There was no real surprise in losing to Lancashire at Old Trafford tonight, nor any disgrace.
They are to all intents and purposes a division one side and should be again next season. With Ashwell Prince and Simon Katich in their batting lineup they have international quality and we had no one of that experience in our ranks in the absence of Shivnarine Chanderpaul.
Wayne Madsen once again was to the fore, leading from the front as he has done all summer, then chipping in with a decent bowling spell and the prize wicket of Simon Katich. There was little support though, until David Wainwright helped him add 80 for the seventh wicket and Derbyshire's total, though reasonable, never looked likely to challenge Lancashire unduly unless they lost early wickets.
For Wainwright it was a welcome return to batting form. When he joined from Yorkshire I had high hopes that he would make a genuine all-rounder, having a couple of centuries to his name for the white rose county. It hasn't happened and despite a couple of doughty knocks last summer he remains a bowler who knows how to handle the willow in most eyes.
His bowling has been the major concern this summer and again tonight there were a couple of expensive overs as he was outbowled by Tom Knight, in a welcome return to the side. I just wonder how much his winter back problems have affected his bowling this summer, when he certainly seems to have had more issues with keeping a length than in the past.
Knight will be pleased with seven overs for thirty runs against a good batting side and the control offered by him, in conjunction with Wes Durston, took the game a lot closer than might have otherwise been the case.
As I said the other night though, this was about competing and experience. On both counts it was fair enough.
Just nothing to write home about.
We don't want to become a side that is losing game after game though Peakfan do we?. It seems to me that we put the surrender flag up ages ago, which is quite frankly unacceptable. Madsen has been carrying this side all season, and if he had suffered an early season injury, I don't think we'd have won a single game in any formats of the game. I thought the Sussex victory might have given the lads some confidence, but no the defeats keep on racking up. Very poor season.
ReplyDeleteNo mate, but we've had too many injuries and too much loss of form this year. Last year we largely got through unscathed, but losing for varying periods the likes of Palladino, Clare, Shiv to injury and Redfern, Whiteley and Wainwright to form has meant us looking for half a team from a young squad to fill the gaps - and at a higher level of the game.
ReplyDeleteIts been tough, for sure. But we regroup and move on
Didn,t see this game,having stayed in London following the Surrey match,but the conclusion to me is we are still light years from being a competitive one day team.
ReplyDeleteTwo wins in YB40,one of those coming against Scotland,suggests we are no further forward as a one day unit than we were two or three years ago. Apart from that opening salvo in the first three T20 matches,we produce a run of six defeats in seven thereafter.
On the handful of occasions we have won it,s usually been down to Hughes/Durston coming off at the top of the order. Madsen has done a reasonable job at times but for the most part our batting has been woefully inadequate.
Chanderpaul has managed three half centuries in twelve one day innings,a very disappointing return from a player we all expected to be far more influential than has been the case.
Rarely have we batted and bowled well in the same match,the last two games being classic examples.There has been much talk about Footitt and Turner and whether either should play in one day cricket. The simple answer is no to Footitt and sparingly for Turner. No team on this planet can afford the amount of runs these two have conceded this season and whilst it would be wrong to lay all the blame for our defeats at their doorstep,the fact remains they have been far more of a hinderance than a help.
We should have won the Surrey game with our eyes shut but bringing Footitt on when we did was a huge mistake and one we didn,t have to make. Had we kept Surrey in check, the wickets would have fallen anyway,simply from mounting pressure,but Footitt single handedly brought them back in the game. Leaving him out for the Lancs game is another example of a lessen too late for the learning.
If Krikken really believes we are improving as a one day team,then he,s looking in a completely different direction to me.