The mistakes made in the game against Lancashire may well come back to haunt Derbyshire, but tomorrow we must move on and beat Nottinghamshire on their own turf and in doing so hope to qualify for the knock-out stages of the RLODC.
The task is made the more acute by the fact that our hosts, last year's winners, need to win themselves to progress to the next stage and they will be ready for a battle to preserve their record and interest in the competition.
Let's not get too down about things, for regardless of the result tomorrow, we have done well in the RLODC and played some good cricket. The days when we slipped from the requisite standard, we lost. We should have finished off a strong Yorkshire at Derby, then despatched their red rose rivals from a good position, but we didn't, and that is yesterday's news now.
So here we are.
We need to beat Nottinghamshire and hope that Worcestershire beat Warwickshire, or Warwickshire win and better their opponents' run rate, or Northamptonshire beat Yorkshire. Easy, eh?
It is an open group and anything can happen, but we can only do our stuff and so must be at our best at Trent Bridge. The rest is irrelevant if we don't win.
I think we need to tweak the team a little. Perhaps an extra bowler may be of value against Nottinghamshire and I could see merit in including Dan Wheeldon to offer that and a late order hitter, though a gamble it would be and a big game in which to make a debut. Hamidullah Qadri could also be an option, with Alfie Gleadall also in the squad, one assumes for experience.
Our hosts? Packed with talent, the batting headed by Alex Hales and Ross Taylor, but with men down to number seven and eight who can take a game away from you.
Their squad: Hales, Wessels, Moores, Taylor, Patel, Nash, Mullaney, Root, Fletcher, Milnes, Ball, Blatherwick
Can I see us winning? Yes, if our international bowlers show their credentials and get on top of their international batsmen. Their attack has a couple of bowlers of less experience, but we need to ensure their experienced men don't make early inroads. Wessels is a perennial thorn in our sides and if our bowlers aren't locked on with their radar, they could easily be in three figures by the end of the Powerplay.
As reigning champions they will be expected to win, but no one has a right to anything in life or sport, without the hard work.
If we turn up ready for a battle tomorrow, then it could be a terrific game, perhaps like last year's T20 at Trent Bridge, when we ran them so close.
Maybe, just maybe, we can get the right side of the line tomorrow.
Postscript - I can't understand why Sky aren't showing this tomorrow. East Midlands derby, the reigning champions in danger of going out.
Why wouldn't you show that?
We'll lose comfortably. Still miles behind the big counties in my eyes even though we might always get the odd victory in every ten games we play against them. If Notts bat first I'd expect them to get 350 easily, putting the game out of our reach before we start our innings.
ReplyDeleteEverything crossed we can win this but not putting fifty pence on it.
C'mon Derbyshire. A defeat today and a record of 4-4 would be nothing to be ashamed of. Five wins out of eight though would deserve the reward of qualification. Let us hope we play in a carefree manner and do us all proud at least.
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree Peakfan - I fully expected to be able to catch the second half of this on Sky.
Dave
I'm going today, in hope rather than expectation...
ReplyDeleteI don't think you'd ever rule out a big score from a side with Hales, Patel and Wessels in it, but Notts haven't been firing on all cylinders so far this year by any means, either in 4 day or 1 day matches. Of course, you can say that this just means that such a strong side are one match closer to hitting their full stride, but our form this season means that Notts will be going into this game with at least as much trepidation as Derbyshire.
ReplyDeleteThey have the advantage of big match experience, and the confidence of knowing they are in a better position than last year, when they scraped into the knock-out stages of a competition they eventually won by virtue only of a no result in their last match at Northampton and Durham's points deduction. But they've had more really poor performances this year than we have in this competition, and their form at Trent Bridge this year has been pretty sketchy - a hefty defeat to Northants and a feeble performance against Warks, both of whom we beat comfortably, and a jittery low-scoring win against Worcs.
I suspect this means that for once we aren't going to find the dry, pacey wicket with short boundaries to encourage big hitting that characterises Trent Bridge, but something much slower and low that negates our pace bowlers and helps their strong hand of medium pace and slow bowlers. If I'm right, I'd expect Qadri to play, but for once think it needs to be in place of a batsman. Brodrick is the most obvious, but I'd suggest that Wilson would be a better omission, as his form with the bat has been poor and Brodricck brings more dynamism and mobility in the field.
I'm not overly optimistic, but the quality of most of our cricket in this competition and the relatively weak state of Notts' form means that our chances are as good as any time we've gone to Trent Bridge in recent years. We know we qualify if we win and Warks lose, and the gap to Worcs isn't that great if Warks win. The difference in our net run-rates amounts to only about 25 runs, so any combination of win and loss that amounts to about 30 runs should vbe enough if we get over the Notts fence.
And then we'd face Essex away....oh well.
102-8, pathetic attempt and out with a whimper.
ReplyDeleteSadly the loss of Reece and the first real time Bill and Ben have failed has exposed the frailty of the squad
ReplyDeleteMid table result beckons as we have evaporated to 110 all out after winning the toss
T20 batting needs a serious think through and prompt action as we seem to have a lot of bowlers but little in the way of firepower
Off to Durham for the first 3 days for a drop of the real stuff on Saturday