Derbyshire play Leicestershire at the 3aaa County Ground tomorrow, a match that marks the first pink ball county game at the ground and the last, at least for now, of Duanne Olivier.
The South African has been a terrific success, taking thirteen wickets in the RLODC and 27 (so far) in the county championship. He has stayed fit, bowled a lot of overs, kept a smile on his face and, from what he told me at Durham, thoroughly enjoyed himself. I hope it isn't the last time that we see him at Derbyshire, because I would have him back in a heartbeat. I've seen plenty of overseas bowlers over the years and many have a tendency to coast at times. I haven't seen that with Duanne and his willingness to bowl and keep bowling make him a captain's dream.
Good luck to him, and to his new wife, in the future.
As for Derbyshire, I don't see many changes for the day/night game against our local rivals. Hardus Viljoen should return, quite likely in place of Hamidullah Qadri, but I am unaware of anything that may preclude the involvement of others. I do hope that the skipper reverts to opening, which would create a more normal berth for Harvey Hosein in the middle order.
There's no news yet on our visitors line up either, but despite recent tarnish on our reputation, the game offers Derbyshire an opportunity to cement a place in the top half of the table at the half way point. Indeed, a win could see us move as high as fourth, making the capitulation at Durham all the more annoying. Had that been won, we would have been in contention for third and few would have been moaning then.
It is all about fine margins and the grasping of opportunities as they are presented. There will be more in this game, for sure.
How we set about taking them will dictate whether we go into the T20 on a downer, or with a skip in our step.
We'll find out in due course. My first report on this game won't be until Tuesday evening, however, as my next two days of work are long ones - and the game's late finish will otherwise preclude it.
Good luck lads. Show us what you can do.
Yep hear hear Peakfan. Good luck lads. A refreshed Viljoen I expect to cause some serious problems.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I've ever looked forward to 4 days cricket at Derby less than this one. Nothing to do with the disappointment of recent results, and everything to do with the relentless stupidity and utter pointlessness of day/night (LOLs) championship cricket. Half the crowd that would have been there for a day game won't come because they'll only see two sessions before they have to leave, half of those who do come will leave after two sessions anyway to get their last bus or get home for dinner, no-one will come into the ground after work, and the rest of us will watch cricket being played under floodlights in broad daylight that doesn't really go at this time of year until 45 minutes after the end of play. At least the next few days promise warm evenings so we won't have to take all the additional layers that are needed for most English summer evenings.
ReplyDeleteAdd to that the ridiculous breaks, with a 40 minutes for lunch in mid-afternoon when no-one apart from the morbidly obese will be thinking about food, and a 20 minute break when normal people might actually think about eating compounded by the execrable lack of choice, poor quality, and exorbitant cost of food at Derby, it makes tis an ordeal to be endured rather than anything to look forward to. This is a game that would probably have had a decent attendance in such lovely weather with local opponents, and it's hard to avoid the conclusion that pink ball championship cricket is yet another ploy by the ECB to show how little interest there is in county cricket.
Anyway, rant over. With Leicestershire experiencing a bit of a resurgence that has taken them near the top of the table, this isn't a game to be taken lightly. Paradoxically, this might be to our advantage after 3 matches against self-evidently weak opponents that we have royally screwed up. Perhaps minds will be more focussed against a capable team where we have to play the situation than it has been against weak teams that we think we can grind into the dirt.
Wilson misses this one on Ireland duty, so presumably Smit comes back in. Given the ridiculously short turn around between Swansea and Derby, there won't have been much time for a major strategic rethink, so otherwise you'd expect a minor reshuffling of the pack at most. I'm with everyone else in wanting to see Godleman go back to opening, as batting at 5 certainly hasn't been working for him, and it's a more natural position for Hosein, who presumably will be given more opportunities despite his second innings duck. Hughes will be untouchable at 4 after his century, although I remain convinced that it's too high for him even when he's in decent form.
