Tonight's game contained much to admire from Derbyshire, but the grey and threatening skies eventually decided to unload their cargo and the game was rained off with the visitors 103-4 in the fifteenth over.
Lockie Ferguson again bowled some balls of blinding speed, one of them clocked at 93.5mph and the fastest ball bowled on Sky this summer. Again he went for under six an over on a night when all the bowlers did well. Hardus Viljoen was lucky to get the wicket of Cosgrove, caught behind off his, rather than the bat's shoulder, while Alex Hughes bowled three very tidy overs that included the wicket of Ben Raine.
That came about from a fine piece of work by Calum MacLeod on the boundary, who caught the ball and threw it up before his impetus took him over the rope, then held it with a degree of nonchalance.
The excellent Colin Ackermann, a fine signing by the Foxes, led a recovery with Atiq Javid and they seemed set for a total between 140 and 160 when the rains came.
Indeed they came with such vengeance that I am writing this blog an hour before the game needs to resume to constitute a match.
That isn't going to happen, judging by the forecast, so the small remaining hopes of qualification disappeared in the evening gloom.
The irony of Henry Nicholl flying over from New Zealand to field was not lost on me. Hopefully he gets a hit in the last game, at Chester-le-Street next weekend.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
I will be back soon.
I think you said it in the previous blog PF - too many winning positions blown away. However the fact that Derbyshire can compete effectively against the stronger teams has to be a plus out of the last couple of seasons. Don't think we can underestimate the impact of the coaching team - in particular John Wright although still not clear as to the decision making process e.eg batting order where mistakes have been made. Certainly Critchley has been underused.
ReplyDeleteOne or two pluses for the end of the Championship season. Billy Goldleman's confidence must have been restored - he has really been excellent. Looking forward to seeing Lockie Ferguson with the red ball and lets hope team selection includes some of the younger players - Hosein (as wicketkeeper), Quadri. We need tot be targetting minimum a couple of wins weather permitting with home games against Glamorgan and Gloucs.
Still however the final T20 to come against Durham and I'dd certainly like to see McKiernan given a chance.