A fourth straight defeat for Derbyshire today at Old Trafford and this one, for me, ranks the worst of the lot in this year's Vitality Blast.
We SHOULD have chased down 158 in twenty overs, after the bowlers had done a good job in pulling Lancashire back from a good start. There was an overall good effort from the bowling unit in limiting the home side, when they looked set for a total nearer 200 at one point. Special praise for Matt McKiernan in a promising debut, while Matt Critchley held a stunning caught and bowled. Riaz and Ferguson again did well, as did Alex Hughes, but we fell embarrassingly short on 145-7.
At one point, with Wayne Madsen and Calum MacLeod going well, I thought we might win our first match of the season. Yet the dismissal of MacLeod brought in Gary Wilson, who batted twelve balls for just six runs.
Some might say that Daryn Smit and Matt Critchley should have got us home, but by the time they came together the run rate had climbed to over ten an over, their spinners choking our advance just as ours had done to them. Yet Wilson came in at 81-3 in ten overs, and when he was out, at the start of the fifteenth, we had added only fifteen runs more. We needed 77 from the last ten overs which came down to 62 from the last six...
I accept he is out of nick, and has been for some time. So why, in that case, is he playing, and why is he batting that high in the order? With Critchley, Hughes and McKiernan in the pavilion, all of who can hit a ball, it made no sense at all.
For me, unless a big decision is made to drop the captain, we won't win many matches in this competition and will be battling Northamptonshire for the wooden spoon. If we cannot chase this sort of total, wins are going to prove very elusive.
Even more disappointing was the omission of Anuj Dal. Unless the lad was injured or unwell, it made no sense to omit a player who has done better than most in two appearances this year.
Genuinely baffled and hugely disappointed tonight.
There's nothing more to say, I'm afraid.
Agree - very disappointing. Madsen and MacLeod did really well - both will be annoyed with the way they were out. If they had continued to progress as they were doing it would have been a relatively comfortable win. The difference between the sides though is the powerplay; Lancashire 68 (they lost a wicket with the last ball) Derbyshire 41. The early loss of Slater was a big blow and whilst Riaz did try to force the pace at number 3, we had a lot to make up.
ReplyDeleteTake your point re Wilson but the natives nearby were commenting on how difficult it is to score quickly at Old Trafford when there are five on the boundary. I also think we needed to convert more ones into twos. Positives however in the bowling. McKiernan did really well and Riaz and Ferguson look genuinely quick. I was puzzled why Ferguson didn't bowl the last over - he'd come back well after an expensive first one.
Today's game in monopoly terms was get out of jail and pass go collect £200. I think your post PF sums it all very well.
ReplyDeleteGoing forward
* Playing 3 academy players now in all the remaining matches. We have already seen they can hold their own in this competition.
* Play the first 6 overs as aggressively as possible and accepts you may lose 2/3 wickets. I really believe most of the time its the start you make in 20/20 that has a big affect on outcome of the match.
* Look at other new leaders and drop Wilson.
I'm sure we won't read about this on the club website, but this is now the worst Derbyshire T20 side, as we have never before lost our first 4 matches. Imagine how much time and money we've spent on building our worsts ever team!
ReplyDeleteI was, like you, stunned that Dal was dropped. Playing McKiernan made good sense but the logical way of accommodating him was to leave out Wilson, Smit or Rampaul. The only interpretation I can put on the decision to leave Dal out instead was arrogance and selfishness among the elderly inner circle who made sure it was the newest and youngest who was left out. He certainly wasn't injured as he fielded as 12th man for a time, and the energy and dynamism he's shown in his batting and fielding should have made him almost the last to be left out.
You have to say that this replicates a pattern you see throughout club cricket where the grizzled old hands in the first team cling on until someone in the club grasps the nettle and risks upsetting them by bringing in good young players. It suggests that our assorted (temporary) T20 coaches don't have the bottle or the authority to stand up to the clique that seems to have a stranglehold on team selection and dictate when and where they play. The effect on morale is pretty obvious. It's worth having a look at the video clips from today (and indeed last night). I have never seen a Derbyshire side look so disinterested and unexcited at taking wickets as this one, even for Critchley's miraculous catch, with neither Critchley nor Hughes showing any interest or joy in taking their wickets.
In fairness to Wilson, Mmadsen had also got bogged down against the Lancs spinners, managing only 5 in 9 balls after Macleod was out, compared to 3 from Wilson's 5. But anyone who has watched Wilson bat recently knows how much he's struggling (my joke a few days ago about him being better off strapping his bat to his legs wasn't just a cheap joke) and he was selfish and arrogant in promoting himself above Hughes and Critchley who I assume had been dropped down the order for precisely this situation.
I don't completely absolve Smit of responsibility either. He made only 7 from his first 12, and the time that both he and Wilson took put us so far behind the rate that risks needed to be taken. Unforgivably, he farmed the strike early on so that it was 7 balls before Critchley faced a ball. Smit was busy enough during this period of play, but hasn't got the power or range of strokes that Critchley has, and should have been looking to give him as much strike as possible. It's galling that having wasted Critchley in a position he seems to have lost confidence in, he's now not able to give his best in the position that suits him. I commented on Smit farming the strike from Dal against Worcs, and it seems to be a pattern, akin to Wilson's, of "I'm the one to get this finished". Fine to have such confidence if you actually can deliver it, but we have two senior players brought in specifically to finish off games like this, who aren't doing it AND are blocking others who might.
