Wonderful, professional, remarkable and - to be honest - in a league of their own.
But enough about Rush and their three and a quarter hour show at the SECC tonight. This is an occasion to celebrate a terrific effort by Wayne Madsen and Shivnarine Chanderpaul that has put Derbyshire firmly in the box seat against Surrey on day one.
When two wickets went down early after Wayne Madsen won the toss again (party on, Wayne!) supporters can be excused for fearing the worst. But our West Indian star and the skipper batted with sensible aggression, never allowing the bowlers to get on top and scoring at four runs an over.
At 232-2 we are in fantasy territory with both batsmen there to fight another day. Shiv completed a superb century from only 115 balls, while it would be just if the skipper were to do the same tomorrow morning.
There's still much to do and we will want 400-plus, but by any standards that was a wonderful start and a great effort by both.
One final word in closing folks. There was a bit of silliness in comments below yesterday's post and I have deleted three. Please put a name to a post if you don't log in. If you don't do so, I will delete them. I am quite happy for you to have an opinion that challenges mine if you can argue a point and have no issue with constructive criticism about the club, but this site will not become a Mecca for the harbingers of doom and the ones just wanting to be daft.
Still, tonight I close with a toast to Wayne Madsen and Shivnarine Chanderpaul.
And Rush, of course...
This was a day when the stats didn't lie. The batting in the partnership was very good indeed - positive from the word go with lots of top quality drives for four, straight and on both sides of the wicket. For significant periods of time neither batsman looked remotely like getting out. Let's hope for more of this on day 2 and later in the season.
ReplyDeleteSR
Not getting carried away by yesterdays total by any means. Look what happened this season against Yorkshire when we posted a huge first innings, yes we lost. We usually find that with Derbyshire the batting and bowling never quite go together, so whilst the batsmen might do their job, the bowling usually goes to pot, or vice versa. But yes Peakfan I agree, we certainly shouldn't lose this one.
ReplyDeleteIt was a good day yesterday, the only thing I would take issue with was the amount of time lost. I'm quite sure they could have got underway much earlier than they did.
ReplyDeleteThe Madsen and Chanderpaul show was a real shot in the arm and if that didn't give some confidence to the rest of the players then nothing will. I'm glad Madsen had the sense and courage to bat. It was the right decision and unless there are genuine reasons to the contrary, it is always best to bat first in my view. We are now fast approaching a position where we can dictate the pace of the game.
It was good to see some urgency and once the pair got in we were treated to some very good strokeplay. It just shows what can be done with a positive mindset. The task now is to press the accelerator even harder and get to 350 plus as soon as possible. We may have to take a gamble or two over the coming days but we have to do everything possible to win this game. A draw is only going to benefit Surrey and Somerset.
We also need to be aggressive when it comes to bowling. We require wickets and I would sacrifice a few runs from the seamers in order to achieve that gaol. Five for a hundred in twenty overs is preferable to two for fifty.
Batting first also gives Wainwright and Durston the chance to bowl on a wearing pitch when Surrey bat for a second time. Wainwright has really got to get his finger out in this match and produce a performance to justify his selection. We can really turn the screw today and get ourselves into a very strong position. Fingers crossed.