Today could scarcely have gone better for Derbyshire, if I am honest.
We won the toss - as much a cause for a lap of honour as a win might be on this season's events - then bowled tidily before Mark Footitt completed a classic top and tailing of an innings in taking career-best figures of 6-53.
It once again highlighted the enigma that he is. After receiving serious treatment in the T20, he returned to his best, bowling fast and swinging the ball to be nearly unplayable at times. If he could do that all the time, he could be an international quality bowler, because swing from that angle and at that pace is both difficult to face and very rare. To be fair to the lad, he has consistently taken wickets this summer and has reaped the rewards of a lot of hard work on his core. He is fitter and stronger than he has ever been and both the player and the strength/conditioning team deserve credit for his work this year.
There was good support from Tim Groenewald, while Wes Durston chipped in with two wickets as Durham scraped their way to 253 all out.
It was a decent total but no more than that. Derbyshire must now bat and bat, putting big runs on the board, conscious that the totally barmy regulations allow Graham Onions to return from training with England to take his place in the side before tea on the third day. No doubt the thought of facing one of the county circuit's more deadly operators crossed their mind when a decision was made this morning, but the overcast conditions made bowling a worthwhile course of action. It could well swing tomorrow, of course and we will then see how we handle such conditions.
Ironically, after the discussion around Richard Johnson's elevation the opening berth, he saw it through to the close, whereas the more experienced opener, Chesney Hughes, departed before he got his feet moving. I still feel that it was a muddied decision in playing two wicket-keepers, but Krikken is the man in charge and had his reasons for doing so.
On that subject, I have deleted a post today by a regular - and usually valued - contributor who shall remain nameless. My reason for doing so was that I felt the comment was overly vitriolic, was a personal attack and included a statement that I felt was unnecessary. It would have been deleted before this evening in normal circumstances, but having been traveling home all day I hadn't seen it before now.
I like to think that the contributors on this site are sensible and will avoid such comment and sincerely hope that the one to which I refer was a one-off aberration. It would be very easy to set things up so that all comments require pre-moderation, but I hope that such intervention is not necessary. We are, after all, adults and should behave accordingly. Please note that I can pre-moderate and delete, but NOT edit comments, so if a sentence is wrong in a long piece I cannot simply remove it.
One of the joys of the site from my perspective is that it enables like-minded Derbyshire supporters to engage in discussion and light-hearted banter. By all means challenge my views and comments, but be ready for my reply! Please do not, however, make personal comments about very loyal and able people at the club - our club. That may be deemed fair game in certain environments and some sites, but certainly not on this one.
If the contributor concerned wishes to mail me and is unsure about what was unacceptable, please feel free to do so at the usual e-mail address.
If it was the longish post that was deleted (Marc?) I thought it was a fair and well-reasoned post. Must have missed, or failed to take in, the offending line.
ReplyDeleteA reasonable day but a look at the scores at Durham throughout the season show it is pretty much the highest 1st innings total so far this season (267 just beats it). By winning the toss and bowling we have pretty much guaranteed Onions will be fresh and bowling at us in the 2nd innings barring a large total from ourselves that we now surely have to make today.
ReplyDeleteStill don't understand the selection regarding the wicket keepers unless there are injuries we don't know about?
Some of the squads lately are a bit odd - Borrington seems to be a regular in the one day squads which you woulnt have thought he would be suited for but no where near the 4 day team?
Suspect today rests on Madsen, Chanderpaul and Durston for a big score
I'm still somewhat mystified as to why you deleted my post but I'm not going to take a mardy tablet, so we,ll just let it drop.
ReplyDeleteWe need to establish a healthy lead today if we are to excerpt some pressure on the home side. A lead of around a hundred should be a minimum target. I'm not sure why some people think that batting second is of paramount importance, particularly as most of our worst batting displays have come on days two through four. Anyhow, we are batting second so we,ll see what happens today.
Footitt must have got it dead right yesterday and came away with very impressive figures. I've got no problem at all with him playing four day cricket,indeed in this format he has turned in some good performances, but I'm a firm believer be shouldn't be considered for limited overs unless there are compelling reasons for him to play.
We could end today in a good position but it needs a couple of batsmen to get stuck in and make substantial scores. I hope we can do it.
Another batting shambles as I post on day 2. We're down, make no mistake about it. 48-5, you couldn't make it up if you tried.
ReplyDeleteDerby county 2007,all over again. we are totally out of our depth.
ReplyDeletejohn.
Hard to argue guys. Very poor effort so far today. Thanks for avoiding the mardy tablet Marc and please get in touch.
ReplyDeleteIt's coming to something when the (obviously incorrect) thought enters you head that the team should pretend it's T20, so as to post a bigger score.....
ReplyDeleteAfter yet another batting collapse that was largely due to edges, questions surely must be asked regarding David Houghton's role. If he's seriously supposed to be one of the best batting coaches in the game, we aren't seeing much evidence of it, as talented players like Chesney Hughes and Redfern aren't making the steps that they should. We're short on money as a county as it is, perhaps the money could be better invested elsewhere.
ReplyDeletethe issue of batting doesnt address itself by being in Div 2 next season(highly likely), last season we achieved success based on the lower order contributing far more than you would expect and whilst we signed Chanderpaul its doesnt paper over the fundamental weakness in our batting!
ReplyDeleteIt starts at the top of the order, we've created a opener in Hughes who is inconsistent and who knows how it may effect his game and signed a opener who gets nose bleed every time he gets near 30 !
Now we are using a wicket keeper to open after palying most of his cricket in lower order.
Good job Onions wasnt playing or we probably given Essex a run at lowest total of season.
i will look forward to my away trip to derby next season and the assocuited delights of the peak district, as you are coming straight back to div 2. i dont think you should be so critical of your coaches though, you are over acheiving as is to be fair. you have done extremly well to get into div 1 on the resources you have, and should admire that acheivement in itself, beating far bigger and better resourced (but much worse run/managed) counties, like hants, and essex. talk of competing in div 1 is i think wildly optimistic, and over expectant for a club of derbyshires size, unless of course chris grant does a 'bransgrove' and splurges on top players out of his own pocket. i dont thnik chanders has quite worked out for you either, maybe that cash could have been better utilised.
ReplyDelete