Derbyshire 341-4 (Came 103 retired, Guest 50 retired, Warner 3-61)
Oxford UCCE 33-1 (Potts 1-7)
Derbyshire lead by 308 runs
Star man was Harry Came, who compiled a delightful century. He looked secure in defence and had a fine and full range of strokes, especially strong on the drive and the glide to third man. There was good support in a half century from Brooke Guest, whose driving and cutting was as ever secure. Both men retired at tea, unbeaten.
Everyone else got in and contributed. It wasn't perhaps the strongest of attacks, but Jack Warner (not that one, or even THAT one!) ran in hard and deserved his return of three wickets. He plays his cricket at Barnt Green near Birmingham and looked a decent player.
At the end of the Derbyshire innings it was nice to see Anuj Dal and Martin Andersson doing what we hope will become a regular occurrence this summer, with a fine partnership to stretch the final declaration score to 341-4.
There was time for a wicket before the close, Nick Potts taking it. He looked to be running in more freely than was the case last year and worked up a decent pace. I hope he can get his career back on track this year after a couple of summers ruined by injury. At 22 he has time on his side and maybe his new hair cut sees him channeling his inner Zak Chappell.
All in all, it was what was required from a first practice day of a long summer.
Hopefully tomorrow brings more of the same.
Quite a pleasant day for March, I only needed 4 layers and a woolly hat. There was no more than 50 in the ground despite the free admission. Harry looked very good, clearing the ropes on 3 occasions. If I was the head of cricket, I would be inking his name on the opening day team sheet. Brooke was dropped before he had scored but thereafter also impressed.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest the main interest for me was the ongoing construction of the new stand which hopefully will be ready for next week.
Cricket in March is a pretty silly idea but we know who are to blame for that. Funnily enough I was at Old Trafford today for work overlooking the pitch and although the ground looked perfectly good for play I looked up what the Lancashire team were up to and they're in Spain.
ReplyDeleteYes, a good solid effort. Although I was watching via the live stream Potts did look sharp. He deserves a good season and what a bonus if he can be regularly challenging for a starting place. A pity Jewell didn't have a chance to acclimatise - hopefully his arrival is imminent and there are no injury problems.
ReplyDeleteI think Jewell was on the ground yesterday? Maybe just arrived? Kris
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