Nottinghamshire 256 (Slater 107, Clarke 66, Hudson-Prentice 4-36, Aitchison 3-27)
Derbyshire 86-8 (Critchley 33, Fletcher 3-23)
Derbyshire trail by 170 runs
Derbyshire fought back well in mid-afternoon, after poor bowling either side of lunch allowed Ben Slater and Joe Clarke to push the score along with unseemly haste. Both opening bowlers were off colour today, with more short and wide balls than usual, but the introduction of Hudson-Prentice and Aitchison into the attack saw wickets start to fall.
Both bowled splendidly and got their reward as the visiting batsmen assayed too many aggressive shots with the ball zipping around. They look fine bowlers and although relatively new to the county game, look very much at home.
The afternoon movement suggested that we would find it tough against Broad, Fletcher and Paterson and so it transpired. The former was clearly fired up by the 'derby' and roared in from the Racecourse End. He was too good for Reece, caught behind off a beauty, but Wood and du Plooy rebuilt, though neither suggested permanence.
A patently daft run out started the slide, Wood playing to Fletcher at mid on, wanting a single and being sent back. His dive failed to beat the throw and it was a silly way to go.
Madsen was leg before, du Plooy went the same way and Critchley was caught behind, after some fine shots. With Hosein also leg before (I thought his was missing leg) the batting had been blown away by high quality bowling. Fletcher was especially good when he switched ends but the batting was far from blameless for the premature demise.
It is hard to see a way back into this game unless something spectacular happens. The first task tomorrow is to avoid the follow on, but even the greatest optimist will think that unlikely.
I am not sure if it would be enforced anyway, but we will know soon enough. Much will depend on overhead conditions tomorrow.
We have a mountain to climb.
It's hard to reach for optimism from this position, but we beat Notts last year from a remarkably similar position. In our first innings at Trent Bridge, our 8th wicket fell 175 runs behind, this time 174 runs behind. The supreme optimist would say lightning can strike twice, especially against a side that has spent 3 years finding ways of not winning, but a more rational reading would say that lightning hardly ever strikes twice, it's unlikely that Guest (for all his promise) can emulate du Plooy's remarkable innings, and this bowling unit bears no resemblance to the popgun attack at Trent Bridge last year.
ReplyDeleteAll the same, we know that Derby pitches often doze off after the first day and if we can scratch out the runs needed to avoid the follow-on (which I think Notts will enforce given their bowlers have barely done more than loosen up) their batting is fragile enough to collapse in a similar fashion to ours and leave a gettable target. The smart money will all be on a Notts win by the close tomorrow or early on Saturday, but I fond it hard to believe that a team so unused to winning as Notts aren't going to make it hard for themselves before it's done.
What an awful first days play that was, a defeat is inevitable after one days play. Our batting is a concern to me, only Critchley and Madsen to a lesser degree have looked comfortable so far. This game could quite easily be over after two days if Notts make us follow on, not acceptable even if you're up against a county with a far higher budget.
ReplyDelete