Not long now until the weekend and the fast-approaching visit of Derbyshire to Edinburgh, for the YB40 fixture against Scotland.
The good news is that there's an encouraging forecast wherever you look and it is set to be a partially cloudy day with some sunny intervals. Given that most of the intervening period appears to be dry and sunny, those of you preparing to head north for the fixture should be able to do so with a degree of confidence.
I've seen Derbyshire play up here on several occasions now, but have never seen us produce a really confident, professional display. The Scots present a decent banana skin for counties, though their bowling is generally more reliable than the batting. One or two of the current side - Richie Berrington and Preston Mommsen to name but two - have had trials down south but never quite impressed enough yet to earn a county deal.
Of all of their players Mommsen would appear the best bet to do so. At 26 he's trialled with Kent, Leicestershire and Northamptonshire and the South African born player has a good record for the Scots. A batting average of 32 and bowling one of 28 is indicative of a bloke who can play and this year he has followed an unbeaten 60 against Hampshire with an unbeaten 70 against Essex, where he also took 2-20 with his off-breaks. For me he bats too low in the side, but he will be one to watch on Sunday.
So too is Majid Haq, at 30 a fine servant to Scottish cricket, whose aggressive strokeplay enlivens many an innings as well as his wily off-spin can put the brakes on the opposition. They are a team with a few county imports, with former Warwickshire stalwart Neil Carter among them, and they should be underestimated at our peril.
By the same token, Derbyshire SHOULD win and I hope to see a few batsmen finding some of that elusive form on Sunday, as well as bowling of greater discipline than of late. As the saying goes, a win is a win and if we can come out of the game unbeaten in this competition after two games it could serve as the catalyst to the rest of the season.
Onto other matters and there's a fine match report on Yorkshire's site of what appears a close-run game between our and their Academy sides. Given the Yorkies traditional strength in this age group, it would appear our lads ran them close and we seem to have some good ones coming through at the moment.
It is inevitable that some won't make it and as has been said a few times on here of late, everyone has a limit to which their talents can take them. There was a good line on Pointless on TV last night, where Richard Osman said that people spend their lives craving promotions and eventually end up in a job that, in most cases, they can't do. It is sad when some very good players are ultimately remembered in this way. Graeme Hick, for example, is recalled as a player 'just short' of Test class, despite scoring over a hundred centuries and only coming up short against the very good pace attacks of his era. Many of us would settle for 'failing' in such a way...
I played a few games over the years against a very good player who had first-class experience, representing Oxford University for two summers where he had done OK, without being spectacular. He batted beautifully and bowled spinners that you heard 'fizz' on the way down to you.
Every week he scored at least 50 for his club, some way removed from the top tier of the Scottish game, and regularly scored a hundred. He took loads of wickets too, but when asked why he was playing at a level that was considerably beneath him, his response was simple... 'I like scoring hundreds and taking wickets'.
It was hard to argue. His enjoyment of the game came more from personal achievement than testing himself against the best. People who played against him will remember him in years to come as an excellent player, which is no bad things I suppose, but it is still good to see lads who are prepared to fight to the top, countering the odd issue along the way to become the next Cook, Broad or Prior.
Long may it continue. I hope that some of them are in that Academy right now!
I once had the 'pleasure' of playing against Majid Haq in a friendly match. He was touring with the Scottish junior side and they played against the under 18's I was playing for. Haq went from 50* to 100* in the last three overs in the innings, hence why it was a 'pleasure...' scary stuff, but incredible to watch.
ReplyDeleteMind you, in full 'pinch-blocker' mode, I came in to help us bat out for a draw, managing 3* off 17 balls... sadly Majid's influence was yet to rub off on my more Paul Borrington approach!
We can't lose this game can we?. No, I refuse to believe it. If we can't win this one with something to spare then we really are up the creek. There's some good old Scottish names in their line up and here was me thinking they were all Mc or Mac.
ReplyDeleteI would be surprised if the team differed greatly from the Lancs match, though one or two changes may happen. We have to turn in a professional performance and hopefully some of our batsmen will not spurn the opportunity to score a few runs.
As everyone else is now filled with gloom, I thought that this would be a good time to sound a relatively positive note. Three of our four defeats have come at the hands of the form sides of the moment. We aren't the only team to have suffered at the hands of Yorkshire and Middlesex, including some that we feared much more. Most spectacularly, Sussex demolished Somerset today, who could be heading for a two day defeat unless they are much improved tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteThis isn't to suggest that there aren't problems for us to deal with, but it's worth having a sense of perspective and accepting that opposition teams sometimes win because of how well they play rather than how badly we play.
Given this, perhaps we should reserve post mortems and desperate measures until we've played Surrey and Somerset, both of whom have had starts that are scarcely better than ours.
It could be argued that some teams have become form teams as a result of beating us. Of course, credit sometimes has to be given to opponents but by the same token we haven't just been losing games,we've been pasted,therefore I think a large proportion of blame has to be laid at our own doorstep.
ReplyDeleteYou're quite right about the next two CC games. I don't think their importance can be over estimated and if we allow Surrey and Somerset to get away from us,I'm afraid there will be no way we could recover from it. These games mark the halfway point and out of the remainder, the weather may have more than a passing say in at least two or three of them.
We can still drag ourselves out of this but the recovery has to start now and by that I mean we have to start winning. Unless or until we post some scores of 300 plus we are really not giving ourselves much of a chance.