Warwickshire 205-5 (Hain 85, Hose 69, Rampaul 3-21)
Derbyshire 156-9 (du Plooy 70, Smit 29*)
Warwickshire won by 49 runs
After a bright start to the game, in which they had the home side 20-2 in four overs, Derbyshire capitulated rather limply at Edgbaston tonight.
Sam Hain, a regular thorn In our side, batted well for them, as did Hose, but the Derbyshire bowling was not 'there' tonight.
Honourable exception is made for Ravi Rampaul, who could hardly have bowled better on a ground where one boundary was very short. Both Logan van Beek and Mark Watt were expensive, while Darren Stevens had another poor game with bat and ball. With Alex Hughes pushing for selection, Dominic Cork will have a tough decision to make for Friday's game against Nottinghamshire.
Nor did the batting get going. Godleman took far too long over his brief innings, while the run out of Wayne Madsen, who had seemed in good touch, left us with a mountain to climb.
Only Leus du Plooy, with a fine 70, gave us any hope, as the rest of the batting subsided without too much resistance.
A late cameo by Daryn Smit made the score more respectable than it was, but it was too late. Derbyshire were well beaten tonight.
The bottom line? For us to win these matches, we need most or all the side to play at or very near to their best.
Tonight, sadly, we weren't even close and a rethink appears necessary to get back to winning ways.
PS I decided to call them Warwickshire, rather than Birmingham. Old habits die hard...
As Dave Fletcher has often remarked, Derbyshire are tantalising. We beat Yorkshire in the T20 a few days ago, and then they went on to annihilate Leicestershire, smashing records along the way. But this evening…Dreadful.
ReplyDeleteWe started well, picking up a couple of wickets and keeping the Bears run rate to around six. The the game soon began to slip away.
With our batting…well, we never got going. Great innings by du Plooy, but by the time Smit started scoring, it was too late.
Couple of observations. Critchley, once again, has failed to perform with either bat or ball. And so has Stevens.
We know what Critchley can do, and that he is committed to Derbyshire. But with Stevens, at 43, I can’t help but begin to wonder if he’s just come up the M1 for the money.
I suppose you can’t blame him, but we need to plan long term. I would have preferred to see Hughes, Dal, or Lace (I know he’s on loan) take that place in the line-up.
As Dave Fletcher has often remarked, Derbyshire are tantalising. We beat Yorkshire in the T20 a few days ago, and then they went on to annihilate Leicestershire, smashing records along the way. But this evening…Dreadful.
ReplyDeleteWe started well, picking up a couple of wickets and keeping the Bears run rate to around six. The the game soon began to slip away.
With our batting…well, we never got going. Great innings by du Plooy, but by the time Smit started scoring, it was too late.
Couple of observations. Critchley, once again, has failed to perform with either bat or ball. And so has Stevens.
We know what Critchley can do, and that he is committed to Derbyshire. But with Stevens, at 43, I can’t help but begin to wonder if he’s just come up the M1 for the money.
I suppose you can’t blame him, but we need to plan long term. I would have preferred to see Hughes, Dal, or Lace (I know he’s on loan) take that place in the line-up.
Godleman's run out of Madsen was very poor indeed. Madsen is far too nice a bloke of course but I'm sure he felt like wrapping the bat around his neck.
ReplyDeleteWith the squad as it stands we need most players to perform to be competitive .We don't have explosive fire power at the start of the innings or strike bowlers .If the game is in the 140-170 range we have a chance but otherwise we will fall short most times .I think Stevens is a bit of a sticky plaster that at the moment won't stick!!
ReplyDeleteWe've been crying out for a blaster for season upon season now, but still can't find one. Nobody except Du Plooy is capable of smashing the ball for four or six on a regular basis, and that is what is badly missing in this side. No way are we chasing anything over 170 with this line up, so I think we always have to bat first if possible, Yorkshire being an exception.
ReplyDeleteStill can't quite get my head around the Stevens signing. I presumed we had injury problems and also get the experience aspect of it but he hasn't played a game of T20 for a couple of years at least and his batting has been on the wain for some time. Add to the fact that Alex Hughes is the man replaced who despite being in poorish championship form is one of our best one day players it doesnt particularly add up to me.
ReplyDeleteAlso agree that if a total goes over the 150-170 range I struggle to see us regularly getting near the target. We obviously went in with a plan with Fynn at the top of the order in game one to give us a strong start yet that was jettisoned after one game - hardly time to decide whether it was a success or failure!
Some great points all round.
ReplyDeleteI think we need to be realistic with expectations due to budget. Bears sign Edwards on eve of blast, we sign Darren Stevens!
The presence of a Stanlake or Richardson would make a big impact but even then it would be a struggle. Therefore Watt is key and if he is unable to deliver the whole bowling is in disarray. Stevens bowling appears innocuous and it is very hard to see how he displaces Hughes. I thought van Beek bowled better than his figures and his last over suffered.
Du Plooy looked quality and Madsen appeared in good touch but this batting unit will struggle to pass 170.
Incidentally I felt the Falcons were on the wrong end of some decisions yesterday. Godleman run out looked very debatable and Madsen 50/50 with Critchley lbw surely too high.
i went last night and we have some work to do. after a great start (bears were 36 for 2 after 6) with fantastic bowling by Ravi and at the death we were let down by poor bowling and captaincy - Watt, Stevens and Critchley were all shocking with the ball as was Van Beek at the death - they actually scored 170 off the last 14 at 12.5 an over! when we batted Billy ran out madsen, argued with umpires over a non wide (that probably should have been called) and then sauntered to the bowlers end for waht he thought was a safe run only to be run out himself - awful - only Deploy, Mads (for 4 balls!) and Smit showed any passion or technique - rest was shambles and we need to improve massively - sorry but thats the truth
ReplyDelete