Otherwise, there were enough good things about the performance to think we might still make some sort of fist of this if we can sort out the glaring problems. But in addition to the problem of Wilson and Smit, we now have the problem of Slater's self-destructive batting. Macleod did exactly what I'd suggested he might do as opener apart from having a calming influence on Slater. I think that what we need to do before Thursday is to restore as much of the team structure that served us so well during the RLODC, and take the core of the team back to the last time they were playing well and happy. Slater and Godleman were such a powerhouse then that it's criminal that we've not looked to build on that but instead created a team which looks as if it's been slapped together from a few blokes we met in the pub beforehand.
I know hindsight is a wonderful thing but have we had any real leadership since the Krick/Houghton days. I can’t see any at the moment. Maybe I just have nostalgia for a time that didn’t actually exist, even Dean Jones is possibly a myth.
DeleteWe're on for the most embarrassing T20 campaign ever. Can anybody see us winning a game, because I can't?.
ReplyDeleteFrom what was looking a promising season since the RL defeat at Notts nothing seems to have gone right and the wheels have really fallen off.
ReplyDeleteWe now have the club captain not being selected for the T20 by a captain who will prob not be selected by the club captain when the red ball is back.
The few positives from the T20 have been Calum MacLeod and Anuj Dal. I would like us to sign both on full contracts. Lockie has been a great find I would be tempted to try him as the overseas for remainder of season if we go down the fast bowler route again.
The wheels started to come
Deleteoff with the defeat to Yorkshire in the RLC. It was a game we had won & let it slip away. The performance at Trent Bridge without going over old ground was appalling & since then we've done nothing in any forms of the game.
Whoever comes in as Head of Cricket in my opinion needs to be a strong character,a good man manager, be prepared to wield the axe & cancel a few contracts!
To use a phrase my boss used to say..We are in the results business & that is how you / we are judged.
Agree or disagree?
MH
Another disappointing result especially when chasing a modest score of 158.
ReplyDeleteIt seems the bowlers put in a good shift to keep Lancashire to the score of 157 as at one time it looked like they would score 180 to 200.
The batting as been shambolic in the 3 previous games & today seems to be no different or you could say worse!
With due respect to Wahab Riaz he is as much a No 3 batsman as I am a spaceman! I can only think they must have drawn Lott's to decide what number they bat!
Failure to get a positive result at Northampton this coming week will see a lot more empty seats at the next match at the 3AAA's!
Strong leadership - man management is required now to save the season from being a complete disaster.
Come on guys we pay good money to watch the matches so let's have consistent good performances that will send people home with a smile on their face.
Does everyone agree?
MH
I think the management team have to swallow their pride, admit they made a mistake in giving Wilson the captaincy and drop him for Godleman. There's no way a player failing so badly should keep on being chosen just because he's the captain, but then again we could probably change seven or eight if we had decent back up. What a crowd puller the Northants game will be, with the wooden spoon dangling from the balcony.
ReplyDeleteI did not see the match but very dissapointing that we could not chase down 157, especially as we seemed to be in a winnable position. What was that batting order, did someone sneeze near the bits of paper with names on and wherever the paper landed was the batting position. How can Wilson and Smit bat above critchley and Hughes, who both can clear the ropes, and the state of the game called out for them We have seen it in 4 day, muddled thinking from whoever makes the decisions, the inner management team policy needs dropping and get one of the 3 T20 coaches to stay for the rest of the season. If the club continues to be managed both on and off the field as it is they will need many concerts just to get anyone to go to 3AAA, membership, sponsorship and corporate will decline!
ReplyDeleteLion's comment about the difficulty of scoring against spinners in the middle overs against spinners at Old Trafford is a fair point. Ours did a pretty good job at the same stage of the Lancs innings, and I commented that Madsen was also struggling after Wilson came in. But that's the reason for allowing more powerful strikers than Wilson and Smit to come in ahead of them, or at least reducing the risk that they are batting together. It's happened in all of the T20 games so far, and in most of the RLODC games, and if they are playing it needs to be part of the game planning.
ReplyDeletenotoveryet nailed it. Like Peakfan, I'm usually quite the optimist, but I attended the game fully expecting us to get Livingstoned again, as he always seems to take us apart. The omission of Dal was bizarre, and in a professional game there should be no room for continually picking players who aren't performing, no matter what their salary or seniority is. It looked to be going the wrong side of 200 after the powerplay, and the players body language was awful. They just seemed like they didn't want to be out there. But I was pleasantly surprised by how we pulled it back. Hughes showed some spirit in tightening things up after taking some tap in his first over, and McKiernan and Critchley were excellent in tying Lancs down. It was a pleasure watching Ferguson and Riaz bowling first hand. I can understand the decision to give Rampaul the final over to some degree, due to his death bowling credentials, but it felt a bit like a consolation for him, having only bowled one over previously. Ferguson had only gone for 3 off his last two overs, so could have probably finished his quota.
ReplyDeleteAs for the batting, I have never been more frustrated watching Derbyshire. I thought sending Wahab in as a pinch-hitter was a decent idea. If he comes off we have a chance of breaking the back of the chase, and if he doesn't it really doesn't matter too much. Madsen batted well again, as did MacLeod, to get the equation down to 77 off 10, but what followed was abject. Wilson and Smit killed the game in the space of 4 overs. Wilson is clearly horribly out of form, and it was painful to watch them struggle. Where Lancashire were running hard and pushing 2's, we were jogging singles and putting their fielders under no pressure whatsoever. The runs missed here were vital in a 12 run loss and it was unforgivable in what has been an extremely poor run since the end of the RL Cup. The inability to clear the ropes is also concerning and somewhat embarrassing when we look at our competitors.
I can see us starting to get results again, but big decisions need to be taken with regards to players underperforming.