Friday 26 July 2013

Derbyshire v Leicestershire

In a nutshell, tonight, we all saw the challenge that Derbyshire will need to address over the winter.

Inconsistency.

The bowling was largely OK, with good efforts from young spinners Redfern and Burgoyne, as well as an encouraging one from Alex Hughes. Tim Groenewald also bowled a splendid spell, although Mark Turner was again more expensive than he and we would have wanted.

Yet the batting was awful. The heroes of Trent Bridge had gone by the end of the second over and apart from Chanderpaul, who hasn't had an innings for a couple of weeks, we were awful.

It is more fuel for the critics. It is another example of Derbyshire flopping when there was an opportunity in this format of the game. Surely if we can beat Nottinghamshire we can beat Leicestershire? The comments will no doubt hit my mail box sometime soon.

There is a big job to be done in the coming months. Not just in hopefully bringing in a player or two who could make a difference, but in repairing damaged reputations and bruised confidence. In assuring some players that they will be a major component of the club's future and in breaking it to others that they are sadly not up to the standard to which we aspire.

Somehow we must rekindle the spirit of 2012 and introduce players who can be the spirit of 2014, 15, 16 and beyond. Another sterling effort by the Seconds to beat Warwickshire today shows that there are some good lads in there, especially commendable when some of their main players were with the senior side.

The T20 has gone and the remainder of the summer MUST be one of offering opportunity to assess talent and potential. Results won't matter all that much, but we must hope for improved individual performance and a few positive portents for the future.

Let's be honest. It has to be better than tonight.

20 comments:

  1. 'Inconsistency' - is that your summing up of it?

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  2. No Anon..it came further on if you carry on reading....

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  3. what has happened to Dan Redfern? I remember him winning a limited overs game for us only 2 years ago.

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  4. Don't know. His batting has gone back a long way, that is for sure.

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  5. I have only been to watch Derbyshire once before during this season, vs Hampshire at Southampton in the YB40 where the batting was poor. Tonight it was worse than dire. I know that 2020 is not all about technique but there were some extremely poor dismissals. Anthony Ireland is a nice guy but a very average bowler......4-11!!!
    Sorry to say I won't be bothering to attend again in the near future.

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  6. frankly peakfan it was abject humiliation - ive just got back and aparet from enjoying the evening sunshine and a few beers the evening was a complete disaster. great crowd in again and we are pants. Timmy G bowled well, with useful spinning contributions from dan and Pete B - Turner was pathetic with every ball pitching half way down the track and dealt with accordingly. Fielding was shocking with us giving them 20 runs easily. that said i thoufgt at 151 we had a chance. 14 for 0 after the first over and then we imploded - nobody came out with any credit and dave houghton must and should consider his position - our batting was better with the same players before he came - still some will have their rose tinted glasses on and claim we are moving forwards - it was rank embarrassing tonight end of!

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  7. I agree Crewe Blade, Houghton somehow comes with this excellent batting coach tag, but every single batsman we have has got considerably worse this season. Krikken is another under pressure aswell and I feel he'll either resign or get booted out. I bet we regret handing out these long contracts aswell to several of the players, because I'd kick a lot into touch at the end of this season. Infact as it stands only Madsen, Burgoyne, and Poynton would remain. Season ticket sales will be very interesting indeed next season, record low on the cards I feel.

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  8. Please correct me if I am mistaken, but was houghton not the man in charge during the most embarrassing period in our recent history when we could not produce a home in in two years.it would be an interesting survey if chris grant was to conduct player opinion polls similar to that which John Morris was subjected to before his dismissal.

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  9. Obviously the wrong Derbyshire turned up. As I said in an earlier post embarrassing.All out for 71 in 14.1 overs against a very average Leicester side.Why do we persevere with Turner? He's a 0fermany in whatever form of the game he plays.Isn't there any lad in the second team who could be turned into a fast medium bowler? I remember Harold Rhodes was a spin bowler in his youth but was turned into an England fast bowler by whoever was bowling coach then.Then we let a prospect like Ross Whitely leave for Worcestershire because of some crackpot idea that spending abount eight months in Derby will improve his cricket more than a winter in Australia.Why do I still support Derbyshire and Derby County after about seventy years of supporting both?

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  10. Yes, last night was abject, woeful, dire, abysmal, say what you like... All in all it was pretty pathetic. Disappointing, yes... massive surprise, no.

    Something has gone seriously wrong this season, and confidence and form for a number of our key performers has hit rock bottom. Who is to blame the players, coaches, or just bad luck? I don't know but it's a situation we need to rectify.

    However i'm not one of those people who will say that we need a mass overhaul, essentially this is the side that led us to our best campaign for many years, as we achieved promotion. In hindsight that came too early, and we weren't ready for the step up to Division 1, but at least we've had that experience. The key now is to learn from it.

    Dan Redfern, Wes Durston and David Wainwright were three of our key performers last year, but all have endured nightmarish seasons. Yet that doesn't make them bad players. Last year we were raving about Wainwright's bowling, but for some reason it hasn't clicked this year. With the ball Dan has improved significantly this year, but at the moment he simply can't score a run. But that doesn't mean we should give up on him, he averaged over 38 last year, and there's no reason he can't return to such form... he's still only 23. And finally we have Wes, who has also had a year to forget. But again i'd persevere with him, and hope that he rekindles his form from last year, which was so integral to our success.

