This one went the way that most people expected, although for a good part of the day Derbyshire competed well.
Indeed, the early spells by Ben Cotton and the opening one from Tony Palladino were of a very high standard. To win the game, we needed to get into the home side's long batting line-up early and we did that, Ben Cotton removing both openers with a good ball and a fingertip respectively.
After that, the class of James Taylor, in particular shone through. Samit Patel is a fine player. but there's always a chance he may over-reach and his running is on a par with that of Chesney Hughes. Taylor could have been run out twice, but was saved by his speed, but an appeal for lbw by David Wainwright looked very close and pad-bat, rather than the bat-pad that the umpire adjudged it to be.
The fielding was a curate's egg. Wayne Madsen did some brilliant work, especially at short extra, but there were some poor throws and careless work throughout. I'd have to say that Gareth Cross has had better days - he was vocal and kept people on their toes, but a wicket-keeper sets the tone and he missed and dropped more than his share today.
To chase 314 to win, we needed something special from someone and the ideal person would have been Wes Durston, a naturally quick scorer. He went early, however and the chase looked doomed to failure from that point.
Nottinghamshire are a fine side - an affluent club, let's not forget - and even though they were missing several players they were not going to let this one slip. We needed to beat our highest-ever successful run chase of 286 to win and it looked an unlikely prospect.
Billy Godleman batted well for a while but played on unluckily, while Wayne Madsen built a decent partnership with Marcus North but holed out to extra cover, ironically a position where he had done so well himself.
It left a mountain to climb. I never felt Marcus North was in prime form and he's not looked fully fit to me this summer, perhaps the reason for his lack of bowling. He grafted his way to a workmanlike half century, but Alex Hughes didn't last long and neither did Scott Elstone. Both were undone by the wiles of Samit Patel and Elstone, to be fair to him, went to a superb catch by Chris Read.
There were some trademark lusty blows from Gareth Cross and David Wainwright probably played more fluently and innovatively than anyone in merry partnerships with Ben Cotton and Mark Footitt, but Nottinghamshire ran out easy winners by 85 runs.
It showed that much remains to be done, but this is a work in progress and it starts to go through the gears in the close season. The team can be proud of their efforts in making this stage of the competition from the unfortunate way that we started it two points behind the other sides in the group.
There's an obvious target for next year - let's go at least one better.
As expected really.
ReplyDeleteIt highlighted issues though which I expect to be addressed. Neither Elstone nor Hughes are getting anywhere near the runs they should be in the positions they bat and their place in the side will be rightly scrutinised.
If Derbyshire are serious about a winter overhaul that will make us genuinely competitive then we also need a better wicket-keeper than Cross. The good news about that is that he's probably already on the books and will be raring to go in 2015.
We have a fine young keeper on the books now in my opinion, in the form of Hosein, and I look forward to his season next year. From what I've seen of him in both county and club appearances, he is more than an exciting prospect for the club going forward, if he's not too busy with international appearances of course, which undoubtedly will follow. One to watch.
ReplyDeleteI think Hosein looks a top prospect too Malc, but am unsure on his future plans. If they include university, then we need another keeper for the early part of the summer.
ReplyDeleteI think Poynton is a better keeper and will improve still further as a bat.
Cross is no mug and we could do far worse, but he had a sloppy day yesterday, albeit not helped with some wayward bowling and poor throws
It was a poor display all round and with the exception of Wainwright,not one player enhanced their reputation.
ReplyDeleteWe had to be at something close to our best and in reality produced something close to our worst. The warning signs were all too evident against Lancashire and Yorkshire and while ever we continue to undermine ourselves,we will never beat these sort of teams.
We accept defeat too easily and too readily and to me the pyschological make up of this team is still very much in question. We chose to ignore some obvious team changes which have been necessary since the third or fourth game and yesterday our luck finally ran out.
We are far too reliant upon three or four individuals to come up with the goods,with the remainder contributing very little to the cause. We are still a long way short of finding the answers to cracking the shorter formats and will only be achieved by the introduction of new players who can fit into the format. It was all as predictable as it was disappointing.
I don't think that any of the players choked, I just think that the difference in class was highlighted. When under pressure, our bowlers served up full tosses and wides, the Notts bowlers managed variation balls that were dots or took wickets.
ReplyDeleteThe result was disappointing, but at least we had a knock-out game to watch at last.
Craig
I agree with Craig. The difference between the sides was one special player and innings. Notts fielded 5 internationals and we had one. You dont fairly benchmark us against that level and we didnt do that badly. There have been times to be critical this year but not overly so last night.
ReplyDelete