I'd be surprised if a Derby wicket will have enough in it for Qadri, so would expect Viljoen to replace him. One of the priorities for Derbyshire is to manage him effectively, as you get the impression that he has been deciding when he bowls and how. Durham showed how much damage he can do to us when he doesn't get it right, and I think Godleman needs to be much more assertive in taking him off quickly when the red mist descends. The other change I'd consider is leaving out Rampaul, who isn't contributing much in terms of either wickets or control. My preference would be to see Davis, although Gleadall seems to be in front of him in the pecking order. He's undoubtedly quick and looks as if he could produce a wicket-taking ball at any time, but he's very wayward at this stage of his career. With Viljoen in the side, I don't think we can take the risk of two quick bowlers with wonky radars on a pitch that might be full of runs.
Hopefully, more of the lessons from the last 3 games will have been absorbed and we'll see more of the disciplined, patient and professional cricket that we've seen in patches. If we can manage this, I expect a Derbyshire win here, but Leics are more capable than Durham and Glamorgan of punishing us If we don't.
Not a great day again, poor batting bar Madsen and Slater, Billy G either needs to open or be dropped simple as that. If Leicester get 350+ in their first innings we'll be right up against it.
ReplyDeleteYet another shocker of a day. Beg John Wright to stay on after the t20 to give us a few months of his expertise. We are rudderless imo. Be interesting what is said at the fans forum today. Good innings from Madsen. The rest a bit non descript. Perhaps credit to Slater but getting out in the over before lunch is unforgivable for me. Sweeping I read? Oh dear. Viljoen looked to have a go judging by his stats. Bowling less said the better.
ReplyDeleteThere's still plenty to play for here, as the pitch is quick and a little uneven, and the ball was swinging pretty much all day. There's a lot of grass on the wicket, but the movement seemed to be mostly in the air, so there's no reason to think that the ball won't swing as much for us as for Leicestershire. There were some poor dismissals for Derbyshire, but to be honest, the giveaways were more than balanced by the get away with its. Slater, Hosein, Madsen and Critchley all survived fairly simple chances, and if there were a couple of debatable LBW decisions given, they were balanced by good appeals that were turned down. Reaching 300 would have constituted a pretty good day, so 245 may be short but not by much.
ReplyDeleteWhen Leicestershire batted, they were no more comfortable than we had been with one crucial difference. Apart from Jones, all of the Leicestershire bowlers aimed for a full length outside off stump and got their rewards (and would have done even better if catches had been held). Despite seeing this from the other end, ours (with the exception of Palladino) decided that short was better. Olivier in particular caused lots of problems, but his threat was to bodies not to stumps. I've loved watching him bowl, but he can be very frustrating when he gets carried away with bowling short, and doesn't always show a lot of intelligence. In the over he hit Dearden on the helmet, he'd already bowled three short balls, and after the lengthy delay for treatment surely the right thing was straight and full? Instead there was another short ball, nasty enough, but it wasn't going to take a wicket. There's going to be plenty there for our bowlers today, but not if most of the bowling is short.
A couple of points on the batting though. Slater was out trying to sweep pull a full toss from Parkinson in the last over before lunch. Not only was it a reckless shot to play in the circumstances at 93-1 and lunch a few balls away, it was identical to the way he was out in the second innings against Glamorgan. It takes one kind of stupidity to take chances before lunch, and another to do it with the same shot you got out to in your previous innings. I'm sure some will say I'm being harsh about one of our most effective batsman, but my way of thinking is that this gives him a particular responsibility, as it does for Madsen, not to throw his wicket away. He's in great form, and he's wasting it, both for himself and his struggling team, on pretty half-centuries that ultimately aren't of any decisive value to the team.
The other point is that I had no problem with batsmen who were out to balls that swung, although Critchley would give himself a better chance if he wasn't playing a walking defensive shot. But the sequence of wickets that fell to Parkinson either side of lunch was awful. I don't think spin was involved in any of the three, and all were beaten in the air. But Godleman's jumbled effort at defending would have been funny if Rampaul had done it. More than anything, that says to me that Godleman has to open. He's not at his best against spin anyway, and he's a particularly poor starter against it as he takes time to get his feet going. He's not going to have to cope with it often as an opener, but it's not unusual for a number 5. Coupled with the fact that Hosein is not a natural opener, it compounds the jumbled batting order that has been a problem all summer.
Even from the current position, we can get back into the game, but it needs the disciplined bowling approach that Leicestershire's bunch of worthy medium pacers showed.