Sunday 23 April 2017

Kent v Derbyshire day 3

Kent 259 and 308 (Stevens 90, Rouse 95, Davis 3-48)

Derbyshire 159 and 239 (Wilson 97, Madsen 32)

Kent won by 169 runs

Notwithstanding that this is a pretty decent Kent side, and in Darren Stevens they had the best player on the pitch, today was wretched from Derbyshire.

You pays your money and takes your choice, but when Kent added 166 in the morning session, one assumed that the wicket had at least eased to allow a decent stab at a target in excess of 400. Yet our limp batting thereafter, with the honorable exception of Messrs Wilson and Madsen, was not what one would hope for in a summer that we hope brings a bright new start.

Wilson has been highly impressive since his move from Surrey, a huge asset to the side and was unlucky to miss out on another century. Meanwhile Madsen keeps on being Madsen, but I don't look at the Derbyshire side right now and think it is balanced.

In all likelihood the batsmen and bowlers were equally culpable today, because there was some poor bowling in that first session. That Tom Milnes went in excess of five an over, on a wicket that most seamers would want to carry around with them is disappointing. Tony Palladino bowled tight, while Will Davis shouldn't have to carry an attack at 21 but is doing so just now.

Shiv Thakor was obviously not fit enough to bowl much, but I'm not sure how realistic it is for Luis Reece to be a main bowler AND open the batting. To be fair to the lad, I can't think of anyone else who has bowled first or second change and opened and it is a huge ask for anyone. Likewise I am not yet sold on Shiv Thakor as a number three, though it is early days yet. We need more than flashy forties from that position though and Ben Slater is knocking on the door, as is Charlie Macdonell.

I think Smit will be fine once he gets used to the wickets, and neither so far has been a batting paradise. He has added greatly to the fielding side, but we have three bowling issues to address before we can start to win matches.

First and very obviously, we need Hardus Viljoen fit. How he would have gone on such a wicket is worthy of thought, though it was more a wicket for those who slowed it down a little.

Second, we need to use Jeevan Mendis better. If a bloke is worth bringing over as an overseas player, surely he is worthy of a bowl before the 49th over? From what I have seen of him so far, he is a very handy leggie, but I don't see how he has scored so heavily in Sri Lanka. Why we let Stevens and Rouse add 90 before we remembered we had him in the side is puzzling. That he got a wicket straight away was just mighty frustrating. He's not in Tahir's class, but we need to use a bowler whose style often puzzles English batsmen, in a far more savvy manner.

Finally, we need to bring in Ben Cotton. Whether he takes wickets or not, Cotts is generally accurate and we can't afford to give runs away as Milnes did in this game. He needs to work on line and length to stay in the side, or drop down to the twos to rediscover it in a less demanding environment.

Disappointing sums it up tonight.

To quote the old song, things can only get better.

18 comments:

  1. Another season, same old Derbyshire. We might finish third bottom this time round though.

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  2. Edit: second bottom.

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    1. No we won't Mark. But we don't yet know our best team and we need our quickie fit. Two games doesnt make a summer.

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  3. Whilst hoping to be proved wrong , I cannot see our end of season positions in the various formats differing greatly from last season.
    Davis has taken the new ball only once at the start of an innings, 3 times the opposition have posted a decent total for the first wicket putting us under unnecessary pressure. Yet again we showed our inability to polish off an innings when conditions appear to be favourable for our bowlers.

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  4. Tim, Chesterfield23 April 2017 at 22:02

    Some new faces but they soon learn the Derbyshire way......

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  5. "Things can only get better". How many years have Derbyshire supporters been singing that song? I think one problem we'll have with the County Championship is that we'll just get going then it'll be put on hold for two months and we'll go back to square one.

    Hopefully, it's a case of just waiting for the right side to emerge and start firing on all cylinders. At the moment from what I'm reading it appears as though no-one really knows what to do. Hopefully it'll click soon.

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  6. I agree with you Peakfan - The balance of the side looks totally wrong. You can't have two all rounders in the top 3 of the batting order - it just doesn't make sense to have them bowl 20 overs and then go out to bat straight away. (OK - Thakor didn't bowl much in this game but if fit he will be bowling at least a dozen or so overs like in the first game.
    This also means we have someone like Hughes batting at 7 or 8 as basically a specialist batsman which as so often is said leads them to bat like someone at that number.
    Hope Smit proves me wrong but hasn't he batted at 7 or lower for the majority of his career in South Africa so to put him in at 5 will take some adjusting - something we can't afford for too long or we will have another Neil Broom type season in that position again.
    As for Mendis I have the feeling he was bought in for the one day cup rather than the Championship but we will see over the next couple of weeks

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    1. Yes we agree on the all rounders mate.
      Smit in recent seasons has been batting top five and more recently at three.
      He will come good but like any player needs time and wickets better than that last one for batting .

