Today's game was a bridge too far for an injury and form-ravaged Derbyshire squad, as they went down by 43 runs on the Duckworth Lewis calculation.
To be fair, we were well out of the game after Durham amassed 273-6 in their 40 overs and the early loss of Hughes and Chanderpaul left us needing snookers early in our reply. I was quite amused by the club Tweet this evening, which read "Rain ends Derbyshire's hopes at Durham", this at a point where we needed 116 from eight overs....
Unless Chris Grant had done a midnight trip to India and brought back a next four of Gayle, Pollard, de Villiers and Dhoni, we were well and truly screwed, whether the rain came or not. There should be lowered expectations, to be honest, as a side shorn of Durston, Whiteley, Redfern, Clare, Palladino and Groenewald has got to struggle at this level.
Yet there's some nonsense over on the Forum and again the usual barbs in the direction of Paul Borrington. Just in case some narrow-minded souls haven't checked the facts, Bozza scored 32 from 42 balls today, by no means a bad rate, while Chanderpaul got 11 from 21, Madsen 10 from 21 and Godleman 0 from 7. There is no substance whatsoever to blaming the lad today. Maybe we could have sneaked a D/L win, with someone suggesting we should have changed the order. But to what? Talented as they are, could you realistically expect Alex Hughes and Peter Burgoyne to hammer it to all parts? Wainwright? Maybe Johnson, but people need to be realistic. In Graham Onions, Durham have one of the best seamers in the country and the back up isn't bad either.
No side, lacking six key members, could chase that kind of total down. Nor should it be expected that we have a squad that could handle such losses, as we could no more afford it than many other counties. This is a difficult time, but won't get any better with petty moaning.
Burgoyne turned in a good spell of bowling and there were more wickets for Mark Footitt, but it was a tough game. Alex Hughes experienced the roller coaster of cricket after yesterday's fine effort, getting some stick against a good batting side with England players past and likely future among them.
Time to regroup. Time for players to keep working and supporters to be realistic. If we get a few players back we will have a better chance, but for now we celebrate individual success and hope that the light at the end of the tunnel gets a little brighter in the coming weeks.
Just a couple of points Peakfan. I'm by no means convinced the missing personnel would have made much difference. Whitely can't score a run to save his life and Redfern is a long way from persuading me he's a one day performer. Durston would in theory have contributed more but runs haven't exactly been flowing from his bat either.
ReplyDeleteOf the remainder, only Groenewald was a genuine candidate to keep the batsmen under some sort of control as Clare can also prove expensive.
I can see a reason for batting second given the fact there was rain around but to fall so far behind the run rate so early is rather worrying. The advantage in the early overs ls very much with the batting side with a hard ball and fielding restrictions In place. If you can't keep up with the rate at that stage of the innings then what chance later?. We made a mess of it and on the face of it we might as well have taken first knock.
It's only one defeat at the moment and doesn't seriously affect our overall chance of qualifying, though I seriously doubt that is going to happen. We need to beat Surrey and get back on the rails. It won't be an easy match but both this and the four day match need to be won.
On a side note, injuries always seem to come along when a team is struggling and rarely when things are going well. Strange isn't it?.
Maybe Scotland is our level Peakfan, I really don't know anymore. Perhaps the signing of Chanderpaul got us a bit giddy and we thought he could take counties apart single handedly. This sadly hasn't happened.
ReplyDeleteYou're spot on about yesterdays result aswell, if it wasn't for the d/l method, we'd have lost by a lot more than 43 runs, that is a fact.
Yes. Agree that we got the tactics wrong yesterday when we batted. In a 20 over game you would fancy 116 or thereabouts. We didnt make 80 in 16 overs and the lack of urgency with rain around was strange.
ReplyDeleteTactically naive you would call it...
Another big knock for slater in the 2nds, out-performing durston, and redders, surely he deserve a go in the first team now peakfan, what more has the lad got to do.
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