Durham 176-9 (Thomson 3-23)
Derbyshire 180-4 (du Plooy 47, Guest 34*, Critchley 33*, Wood 32)
Derbyshire won by six wickets
It was our highest winning run chase against Durham and the first time ever we have won a match off the final ball batting second (stat courtesy of David Griffin).
It came with a professional performance, the kind that frustrates a little. We KNOW the team has that in them, but too often this year they have lapsed into mediocrity,.
I was impressed by how they dragged the home side back from a flying start, mainly thanks to an excellent spell from Alex Thomson, who mixed his pace and flight to get good figures. The skipper again bowled well and so too did FHP, but there were too many wayward and poor balls from the other seamers for comfort. Good catches were held though, which made the difference in the end.
The early loss of Luis Reece was a blow and when Came went after a couple of fine shots, Tom Wood and Leus du Plooy put on a record third wicket stand against Durham of 68 runs. They ran well and found the boundary regularly enough for us to be up with the required rate at half way.
When they both went in quick succession I was not overly confident, a state of mind that continued until the third last over. But Matt Critchley accumulated well and together with Brooke Guest brought the winning total down.
A huge six over mid wicket by Guest was a game-changer, as the four overs of Potts went for 50. Eight were needed off the last, from the wily Ben Raine and it went to the last ball, when, with one required, Guest pulled him behind square for the winning four.
Critchley and Guest showed no little skill and a lot of common sense in their stand of 64 from the last six overs. It was a fine captain's effort and another example of why Guest is a player who has emerged from this competition with his reputation enhanced.
Well done guys. It doesn't change anything, but it shows what can be done when common sense and skill are harnessed together.
I echo some of your sentiments, Steve, but I would also say that we should have finished off the game earlier. Leaving to the last ball was risky. Look what happened against Notts. We often get off to a good start when we're batting, but then the runs start to dry up and we can't find the boundary. I feared the same was going to happen last night, but we got there - just.
ReplyDeleteDespite all that has gone on this season, it still felt good ...
ReplyDeleteDurham had one camera and that was firmly rooted to the playing strip, really poor effort from them. A lot more composure in Derbyshire's batting last night, very good to see. Van Beek has proven to be another bitterly disappointing overseas signing, we really do need to get this right for next summer
ReplyDeleteI commented on this earlier in response to an older post before reading this, so apologies for any repetition.
ReplyDeleteI saw the game very differently, as another one that we flirted with losing from a very strong position. We won it in exactly the same way that we could have won the two games against Notts and the one against Worcs but could have lost it in exactly the same way we lost or tied them. Each time, we've got to the half-way point in our innings in a position to win the game comfortably and then sacrificed it with tentative and timid batting that leaves us scrambling and sometimes panicking in the last couple of overs.
The critical point always seems to be when we've put ourselves right ahead of the game - last night it was the 10th over after which we didn't hit a boundary for 41 balls as a "we'll get these in singles" mentality took over, aggression was put away and we started to fall behind the rate. Guest got us over the line with a bold and deeply impressive innings that suggests to me that we've got someone quite special here who should be batting higher. It's a sharp contrast with Matt Critchley whose approach to batting has changed since he took over the captaincy. Last night, as the senior and set partner and the nearest we have to a power hitter, he faced only 6 balls in the last 3 overs, scoring 8 runs while Guest scored 25 and took all of the risks. Apart from the high full toss that he hit for 6, he didn't score a boundary in 8 overs and just ran ones and the occasional two. He did exactly the same in the game at Derby against Notts when he had very little strike in the last 4 overs as wickets tumbled. Since becoming captain, he's hit only 4 boundaries in 4 innings and has a strike rate barely above a hundred. I don't know if it's batting to instruction, the sense of responsibility he feels as captain, or a weakness in manipulating the strike and judging pace, but it's not done us any favours.
He isn't alone in this. du Plooy and Wood have both done something similar with the result that what looks on paper a decent contribution has cost us, or nearly cost us, games. It didn't this time, but 5 points that would have seen us qualifying comfortably have been lost in the same way. I don't think I've ever watched us win a game with such a sense of frustration about what might have been.