I didn't bother doing a write up of the Lancashire game, because there's only so many ways one can describe torrential rain and puddles.
On the respective current form of the two teams, it wasn't a bad wash out from our perspective. Tomorrow the big games keep on coming and we visit New Road to play a Worcestershire side that is formidable in this format. At the weekend they chased down a target of 182 in only twelve overs against Durham on the same ground and their top three of Guptill, Wessels and Ferguson is just about the most formidable in the country.
With our attack not really firing this year, it is hard to be positive about tomorrow and we will need to do much better with both bat and ball to avoid a hammering. I saw them against Nottinghamshire earlier in the group matches and while the batting didn't click that night, the bowling, led by South African Wayne Parnell and the impressive Pat Brown, will be a handful tomorrow.
We will need early wickets or that top three will put the game out of sight, while our batting simply must take better advantage of the Powerplay, regardless of who bats where. Most sides are aiming for a minimum of ten an over at that stage and the best sides effectively seal the game. In that game at the weekend, Worcestershire scored 94 in the first six overs, and it was a stroll from there.
It is an unchanged squad for Derbyshire, because there really is no one else. I won't attempt to second guess the final eleven, but they will need to produce their very best form to come out of this one with the win points.
As for the home side, they have named the following squad:
Guptill
Wessels
Ferguson
Parnell
D’Oliveira ©
Cox (w)
Whiteley
Barnard
Mitchell
Pennington
Brown
Fell
Morris
My forecast? I am afraid we are in for a defeat here, unless someone produces a spell of magic that can turn these matches.
There's no reason that player cannot be on our side, as we have the ability, but we are up against big guns here and it may get messy.
Fingers crossed. And as always, I appreciate your thoughts.
We shouldn't really but i'd hope for another washout against last year's winners who I'd expect to be in the QF qualifiers again. Their form in four day cricket is poor and I saw them last week at Cheltenham; the view seemed to be that they feel the pressure is off in T20 and they perform accordingly and the manner of the win against Durham was scary.
ReplyDeleteCurrently the Derbyshire bowling is the main problem (closely followed by the batting!) and the fact we really have two frontline bowlers - Rampaul and Watt. Reece doesn't carry the threat as in the four day game and I'm afraid that Critchley is a luxury when we're struggling to fill the other four slots. I'm hoping that Stevens is given another chance and can produce some wickets - he's not become a bad player overnight. I'd like to have seen Connors but believe he is injured. We're then left with Hughes who did well last year but with the advantage of having Riaz/Ferguson/Rampaul alongside him, and some occasional spin from Madsen and du Plooy? Conclusion is that we've head very good overseas bowlers in the last couple of seasons - whereas this year.....
Battingwise targets above 180 are going to be a challenge; unfortunately Madsen who is our best batsmen seems out of form - very hard to compete against a Worcs/Notts/Lancs top 3 who as PF says are very good at pushing at runs in the powerplay. Hard to see those three teams not qualifying but the fourth spot is still up for grabs and it is still early days.