There's a home debut for Tillakaratne Dilshan and the only home T20 appearance for Hashim Amla tomorrow as Derbyshire entertain Lancashire.
It is in front of the TV cameras and against a side against who we rarely do well, so logically we should be soundly beaten in this one, especially since our record in T20 of late is little short of abysmal. By late, I mean since the competition began...
I would settle for winning at least one more game than we did last year, which means we need two wins. It's a funny old game though, as Jimmy Greaves used to say. How else can you explain Leicestershire beating a good Durham side tonight, and with considerable ease? I may need to revise my impression of them, though their T20 line-up looks considerably stronger than that of their four-day side.
As for us, Graeme Welch has named the following squad for tomorrow night:
Dilshan, Durston, C Hughes, Amla, Godleman, Thakor, Elstone, Poynton, W White, Wainwright, Palladino, Cotton, Knight.
I couldn't call the two to miss out, though Dilshan's good off spin means we have an extra bowler in the side, whichever eleven takes the field.
Lancashire introduce James Faulkner to English county audiences in a squad that lines up as follows:
Ashwell Prince, Tom Smith, Karl Brown, Steven Croft, Liam Livingstone,
Paul Horton, James Faulkner, Alex Davies, Jordan Clark, Tom Bailey,
George Edwards, Arron Lilley, Stephen Parry, Rob Jones
No Alviro Petersen, but plenty of hard-hitting batsmen and accurate bowling. We should give them a game but I suspect that on the night they will prove too strong. I would love to say otherwise, but a track record of one win in sixteen matches in this competition hardly sets the heart a-flutter.
It just needs one special performance though. Our top four, on form, is excellent and theoretically we bat deep, as long as we can avoid manic middle overs. There are plenty of bowlers too and as The Eagles once said - one of these nights...
I'll be watching developments, like the rest of you and will blog after the game.
We have won twice in 22 matches (going back to 2013) and one of those was that 10 over thrash against our beloved rivals when Hughes hit form. Our record is a source of shame and anyone who seriously thinks it will improve tonight can,t even use a touch of sunstroke as an excuse.
ReplyDeleteIt will follow the usual pattern of a solid enough start,a middle order collapse,bowlers going for around 10 an over and a sprinkling of dropped catches and sloppy fielding. Apologies for sounding so downbeat but some things just never seem to change. Anything other than most of the above can be regarded as an improvement.
you can see the efforts being made by the club to change this situation- so, stop moaning and try and be more constructive. The past is the past and cannot be changed but I do believe improvement in results will come at some point, once a harder mentality is introduced from ball 1. Every ball is vital and by the nature of this type of cricket, calculated risks have to be taken with the bat. I hope for a combative performance tonight.
ReplyDeleteShaun
Got to agree Shaun..cannot fault efforts and players coming in
ReplyDeleteThe problem is Shaun,the past is usually the best predictor of the future. How many years is it now we,ve been searching for a "harder mentality",or is we always take more risks than our opponents?. You,re right about one thing,results can only improve.The thing I want to know is when.
ReplyDeletehow about.... tonight
ReplyDeleteShaun
Wow. We looked half decent! Footitt sitting out makes sense as has been pointed out. Let's get on and win a few more!
ReplyDelete