I think it safe to say that if Derbyshire are to get anywhere close to the knockout stages of this competition this year we need to raise our game by about a hundred per cent.
With the honourable exceptions of Wayne Madsen and Calum MacLeod the batting was very average tonight. Slater's wicket was a poor run out, though good fielding, while Critchley played too many air shots for common sense. His early departure was only a matter of time and while MacLeod and Madsen batted well, they were never able to free the shackles of good, sensible, accurate bowling.
Madsen played as he did last year and towards the end unfurled some glorious shots. I felt that with a good start with the ball, we could have made a game of it with his late burst. MacLeod meanwhile played an innings of promise and will prove an asset in this competition.
Yet in reply, Derbyshire's bowlers were very average. Liam Livingstone and Alex Davies treated the attack with near disdain, the former progressing to a century that seemed inevitable from the first ball that he faced. It was perhaps a case of facing a very good batsman on a good day, but the bowlers were poor tonight.
I thought Lockie Ferguson perhaps the best of them, but that's all relative on a night that Derbyshire will want to forget. We weren't beaten tonight, we were slaughtered.
Hardus Viljoen was pretty poor, once again and I am increasingly of the opinion that Derbyshire's high-earner is of little value in this competition. If he bowled straight it went a long way, if it wasn't it made Daryn Smit's life very awkward. Unless he can find a better control of line or length, we would be better going with Safyaan Sharif, though the tail would then be worryingly long.
I hope his professionalism sees him work hard to turn it around, because his recent form has been very poor. Two overs for 37 tells its own story.
So too does the opposition winning with 33 balls to spare.
There is so much work to do.
Dreadful though not entirely unexpected.
ReplyDeleteOn a night we almost lost by ten wickets I notice that Imran Tahir took the wicket of 4 of the top 6 batsman for Durham.
To make it worse it seems the club made it impossible for anyone to get drunk enough to make it enjoyable and would have lost thousands of pounds of bar takings. Poor show on and off the field.
Very poor, As we have decided to recruit Riaz & Ferguson, Viljoen does not make the XI. Whether we should have recruited 2 bowlers is another question. Batting not strong enough & bowlng a weakness. We could be out of this next Friday, but I hope not. My worst night at the cc, I think we had 3 bars open on a Friday night. Amateurish on the field, worse than that off the field, room for improvement, Hopeful but not expectant,
ReplyDeleteCouldn't agree more PF, I cannot see why we have four out and out fast bowlers when taking the pace off seems to be the way in T20, having said that last night only hughes wasn't slaughtered. The team looked unbalanced. On a positive note macleod looked good and I thought batted a little like madders, wrists and easy strokes. Our batting never really got going, we continually found the fielders or mistimed shots where as they hit hard and timed the ball well. We all know what Liam Livingstone can do pity he keeps doing in to us, get him in the England team, bats and bowls. We have to pick ourselves up straight away to take on the only team to have won 2 in our division!!
ReplyDeleteThis result will set the scene for a very poor T20 campaign, honestly who do you see us beating Peakfan?. Maybe a poor Northamptonshire, Durham and Leicester and that's probably it. Viljoen should never play another game for Derbyshire in this competition, he gives nothing and has given very little altogether so far for Derbyshire, a very disappointing signing. 160 was very poor considering only four wickets were lost, and it goes to show that we haven't any quick scorers in this team.
ReplyDeleteWe're crying out for that batsman who can score 70 or 80 off 30 to 40 balls, we don't have anyone capable. Pathetic doesn't even come close to that opening game.
I see two main problems with this team. Batting and bowling. With the exception of the 2 run scorers tonight. No other specialist T20 batmen ! We muddled through last year thanks to a Madsen and the odd innings from the others. We can’t keep expecting Wayne to dig us out every game. If he fails I never see us getting above 120. The batting order lacks depth. Smit is a luxury we can’t afford in this batting line up. He might be the best keeper since Taylor but his batting is poor. Not least in T20. Wilson must keep and bring in another batter. We don’t have a lot to chose from admittedly. Billy maybe although I’m not a fan in this format. The lad Dal as had useful runs in the 2s without scoring at a lighting pace. I’d play Tom Wood who as been captaining the 2s in their T20 campaign. I saw him against the aboriginal team several sundays ago. He got 60 odd in 10 overs against a pretty decent attack including Scot Borland who’s played for the full national team and the Melbourne stars. As for the bowling . Far too much of a muchnes for me. Outright pace rarely works in T20. Hardus went the distance last year and he will again. Too early to judge the others but early signs are not great. No mystery spinner this year might also end up costing us. I think if the problem is money we are always going to struggle in this competition. We clearly can’t afford to buy a 2 or even 1 marquee T20 specialist. The rest of the players are not ideally suited to this format. I make this judgment from watching a lot of T20 cricket. We just don’t appear to have the tools required. Lets hope I’m wrong. Play hard Wayne
ReplyDeleteDerby John
would agree - amateurish performance both on and off the field - bowling and early batting especially - bar catering was shambolic - cash only (really?) and no-one could pour a pint properly! lots of things need to smarten up at the club and quickly else it will sink
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