far newer ball than they should have been. It can,t do anyone,s confidence any good coming in at 10 for 2 or 25 for 3 etc. Your first three batsmen have to provide a base from which the innings can take off as oppposed to crashing before it even gets airborne.
I echo your sentiments about how we can improve our fortunes by cutting out some of the sloppy cricket we have witnessed so far. Anyone can make a mistake,we all know that,the point is we are making far too many and there is no doubt these have seriously harmed our chances in all three matches so far. It can be a fine line between success and failure and up to now we have been standing on the wrong side of the line. I still think we can get ourselves together and improve as individuals and as a team. We have to.If we don,t then we all know the consequences.
Keep calm everyone, and take a deep breath.
ReplyDeleteSo far we've drawn a Warwickshire side with two England Lions bowlers, lost to a Middlesex side with another England Lion bowler and one of the best fast bowlers in the world, and lost to a Notts side with two England bowlers.
Disappointing? Yes. But this hardly means that our batsmen aren't even good enough for Division 2. Today we're playing against a bowling attack without the firepower of our first three opponents, and as I write we've reached 89-1 at lunch. Despite having lost the toss again...
The lesson I'd draw from this is that our batting line up is going to struggle against top drawer bowling attacks, but against more mediocre bowling attacks they stand a chance of putting enough runs on the board that we have a chance of winning if our bowlers bowl well. Which to be honest, we all knew before the season started.
I don't know if this will be enough to enable us to reach the giddy heights of 7th. But I'm not writing it off yet, and I certainly don't think it's fair to say our players might not even be good enough for Division 2, or to suggest they are unlikely to improve when most of our team are a) young and b) many of them have a grand total of three Div 1 games under their belt.
Anyway, fingers crossed for a good result against Yorkshire.
Good points Oliver. To clarify my earlier comments, the point I was trying to make was the fact we had batting issues last season,which was obviously in division 2. I,m not saying we have a bunch of players who aren,t good enough for division 2 or even division 1,but for some,the jury is still out and there are still some questions that remain unanswered.
ReplyDeleteIt,s heartening to see us make an impressive start and this is where we have been lacking for some time and not just this season. We now need to go on and turn this into a potential match winning innings. If we do then nobody will be happier than me.
Oh Chesney Chesney, Chesney Chesney Chesney Chesney Chesney Hughes. What a first innings of the season this is turning out to be. Keep it going lads.
ReplyDeleteGood comments from all. Nice to hear from you again Notoveryet!
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