Suffice to say the bowling by Derbyshire was pretty poor, even allowing for fine centuries by Lawrence and Westley.
Call me old-fashioned, but I like my overseas professionals to at least know their run up and the numerous no balls and aborted run ups by Billy Stanlake in the morning set the tone for a dreadful day in the field.
I know Billy hasn't played much first-class cricket and that showed with bowling that rarely endangered the stumps and allowed the batsmen to leave or carve without any major concern.
I also know he hasn't played in England before, but he will need to learn the right length and quickly. Such overstepping and wayward bowling will cost us dearly in T20 and the improvement must come quickly.
From that opening spell onwards I was disappointed by the body language of our players in the field and we simply have to do better than that.
No one exerted any control and it looked, sadly, like men against boys.
Interesting comments by Don Topley about the end Stanlake opened the bowling from. He said that he'd always tried to avoid bowling from that end because there's a slope down to the square then a step up on to it that disrupted his stride pattern, and that he'd often seen bowlers who weren't familiar with it struggle. It was noticeable how much better Stanlake looked when he came back at the other end, so there's perhaps some mitigation for him.
ReplyDeleteYes, I accept that but with the overseas gig comes responsibility and we need much more than that.
DeleteI think he will be an asset for T20. I hope he will become so in the 4 day game. I know the ends can affect a bowler, but he isn't a young bowler any more and will need to handle that kind of thing better as the season goes on.