Sunday 24 July 2016

Nottinghamshire v Derbyshire RLODC

Nottinghamshire 340-7 (Wessels 114, Read 59 not, Thakor 3-78)

Derbyshire 275 (Slater 51, Critchley 43, Hosein 41, Gurney 3-47)

Nottinghamshire won by 65 runs

Local cricket fans had a good day at Welbeck today, with 600 runs scored and good entertainment enjoyed by all.

Realistically, the result was as one might expect, as a team full of international experience overcame a young Derbyshire side. For us to compete, one of our internationals had to deliver a big innings and sadly, both Hamish Rutherford and Neil Broom went for 20s, which has sadly become a season average.

The omission of Chesney Hughes was a pre-game talking point and whether he may have done better than the struggling Broom is a moot point, but the decision was made and there's no  point wondering at this juncture.

Derbyshire's main contributors were youngsters, who all showed a spirit that was impressive and bodes well for the future. Matt Critchley had a good game with bat and ball and has made major one-day strides this summer, while Harvey Hosein showed that he will, given time, be a very good all-round player for us. Meanwhile Ben Slater led off the innings with an array of shots that suggested a one-day role may become a regular occurrence in the near future. Ben can graft away in the four-day game, but with two centuries and a fifty in his last three List A games, he seems to have got his head around the one-day stuff quite nicely now.

Nottinghamshire's win was largely down to the late assault by Chris Read and Steve Mullaney. How they will eventually replace Read is a moot point, as he turned what looked like a sub-300 score into a very competitive one. A hundred runs from the last ten overs took it to nose bleed territory, this after Derbyshire had come back well in the middle overs. Rikki Wessels sizzling century helped them recover from the loss of two wickets to Shiv Thakor and such an innings had to be played at the top of our innings for us to get close.

Despite the best efforts of Slater, no one else in the top order got going and it was left to the two teenagers to give it their best shot.

Critchley had earlier been the most economical of the bowlers, even on a small ground. While four-day wickets will take him a while to get to grips with, he has done an astonishing one-day job this summer and can be proud of his progress.

So while we are off the top of the group, we control our own destiny. The Northamptonshire game, against a side just below us in the table, is a biggie, but we also play Lancashire and Leicestershire, the bottom two in the group.

A favourable finish, but most of us have seen Derbyshire stumble against sides that should be beaten.

Two wins from three will do it and a repeat of the recent win against Lancashire, on Wednesday, will send us into next weekend in fine fettle.

One final point...has there ever been a bigger weekend, finals excepted, in our history? Durham in the T20 on Friday, Northamptonshire on Sunday in the RLODC, then Leicestershire in the same competition on Monday.

Keep them calm and keep them focused John.

If they produce their best, they can do this.

5 comments:

  1. Tim, Chesterfield24 July 2016 at 20:55

    First of all thanks to Adam for the tickets.

    My overriding feeling is one of disappointment. Not because I expected us to win. Nor were we ever in a position to realistically. But more about what might have been as despite the margin of defeat we contributed to our own downfall.

    Some very sloppy fielding - Rutherford and uncharacteristically Wayne Madsen in particular (the dropped catch off Read costing enough runs to take the target away from us). Also the lack of impact from senior batsman who could have quite easily seen us challenge that target on a ground where Critchley, Hosein and Slater all showed that scoring was possible with thought, application and in the case of the former two a little innovation.

    Neil Broom will do well to hang on to his place on that showing - he can score singles but no signs of much else which is a little worrying given he's come from NZ to do what our own players shouldn't be able to do.

    All that said, my first visit to what's a very local ground for those of us who missed out on Queens Park this season and I quite liked it. The claimed attendance of 4600 looked very generous to me but an ideal outground in many ways (out of the way location excepted) with plenty of space all around as you'd expect.

    Fingers crossed we can bounce back against what should be weaker opposition.

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  2. What do they say..........


    Its the hope that kills you

    My heart thinks we will make it but my head says that we will lose to Lancashire and lose to Durham and once again fail to qualify for both one day tournaments.

    I will be delighted to eat lots and lots of humble pie but this is Derbyshire and its what we do Im afraid

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  3. With or without custard John...?

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  4. With Please PF 😊😊

    I would eat the whole plate, I love my County and I am so proud to support DCCC just had so much heartbreak over the years you start just fear the worst.

    Still Gods County though and Queens Park must be our Master upstairs personal choice to watch this great game of ours😊😊

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    Replies
    1. John, reminds me of the old joke, Jesus was going to be born in Ashbourne but God couldn't find 3 wise men and a virgin ( my birth place )

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