Friday 7 July 2017

Derbyshire squad announced

It is nice to see 19-year old Callum Brodrick in the Derbyshire 14 for tonight's visit to Northampton, just as it is good to see the name of Hardus Viljoen in there.

Brodrick could be along for the experience, but Viljoen, presumably, is deemed fit to play in an attack that I would expect to be himself with Matt Henry, Imran Tahir, Ben Cotton and Matt Critchley, with others pitching in as required.

That squad:

Billy Godleman
Luis Reece
Ben Slater
Wayne Madsen
Alex Hughes
Gary Wilson
Callum Brodrick
Daryn Smit
Matt Critchley
Hardus Viljoen
Matt Henry
Tom Taylor
Ben Cotton
Imran Tahir

I would have liked to see Tom Wood at the top of the order, but he picked up an injury in the second team and had to retire when batting. The lack of top order 'oomph' has been commented upon by myself and others, but the counter-argument is that when we have had it (Guptill, Dilshan, Bosman from overseas, Ches and Wes domestically) we didn't win many games. There were perhaps hopes that Tim Maxfield could have provided that impetus, but his three trial innings scores were 0, 1 and 1. Perhaps his time will come again, but such scores will sadly not have convinced anyone yet.

So let's give John Wright his head and see how it goes. For me, the ones to miss out here would be Godleman, Taylor and Brodrick, though the latter is a hard-hitting and in-form batsman and fine fielder, so his inclusion cannot be discarded, as much for the fact that no one really knows him and novelty value is always useful.

Northamptonshire, conversely, have a side packed with hard hitting batsmen, with Duckett, Cobb, Rossington and Keogh dangerous in the format. Richard Levi may or may not be fit but their top order will take some handling.

In closing, three things I would like to see from us in the competition this year:

1 Top-class fielding. Games are won and lost on catches held and runs saved. Simple really.

2 Common sense. Ten an over doesn't require at least a boundary, although one early in the over tkes pressure off. Four twos and two singles get you there too, so better running, placement, timing of shots and minimisation of dot balls are key.

3 Chin supports. Heads have sometimes gone down when opposition batsmen have got going. The role of senior players is to keep the others going and take the chances when they arise.

My team:

Slater
Reece
Madsen
Hughes
Wilson
Critchley
Henry
Smit
Viljoen
Cotton
Tahir

It is a decent attack with eight bowling options, and if there's no real top order 'biffer', there are some fine clean hitters in the middle and lower order.

We'll see soon enough.

Your thoughts?

12 comments:

  1. I would maybe take Cotton out and play another batsman although as you say who you pick is anybody's guess! The batting just looks lacking a lot of power for the competition

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  2. I agree the batting looks weak but Slater is a good white ball player. As is Madsen. Hughes can hit it. Wilson is a quick scorer. We have some potential. We have to play 1 of Cotton / Taylor for me personally. I would go with Peakfans Xl

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  3. On current form Cotton or Taylor would be cannon fodder in this form of the game. Pace off the ball , possibly via Broderick who could also score handy runs for an underpowered batting lineup.

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  4. I would be quite happy with that Dave...and such a player merely highlights what we could have had in Tom Knight...

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  5. Agree with most of what you say here peak fan. Where I don't agree is your conclusions on our top 3 not winning us many matche's. If you look we have often had 60-70 on the board after the power plays and we'll ahead on the WASP, only to watch our middle order fail to cruise home at 7 an over. Was looking at last year and despite Wes injury season he still put some big innings together. May we have read his situation slightly prematurely?? He has just put his feet up at the end of term and continues to plunder big centuries for Oakham in the Everards Senior League... What we have is a much better bowling attack, but have I ever seen us with a weaker batting lineup?? Hard pushed on that one. 16 group games will mean that the odd heroic performance will be nowhere near enough for qualification. Is our batting the 4th best at least in the group? Sorry to be negative but I don't see us getting near qualification and had these concerns 2 months ago. I would be on the phone to Oakham school sending an SOS

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  6. Wes was a fine servant to the club and a lovely player to watch. He looked like his eyes had gone to me last year though and big tons at that level don't translate, as we see from 2nd XI to first.
    We do need a Wes-type player but doubt he would be fit enough now. Sadly

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  7. Just thinking outside the box Peak fan. With little to spend. Things like that have worked in the past. He hit 77 at Northants last year and a blitzed 51 against Lancashire last year. I remember one innings he looked off the pace but put it down to a bad day at the office. He can bowl and has a great pair of hands too. It's a kind of late in the day, cheap option thought that may help us with so many group games. With our budget in reality it's go for a big gun in the batting or a bowler but not both. Let's hope anyway...heard we are fielding first. Up the Shire!

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    1. Can't fault that Nic. If he was fit and in prime form he would be an asset. I just don't know if he is at that level and to re-sign him is an admission of an error.
      Would we do that? I don't know.
      At least we are fielding first!

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  8. Hmm. Pieterson and Flintoff have took years out and worked amongst others. The financial cost of such failing is enormous. I wouldn't see it as admission of an error more use of contacts/resources. We really do seem short of that type of mentality and if he comes good 1 in 3 that would be very useful. We have some good championship batsman in that line up that may not translate into T20 we will see. Like the idea of fiddling a couple of overs with madsen

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  9. :))) well I'm lost for words...cruising home. Great chase! Let's hope this isn't a one off!!

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  10. Well done lads, this is our year😶.

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  11. We tend to win a couple early, it is what happens later that is the problem.
    Fingers crossed we may actually do better this year.

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