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  7. Call me old fashioned but I think you have to pick 4 fit and hopefully in form front line bowlers. In effect we played this game with 2 bowlers. Taylor and Cotton must be bowling filth in the nets.

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    1. I agree Knack. The side has no balance right now and it needs addressed

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  8. This was a dispiriting defeat & to defeat against Northants and 2 games 2 losses, just undermines any positivity there was at start of the season. I was against engineering a game v Northants, players had had enough game time, Northants had played 1 game already so had some momentum, I would have preferred the batsman to have had proper game time in the middle and we tucked away a good start against a decent team and put it down to weather !
    As to the Kent game, team selection is baffling, why was Alex Hughes playing if he's going to bowl 11 overs in the game ? if its to add depth to batting,then play a batsman !
    Mendis should be no lower than 7 based on his experience.
    8 bowlers in 2nd innings in 72 overs, 190 runs for last 3 wickets at almost 5 per over, sums up how poor we were once we had dragged ourselves back into the game. At one point we may have been chasing 250 would have been a whole different ball game to eventually looking at +400 to win.

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  9. Martin said..
    Not sure there is real cause for so much doom already. The main overseas spinner is not here yet and the main strike bowler has not played yet either and the first game was lost marginally rather than being completely outplayed

    I still think there is good reason to think that we should be better this year than last especially in the championship.

    Suspect getting Slater in the side to open and one of the all rounders to drop down the order a bit might help too.

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    1. Definitely Martin. Slater would be in my side every time and Reece lower would give him a chance to do both disciplines more easily

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  10. Think it is important not to press the panic button this early on. Yes it was disappointing and yes we should have at least drawn against Northants but we are two games into the season...

    Do agree with your points on balance of the team. Find omissions of Slater, Hosein and Cotton bizarre to start with, and why is Alex Hughes in the team if he is batting low down and only bowling the odd over? Also think it is weird having two of your all-rounders in the top three, I would shift Thakor down the order and bring in Slater to either bat three or have Reece at three and Slater opening.

    I have seen people moaning about us not taking wickets but we are, we are taking 7/8 wickets and then not finishing them off which is very frustrating but the signs are good. We also need to remember our main strike bowler is currently out injured and you could argue the inclusion of Viljoen could cover the 2/3 wickets we are missing.

    I am looking forward to the start of the One-Dayers and I think we will progress through the group stages.

    Finally, interesting to see the Seconds scoring over 300 vs Notts in a 50 over game. ANOTHER ton for Slats (MUST PLAY ON THURSDAY) and runs for Harvey, Wood and Macdonell. All four should get a shot at some point. Thanks.

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    1. No panic button Neil after two games but we need to sort the best side. The first win isnt far away

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  11. Hi PF. John from Derby again.Got to agree with most of the points raised. on a positive note we did actually take twenty wickets in a game. My memories a bit shady but not sure we did that at all last year? That's without the Big Saffa! Ok we lost the plot for a session Sunday morning. Up till that point we had been competitive against a very good Kent side. It was always going to be an impossible task after that session. We do however need our strike bowler fit and firing soon. Darren Stevens was the difference in this game, period. The batting order certainly needs a rethink. We now have 8 one day games to play before our next championship game on 19th May at home to Worcestershire. Plenty of time for reflection and tweak. Ben Slater must open on Thursday. He proved his worth in this format last year and a big hundred today against a strong county only confirms the obvious. Maybe not too much tinkering at this point now. The team always had more of a one day feel to me without Vijoen in it. Let's see how the boys perform in a shorter format before we write off the season totally. At the end of the day we've not played that bad over 2 games. We should never have got involved in the score setting debarkle in the first game. The chance of a win was always with the batting side. One session killed what till that point was a decent effort. Mistakes have been made but let's sweep them aside and push on.

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  12. Don't you find mankind amazing?

    We can put a man on the moon (!) fifty years ago, we can find water molecules around Saturn, and I bet we know where exactly Halley's comet is, even though we won't see it until 2060 something.

    We can hold and organise a WCC at Derby, we can get Elton to sing about Nikita, and on our mobiles we can send instant pictures of these events to Madame Fifi in France, Brother Boris in Baku and Senora Sylvia in Seville.

    But try to find the Second Team scorecard from up the road in Denby....

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    1. Can't argue there Steve. An opportunity missed...

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