    Add to that the injury problems to Palladino and Clare, and the departure of Whiteley, and that's six of those who got us promoted last year in no shape to lead us to any sort of success.

    Chanderpaul has largely performed well in a difficult situation, but ideally we needed an overseas player to open the batting, not to bat at four. He's rescued us a few times, but can't single-handedly (along with the skipper who has been excellent) save us from this mess.

    The new signings of Godleman and Johnson (who i don't really understand why we signed) haven't really impressed, but to me the biggest worry is the bowling. We have plenty of spinners, but with a couple of injuries our pace attack is threadbare, and I just don't think that Footitt and Turner are consistent enough for county cricket.

    Over the summer we need to add an opener and a reliable pace bowler, but more importantly we need to get some of our better players back to form and continue the development of the likes of Alex Hughes and Peter Burgoyne. It's been a difficult season yes, and one largely bereft of success and enjoyment, but at least we've tasted life in he top flight. We know what it's like now, and next year will be about regrouping and playing the positive cricket of last year. The ability and potential is there, we just need to unlock it once again.

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  11. Pity there are no pits left in Derbyshire,we used to be able to go to one,whistle, and up would pop a fast bowler

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  12. Geoff T of Burton27 July 2013 at 15:15

    People keep referring to Palladino and Clare as injured.
    The former has never played a t20 game for Derbyshire and very few 40 over games.no one has ever offered areason why.
    The latter is not injured as he was playing in the 2nd xi game yesterday, but seems to be excluded from all forms of cricket at the moment. I dare not contemplate a possible scenario there.
    Please can we have less of this mindless spin from the club and more straight talking.

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  13. Geoff the above comment is not 'from the club'. Palladino tends not to be selected for T20, but is injured. Yes, Clare played for the 2s yesterday, which is often a run out to assess the fitness of a bowler about who there are fitness concerns. Or who isn't selected for whatever reason.
    Just for the record, no views on this site are 'club views' and are either my own or those of the people who make them

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  14. Geoff T , Burton27 July 2013 at 16:36

    Apologies, I was not referring to the previous comment as mindless spin, but rather info from the club in general.
    I realise comments on here are that of individuals.
    No one has ever offered a reason for dino's omission from one day cricket.
    If its a rest issue why does in not apply to the other seamers
    I'm sure there's not one dccc supporter who has not asked themselves the same question.
    The club is sometimes responsible for rumour mongering because of its lack of pertinent information.

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  15. I think everything has been said about yesterday,s dismal display. It was just as well I didn,t have access to a computer last night or else I would have been banned for life.

    One of the main problems we have is an imbalanced squad and little if any genuine competition for places. All we keep doing is juggling the same tried and trusted failures around in the hope someone may come off.

    We have far too many squad members who are incabable of performing to anywhere near the required standard in limited overs cricket and wouldn,t get anywhere near a one day team,except ours.

    We didn,t bowl too badly last night,apart from the usual exception of Turner,but we were let down by some dreadful fielding and dropped catches. As it turned out it didn,t make the slightest difference to the result as we failed to get even half way to the total,but it is indicative of just how far we have sunk as a team.

    It may be hard for some people to swallow,but the cold truth is we have several players who are not up to standard and if it were my decision would be looking for another job come the end of the season.

    I agree with a number of Washy,s points but I don,t really accept that Redfern had a particularly good season last year and Wainwright became less and less effective as the season wore on. We were kept afloat by the seamers who often bowled in favourable conditions and if all else failed we could usually rely on the tail enders to pull us out of trouble.

    I also struggle to accept we gained promotion too soon. There is no such thing as too soon. Either you are good enough or you,re not and I don,t think it would make a jot of difference to most of our players had it happened this season or three years down the line. If people believe everything will suddenly come right once we are back in division two,then i,m afraid they could be in for a very nasty shock.

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  16. I forgot Alex Hughes in my retained list. So that's Madsen, Burgoyne, A. Hughes and Poynton who I'd keep, the rest get rid.

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  17. Whiteley scored a few today....

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  18. Please get a sense of perspective. We were 4 from 8 going into the game which I doubt any of us would have predicted pre competition and in with a shot at qualification.Many other counties have performed far worse in this specialist format.

    Chanderpaul is hardly a T20 specialist and Morkel was gone, not that he really earned his dollar imho. One or two big players make all the difference in this format.

    Last night, the bowling was good bar one and the ground fielding very poor but 151 seemed par.
    Unfortunately after a good first over, the gung ho Notts performance, got into the mindset on a totally different lively surface which Ireland exploited well.The top order failed to assess it and wickets tumbled leaving the tail exposed far too early. It mattered not whether we lost by 70 runs because the damage had already been done.

    Of course, it was disappointing but the gnashing of collective teeth is really quite amusing and OTT. Some of it borders on manic. It could be worse if you are Australian.

    I see Ross Whitely played nicely today and good luck to him.Something, mainly injuries had prevented him kicking on this year at Derbyshire.

    Hopefully, we can perform well at Durham to finish the T20 with an even record.

    Bf.

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  19. straightnochaser27 July 2013 at 20:47

    You'd "get rid" of Chanderpaul & Groenewald?!

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  20. Thank you for all your comments guys. Some I agree with more than others, but thanks for airing your views and displaying the passion we all share for our club.

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