Friday 11 May 2018

Derbyshire v Durham day 1

Derbyshire 301-4 (Madsen 80*, Godleman 61, Slater 55, Reece 48, Critchley 35*)

v Durham

As first days go, especially when the visitors have invited you to bat on seeing the pitch, that was a pretty good one for Derbyshire. Make that very good.

Having somehow conjured a win from their last game against Leicestershire, when they were well behind for most of the match, they arrived at Derby with their tails up, bolstered by the return of England hopeful Mark Wood. Yet they used seven bowlers today and Wood, it has to be said, looked a bowler lacking rhythm and match practice. Their was little threat from him to the Derbyshire batsmen and he didn't look the bowler of a couple of years back.

The biggest threat came from James Weighell, fresh from his seven wickets in the last innings. He bowled full and straight, almost every ball needing played carefully. He was rewarded with two wickets, though Luis Reece played a loose shot after a disciplined innings for the first, being caught one-handed by Poynter behind the stumps at the second attempt. Reece was hampered by an early hand injury, but did a good job for his side.

Ben Slater again looked classy for his 55, but will have kicked himself all afternoon for thrashing a wide and short ball from Nathan Rimmington straight to the fielder at point. When Weighell produced an excellent yorker to remove Alex Hughes for a duck, 110-0 had become 126-3 in the blink of an eye.

Then came Billy Godleman, out of touch but commendably keeping the Slater/Reece partnership going. He was soon up and running with some punchy strokes and overtook Wayne Madsen as the pair added 114 for the fourth wicket.

He was eventually removed by Matt Dixon, who has joined them from Essex on a one-month loan, but not until the bowler had taken some punishment from both batsmen.

Which left Wayne Madsen and Matt Critchley to see us to the close, with an unbroken partnership of 61 runs. Critchley was restrained but played some fine strokes when the ball was there to be hit. He increasingly looks a cricketer of the highest class.

What struck me with both he and Madsen was how much time they both seem to have at the crease. It is the sign of a very good player, one in touch and whose eyes, hands and feet are in perfect synchronisation.

That was very much the case for the incomparable Madsen, who was progressing serenely to another century when bad light ended play early for the day. He is unbeaten on 80 and it is hard to recall a false stroke in that time.

I hope that Derbyshire supporters realise how lucky we are to have a man of that calibre. With most players you wonder IF they might get a few, whereas with Wayne, when you see his feet moving so well, so early, it is a case of how many he will get, with no 'if ' whatsoever.

The efforts of the Derbyshire batsmen have set us up well in this game, with batting points already in the bag. There's more to come, hopefully, but rain lies ahead for this match and it remains to be seen how badly it will interfere.

That was a top effort today, though.

Well done to all of them.

4 comments:

  1. Tim, Chesterfield11 May 2018 at 19:56

    What precisely is the point of having floodlights, turning them on, and then going off for bad light to deprive the game (and spectators) of cricket?

    Another example of cricket shooting itself in the foot I'm afraid.

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  2. I am shocked that at a time when England are so short of in form batsmen that they seem more keen to risk younger players that are not yet ready when you have someone like Wayne who has scored runs for a number of years including in Division 1.

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  3. Excellent day at the office for Derbyshire and hats off to Wayne Madsen for another imperious knock.  Hopefully on the way to another century tomorrow. A good opening partnership from Ben and Luis, just a shame neither kicked on after lunch and for a moment it looked like another Derbyshire collapse in the making when Alex Hughes departed.  Thankfully Mads and Billy had other ideas and it was pleasing to see the skipper amongst the runs. Equally pleased that Matt Critchley had the opportunity to go in six and build an innings alongside Wayne.  Hope these two can add to the total in the morning and put us in an unassailable position.  Four hundred plus would be good after being put into bat.

    We do, on occasions, have the tendency to follow a good performance with a somewhat indifferent showing, lets hope this is not the case tomorrow and that the weather is kind to us.

    Stuart, York

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  4. Good solid batting display yesterday,very enjoyable. Does anyone have any explanation , if there is one as to why the Durham fielders go off in turn for about five minutes in the changing room. I think only Collingwood and Poynter stayed on the field for the whole day. The 12th. And 13th. men spent more time fielding than some who were actually playing in the game. Is there a bug running through the team?

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