Nottinghamshire 166-5 (Moores 48, Christian 39 not, Ferguson 2-15)
Derbyshire 157-8 (Wahab Riaz 53, Sodhi 4-17)
Nottinghamshire won by nine runs
Despite magnificent performances by the two overseas men, Wahab Riaz and Lockie Ferguson, Derbyshire's unbeaten run came to an end at Trent Bridge tonight.
It wasn't the defeat, so much as the manner of it that hurts, as this was one that was very much snatched from the jaws of victory. After Riaz passed his personal best of 42, made in the last match, and slammed 53 from 31 balls including four sixes, we seemed to have the game in the bag at 93-2 in the tenth over.
Yet on a dry and dusty pitch that had been prepared for him, Ish Sodhi derailed the innings with 4-17 in his four overs, getting turn and bounce to rip the heart from the Derbyshire innings. Maybe we should have just played him out and I'm sure that Wayne Madsen will be disappointed to hole out on the boundary off him, when he looked the man to steer us home against bowlers less suited to the conditions.
The skipper went second ball and I would have been happier to see Dal come in at that point and save Viljoen for the end of innings slog, but the scoring rate had mounted by that stage. Matt Critchley tried hard, but the last over heroics of the Yorkshire game were beyond him this time.
Earlier, Riaz bowled a superb spell of 4-1-17-1, including a rare Powerplay maiden, though his figures were surpassed by the outstanding Ferguson, who bowled 4-0-15-2. Neither man deserved to be on the losing side, but we haemorrhaged runs in the last 20 balls, the home side hitting 54 in that time.
I thought it a questionable decision to bowl Matt Critchley at that time, especially against Dan Christian, always happier against spin than pace. I think Gary Wilson got his bowling muddled up, to be honest. With Viljoen conceding only 18 runs in his three overs, surely he should have bowled another one of those closing three?
It was a night to forget for Ravi Rampaul and Alex Hughes, but we must pick ourselves up and get ready for another game tomorrow night. Both of those players have been excellent in recent games and the nature of the game is that once you think you have it mastered, it can come back to bite you.
It SHOULD have been five from five.
We will need to make it five from six tomorrow.
Postscript - we conceded sixteen extras tonight. Nottinghamshire conceded three.
The winning margin was nine...
I share your pain...one that got away for sure and need to bounce back tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteMy sentiments exactly PF. I was very surprised to see viljoen had 1 over unused,and critch had done to him what he did to Bresnan on his last over,conceding 22. I can see the temptation in keeping him on,when he had 1-12 off 3 overs ,but Christian who was on strike can,and was brutal with 6,6,4,1 off the first 4 balls,and 5 more came off the last two. Like you i would have been happier to see Dal come in either before or just after Wilson,and the extras hurt us badly ,with 16 in total,of which 8 were byes and 6 leg byes,and 8 of them came in riaz's last over.In the end,fine margins indeed. An excellent effort,but i'm sure the lads will be kicking themselves at this one that got away. Christian is getting a habit of doing this to us.
ReplyDeleteMust say depending on the state of the pitch tomorrow to bring in mckiernan for rampaul,who while bowling well at chesterfield has taken some stick now in the last couple of games,and if we do need another all rounder/spinner,then he would be the one i would go for.Been impressed with Dal so far,would just like to see him up higher,as his t20 stats this season have been pretty impressive with a strike rate of 122 and we would have been better served with him coming in higher. Riaz and Ferguson though have been consistently impressive
Chucked that game away. Very disappointing.
ReplyDeleteOne that got away for sure Peakfan. Did we panic??? We must start turning winning positions into victories.
ReplyDeleteWhilst I am disappointed, my view is that the five we have left are all winnable.
We simply must win the games whilst we still have the services of Wahab Riaz. What an inspirational signing he has been, along with Lockie Ferguson.
I'm hoping that the 3aaa's has a track like greased lightning tonight.
I not sure there will be changes tonight, because the player most at risk, Ravi Rampaul, should have a track which suits him.
Chin up everybody, that performance was a 1000% better than the last time we played at Trent Bridge!
ReplyDeleteDisappointing to lose the game when we appeared to be in a strong position after 10 overs. It was such a pity Wayne Madsen got out because if he stuck around then victory would have been assured.
Unfortunately Matt Critchley's final over got hammered & that Wahab Riaz final we gave away 2 x 4 byes from balls that almost split the batsman in half!
OK can't change the result of last night, today is another day, so best foot forward & let's have a strong team performance tonight.
MH
Don't disagree with all the comments above we seem to turn possible victory into defeat when we lost quick wickets and got behind the run rate.
ReplyDeleteI do wonder what role is expected of Dal apart from his exelent filding. If he is in for his batting I personally would rather Ben Slater play to strengthen the batting. Fingers crossed for tonight.
I don't suppose we can complain too much about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory so soon after burgling the game off Yorkshire, but this defeat was aggravating. Partly because this might be the poorest Notts side we've seen in years, low in confidence and pretty much resigned to defeat twice in the match, after about 15 overs of their innings and 10 overs of ours. And partly because there were so many poor decisions made that you often thought that the bloke in the row in front of you could have done a better job than Gary Wilson. He seems to have days like this when he makes decision after decision that make you go "oh no" as they happen.
ReplyDeletePlayers will always say it's easy to captain from the stands and with the benefit of hindsight, but I'm talking about the ones that you know are the wrong choices as they happen. So Hughes getting a second over straight after a very poor one, Critchley's fourth over against a well-set Christian (the second match against Notts this has happened - I'll avoid my joke about throwing young Lions to the Christian this time), Wilson coming in at 5 and Dal being left to 9, leaving an over of Viljoen unused, and a myriad of fielding changes where Wilson just seemed to be following the ball.
Poor decisions weren't just the captain's. I couldn't see the reason for not replacing one of the seamers with McKiernan on such a scummy pitch, and there was some very poor shot selection by the senior batsmen. Godleman, Madsen and Wilson were all out to leg side smears at Sodhi when none of them needed to be playing those sort of aggressive shots at all. Godleman was doing well ticking over singles for as long as Riaz was blazing away, and Wilson and Madsen just needed to be taking low risk options against Sodhi with barely 6 an over needed and plenty of wickets in hand.
The issue of where Wilson bats is a real poser. An average of 15, a highest score of 28, and a strike rate of 115 tells you that, whatever the experience and nous he brings, his batting is no longer good enough to bat in the top 7, and certainly not in front of Dal, who shows the sharpness and inventiveness that has been missing in Wilson's batting for most of the time he's been at Derbyshire, or Hughes, who can be hit and miss but at least hits powerfully when he gets in.
Add into the mix some poor fielding - Godleman's dropped catch early on and Riaz's dive over a 4 off Critchley being the worst, but also plenty of misfields elsewhere - and Notts were happy to accept the gift of a match that keeps their hopes of qualifying alive, however poorly they are playing. I didn't think the extras were a particular issue, more the result of Ferguson's speed and bounce than poor wicket-keeping or poorly directed bowling. One bouncer from Ferguson nearly took the batsman's head off before almost amputating Wilson's finger-tips as he just got a glove to it as it flew overhead.
It makes the game against Warwickshire tonight a must win for both teams. They have given themselves an outside chance of resurrecting their campaign, but a defeat for either them or us will end any serious hopes. Just pray that some of the lessons from our previous matches at Derby have been learned - good pace and plenty of grass on the pitch to reduce the impact of the spinners, and bringing the boundaries in so that our lack of big six-hitters is less exposed. de Grandhomme and Pollock will put the ball straight into the stands wherever the boundary is, so we gain nothing for having them out.