Derbyshire 156-4 (du Plooy 52*)
Worcestershire 159-8 (Rampaul 2-17, Parnell 81*)
Worcestershire won by 2 wickets
I have been a little short of time tonight, as family Peakfan are preparing for a short notice trip to God's Own County tomorrow.
Tonight's loss to Worcestershire was disappointing. We didn't look have scored enough runs, yet took a very strong batting side to the penultimate over before they won the game.
Their match winner was Wayne Parnell, who played an excellent innings for his side. Without him we would have won, but it was exactly what you hope your overseas players and Kolpaks will do. Truth be told, I have always thought Parnell a little overrated, often promising more than he delivers, but he did the job tonight.
Once again the bowling of Ravi Rampaul was exemplary and he could scarcely have done more so far. Fynn Hudson-Prentice also did well, but the rest of the bowling wasn't quite up to the mark.
Neither side utilised their 20 overs especially well, there being 43 dot balls in each innings. Yet in Parnell the home side had the one man who regularly found and cleared the boundary.
For Derbyshire, Luis Reece got us off to a decent start, Wayne Madsen got a few and there was an encouraging late knock from Darren Stevens. There was another half century for Leus du Plooy, but even he struggled to get the ball away tonight.
15 to 20 more runs would have made a difference. Then again, so might a couple of overseas players, but that is ground that we have already covered.
Played four, won only one, with a tie.
We need to get back to winning ways sharpish.
Aren't we being a bit harsh Peakfan? As in other areas of life money is everything. The shorter the game the less time the cream have to rise. But get there they will. So poor we can't afford a second overseas. Small squad with a negligible return from our first overseas. No power batsmen and at least 1 bowler short, the best we could afford is a 43 year old for nowt. I'm surprised we have got as close as we have. In none of the games have we been embarrassed and I think that's as good as we are going to get.
ReplyDeleteI am firmly of the opinion that the ECB will be happy with current bottom 3 in the North group. In 5 years time 2 or maybe all 3 won't be around as a first class counties. The hundred will be a great success as it will fill the grounds with Mum, Dad and the kids. Not cricket people. This will tell the ECB less clubs will work and off we will go. Currently we are in a ridiculous situation where as soon as we produce or find anybody whose any good (Du Plooy will be next) they are poached by the big boys. We then have to play them and criticise when we get beat. What are we to expect? Sky (where the money comes from) don't like us, lots of people think we are a laughing stock and for everybody else bar me it would be better if we just wandered off to the minor counties circuit. You heard it here first this is the beginning of the end. All that said the club's for all it counts get my full support. The ground lovely and the people friendly. I will celebrate the in my opinion ever diminishing good days and sigh how the authorities ever let this happen. Rob in Essex
I tend to agree with Rob in that performances aren't that far off and all that can be expected. Du Plooy and Ravi have been excellent in the tournament and I feel that one more quality bowler could have made a big difference.
ReplyDeleteIf you look at the club's strategy,they have scored well in signing du Plooy and the logic was good for Richardson/Stanlake. On top of that there were clearly hopes for van Beek. Ok he's turned out a bit of a dud but it was a gamble and he could have been tremendous in all formats. So with a fair wind we could have been very close.
Not sure I agree about the success of the hundred but I do think the future for the small counties isn't rosy.
In terms of players moving on this is surely the intention of the two tier system. So the answer needs to be identifying players with potential to do so.
Hence I think overall the club and the team aren't doing a bad job.
StaffsFan
I was interested to see on the BBC website that Lancashire(Paul Allott) had already agreed to see sign up Joss Buttler for the Manchester originals even though the draft has not taken place yet and will not until October. I would be interested to see how closely the finances of the hundred teams tied are with the counties on whose grounds they are playing.
ReplyDeleteI would also be interested to know what the counties are going to be doing with their players whilst the hundred competition takes place? and Similarly what is to stop the counties associated with hundred teams effectively acquiring players from other counties for both the hundred competion and other normal county competions.
I suspect that if this is not looked at carefully counties such as Derbyshire will be relegated even more to second division than they are currently.