Derbyshire 557-6 and 178-6 (du Plooy 69*, Hosein 61)
Middlesex 520 (Malan 199)
Match drawn
The last day of this game went largely as predicted, with Derbyshire batting out time after finally bowling at the visitors.
Yes, there were a few alarms on the way, but I don't think anyone really entertained concerns of a defeat.
The play was perforce somewhat mundane, though there were winners and losers. Alex Hughes will be disappointed that, on a wicket where over 1200 runs were scored for only 22 wickets, he registered a pair.
It puts him under a little pressure the ahead of this week's game. Both Anuj Dal and Fynn Hudson-Prentice acquitted themselves well, and while we don't yet know if Wayne Madsen will be fit, Tom Lace should be available.
The main winner of the final day was Leus du Plooy. He followed his first innings century with an unbeaten 69, which followed 2 wickets in the morning session. Like the other players, he will have appreciated an opportunity to bat on an easier pitch and took full advantage of it.
At the end of the game, ahead of a crucial trip to play Worcestershire, we still lie fourth in the table and are very much in the promotion shake up.
Continued form and fitness for key personnel will dictate whether we stay there. But things are going better than most predicted and we can be proud of the efforts so far.
There were a few people at the ground entertaining concerns about defeat at 39-4, the loss of 4 wickets for 16 runs recalling that awful collapse on the third evening against Glamorgan. With the wicket finally starting to turn, never a scenario to bring the best out of Derbyshire, a continued collapse was possible, and no-one would have wanted to rely on another 50 partnership involving Ravi Rampaul to get us out of the woods. Du Plooy was oddly skittish after his very phlegmatic first innings, and in amongst some fine shots, was dropped or missed twice. Hosein was very calm and authoritative mixing intelligent aggression with due respect for the decent balls, and showed that he at least has learned from his part in the previous collapses, when he tried to hook and drive his way out of trouble.
ReplyDeleteDerbyshire do indeed have some interesting selection decision for the next match. Hughes is clearly the most vulnerable in terms of his current form, but also the sense that his place at 4 or 5 has always been fairly tenuous and based more on a lack of competition than his achievements in the position. But Critchley has also been on a poor run, and like van Beek, seemed a little peripheral in this game. Critchley though is a potential matchwinner, and his bowling might have had a bigger say in this match if he'd been bowling on the last afternoon. Unless rotation of the quick bowlers is planned or fitness intervenes, I'd be inclined to leave out Hughes and van Beek and add Connor to the squad. I'd also think about the batting order. Du Plooy looked very much like a number 3 here in his ability to adapt his game to the situation, where Madsen is always looking to dominate. If you take his double century out of the equation (the latter part of which was made in slightly soft circumstances) he's averaging only 20 at number 3, so a move down the order might allow him to play what is now his natural game further away from the new ball.
A word for the groundsman. I, as well as others, criticised a pitch that died on the third day and set up a stalemate. As we saw yesterday, there was increasing turn, and had we pressed home the advantage we had in mid-afternoon on the third day at 250-6 or van Beek had taken the chance at gully off Simpson before he'd reached 20, we might have seen Derbyshire bowling at Middlesex on the last afternoon on a more helpful pitch with 350 / 400 needed. In the end, we probably got something like the pitch we wanted, but weren't quite good enough to get into a position to make the best use of it.