Thursday 2 May 2013

Yorkshire v Derbyshire day 4

In answer to Mark, who comments below yesterday's piece, I am not going to 'dress this up'. I always try to accentuate the positives and to look for encouraging signs in our team, but that is very hard to do after a last day performance that must go down as an absolute shambles.

The only conclusion to come to, after a final afternoon capitulation against nothing better than an average division one attack, is that this is going to be a very hard championship season in which we need to look more at damage limitation and respectability than anything more ambitious.

When you lose so horribly against a side that was promoted with you last summer, it is hard to see anything other than relegation ahead. It hurts to say it, but there should have been no way, after one of your players scores 270, then the opposition make nearly 700, that we should have been bowled out today.

Three wickets gone at lunch suggested travails ahead, especially when one was our star overseas player who didn't have the best of games. Yet Wayne Madsen and Wes Durston  took us to 139-3 before an appalling slide saw the last seven wickets go for just 24 runs in fourteen overs. It was the sort of thing I've seen a few times too many at club level, but by any standards that was poor at county level.

I'll give credit to Yorkshire's bowlers for putting the ball in the right areas, but I'd rank this as worse than Lords as a loss, because it really shouldn't have happened. I'm happy to absolve Chesney Hughes and Wayne Madsen of blame, because they did their bit in the match. Durston got a few runs in the second innings too, but if you take those innings out of the equation, we scored 140 runs from 18 knocks in the match.

Where we go from here? We keep fighting. There is an argument for bringing in Richard Johnson behind the stumps, but unless you're going to bring in Ben Slater, Paul Borrington or Peter Burgoyne, there's no batting options with Ross Whiteley out of form.

What we are doing as a club is absolutely the right thing for the long term. I still feel that we will be a good side in the medium to long term and some of these lads will become part of a very good Derbyshire side.

As long as we learn harsh lessons from this sort of display.

Because tonight is not a very good night to be a Derbyshire fan.

17 comments:

  1. It starts with NZ game, aside from Hughes, all the first XI batsman better be playing unless injured, as they need to get their heads around batting and for long periods of time.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's like Peakfan says though, there are very few options to choose from to improve our form. Early impressions are that Godleman will be no improvement on Borrington, which is saying something, Johnson is being overlooked already, and Shiv is struggling for form. It looks a real mess and I fear that we might not win one championship match this season, which would be calamitous in the extreme.

    ReplyDelete
  3. tend to agree peakfan - today was a horrendous effort and kirk and dave houghton need to earn some of their vastly paid salaries. Promoted too soon - in reality yes - we didnt strengthen much other than shiv who had a shocker in this match on what must have been a pearler of a batting track. massive gap between div 1 and div 2 and yorkshire (hats off to them today) have taken advantage of 2 of the 3 championship games when they have engalnds future captain (sheffields own joe root) in their team with bairstow and bresnan - will we win a game this season - im thinking chessie v yorks is the only chance weather permitting. resigned to finishing bottom and mid table in one dayers unless we get some reinforecements in - season over in may anyone? lets hope the players prove us wrong but i wouldnt put much money on it creweblade

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'd use disappointing rather than calamitous Mark. Yet we all must remember the inexperience of this side and the fact they have long careers ahead of them.

    Not sure saying Shiv is struggling for form is that fair either. A poor match at Headingley, but he hardly failed against Notts and was batting on his own at Lords.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Bitterly disappointing. Like you Peakfan i,ve seen some spectacular collapses over the years but this game probably tops them all,by some distance.

    The fact is we don,t have many options to change things around. Borrington and Whiteley are all we have as batting reserves and you know well enough my opinion of the former.

    We are similarly short handed for bowlers with injuries now beginning to bite. To expect the younger bowlers to succeed where more senior bowlers are failing is pie in the sky and just will not happen. Brooks has taken more wickets in one innings than most of our bowlers have managed to accumulate all season.

    As you say,Madsen had a good match and Durston got a fifty at last,but even here there are questions about players often getting out on or around the 50 mark,which has happened in more than just this game. A lack of mental discipline springs to mind.

    All the optimism generated from last season is rapidly evaporating and a sense of doom is taking over. We haven,t reached a point of no return just yet,but it is on the horizon and coming ever closer. Can we pick ourselves up after this mauling?. I honestly don,t know,but if we are going to give ourselves a fighting chance then we have to turn the corner very quickly. I still can,t believe what happened today. I really can,t.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Absolute shambles is about right. No team should lose after scoring nearly 500 in their first innings - especially in a 4 day game. The problem is that I suspect most Derbyshire fans saw it coming at the start of today.
    I would definitely give Johnson a game v NZ as he gives us another option as either replacing Poynton or a specialist batsman. Hopefully they get a bit of confidence back otherwise it could be a long, long season.
    We've still got the Pro 40 and 20/20 to come which based on previous years performances will send us over the edge!!
    Here's hoping it will turn around

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'll say it again, why are we all so shocked? (Although I have to say I can't think of many more abjectly shameful performances from a Derbyshire side - what must Chesney Hughes be thinking tonight?).

    For much of last year, we were a worse than average batting side in Division 2 and perhaps squeezing through to promotion gave everyone a false sense of perspective. Average second division batsmen don't become world beaters simply because they've been promoted, and there's no point in just chopping and changing. The next week has to be one for cold analysis and clinical assessment.

    So for my contribution to this, I'll offer a thought about the turning point of this game. Compare the last hour on the first day when we lost 3 wickets for 34 runs in 20 overs with the last hour on the third day when Yorkshire scored 152 for 2 off 20 overs. This was the difference between the two sides going into the last day, and the platform from which Yorkshire launched themselves.

    So task number 1 for Derbyshire in the next 7 days. What was different between the two sessions. Why did Derbyshire lie down and play for the close while Yorkshire flayed tired bowlers?

    The key point for me though was the second morning. Without a run scored, Redfern slashed wildly at a ball two or three feet outside the off-stump and was caught. In one brainless piece of cricket, he carried the last hour of the first day into the second, opened up the tail to fresh bowlers and a newish ball, and eliminated the possibility of Derbyshire putting the game out of Yorkshire's reach.
    I note he got out today immediately after tea but I've no idea how culpable it was so won't labour that any further.

    Much as you can love his sense of adventure at times, you also can't help but be exasperated by the way he fritters so much of his talent. It makes an interesting comparison between him and Hughes at the same age. Redfern has played twice as many innings at a much lower average, has two centuries in 60 innings compared to Hughes' 5 in 30, but has been a near ever-present for four years.

    So task number 2 for the next 7 days. Get right inside Redfern's head, and get him to think about the context of the game and his responsibility as his wish to see the next cover drive racing off his bat. If it helps, give Hughes the spot in the middle order that he cherishes, and make Redfern open to secure his place in the team.

    I said a few nights ago that Derbyshire's season was turning on margins, and I don't think the huge defeat here was any different. Our batting was spineless and dispiriting today, but the seed was sown in an hour's play on the first day and Redfern's shot on the second. That's what Krikken and Houghton need to focus on if the slide isn't to become freefall.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Just another thought on DCCC comms. No interviews, no chirpy tweets, deadly silence. It's all very well trumpeting the triumphs when everyone's celebrating anyway, but the real comms challenge is being straight and open when disaster strikes.

    ReplyDelete
  9. You cant use that excuse about the derbyshire side too inexperience, because yorkshire have as much young players as us.

    Dave.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Funny you suggest Redfern as an opener,Notoveryet. It was something I mentioned as a possibility way back during the winter.

    He came onto the scene at the same time as Ballance but there has been a marked difference in their progress. Ballance has turned himself into a reliable performer in all formats of the game and has some big scores on his CV. In contrast I think Redfern has remained stuck in second gear,prone to errors and is still a passenger in one day cricket.

    I,m not trying to stick the boot in him as I do think he has some ability,but throughout his career he has been unable to find any sort of consistency. All players have a bad spell at some point or other,that can be forgiven,the issue with Redfern is when he does make a fifty plus he invariably follows that with a string of low scores. You can set your watch for it. He,s still pretty much the same player now as he was when he started out.To me his shot selection often seems pre-meditated and not based on the ball he actually receives.

    Looking at one or two others,Paul Borrington is another classic example of a player who hasn,t made any disernable progress over a number of seasons. He scores runs for fun at a lower level,but stick him in the first team and he becomes a strokeless shadow of the player he might have been. He has some ability to hang around but having only one string to your bow isn,t good enough at county level.

    Whiteley is another enigma. A good fielder and a semi useful change bowler,but what on earth has happened to his batting?. Too much coaching,attempting to change his natural game,trying to be something he isn,t?. I can,t really say for sure but after a disaster of a season last year and a poor start to this one,all traces of the player who burst into the team a couple of years ago seem to be lost.

    I hate the word potential,because in the real world it means absolutely nothing other than theory. however,in Hughes we have a player of genuine quality who has the ability to turn a game on it,s head single handed. He too can be frustrating at times and gives his wicket away when he shouldn,t,but out of all our home grown players he is by far the best of them,and someone we must persist with. At least when he gets in you know the scoreboard wont be idle for long.

    Perhaps yesterday shouldn,t have been too much of a surprise. It wouldn,t have been in the past,but coming hard on the heels of the Notts fiasco,it was probably a little more than most people could bear.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Dan Redfern emerged onto the scene about the same time as James Taylor did at Leics, and both were of similar ability at the time. It's amazing how a few years later one of them has played tests for England, and one has an average barely over 30. If Leicestershire can do it when they have a good youngster, it rather begs the question what are we doing wrong.

    At the end of the day, if the squad isn't good enough, they're not good enough. It's a shame, but it;s still better than the bad old days when unknown kolpak's were failing miserably. Our only hope of staying up is to create result pitches at home and hope we get lucky a few wins. We still need about 4 wins to give us a chance of survival, we just have 12 games left to do it in instead of 16

    ReplyDelete
  12. MARC,

    Regarding whiteley its the australia curse, just like jon clare was looking a much improved player until sent to australia, then the powers too be start changing their action etc.

    Dave.

    ReplyDelete
  13. To stay in Div 1 you need to be at least the 7th best team in the country. In the old single division days that sort of position would be an excellent one for Derbyshire

    ReplyDelete
  14. All of the counties we have played so far will be much weaker later in the season when their England players are unavailable.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Looks like Chris Grant has laid into the team today after that Yorkshire fiasco. Not a good sign at all, and how long before we're looking at a new coaching set up. Krikken and Houghton aren't beneath criticism, and they'll be under huge pressure soon.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Good comments gents and thank you for them. Don't agree with all, but well made and showing your passion for the club.

    Don't see a change in coaching set up though Mark. That would be knee jerk and premature, especially given the type of structure we've worked hard to introduce.

    ReplyDelete

Please remember to add your name. Avoid personal comment at all times. Thanks!